Dr Safety

Quality healthcare is composed of six dimensions.  Patient Safety is the first dimension of quality. Patient Centeredness, Timeliness and Clinical Effectiveness follow closely behind.  Equitability and Efficiency round out the equation. According to AHRQ: "Safe: Avoiding harm to patients from the care that is intended to help them. Effective: Providing services based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit and refraining from providing services to those not likely to benefit (avoiding underuse and misuse, respectively). Patient-centered: Providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions. Timely: Reducing waits and sometimes harmful delays for both those who receive and those who give care. Efficient: Avoiding waste, including waste of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy. Equitable: Providing care that does not vary in quality because of personal

Today's entry is adapted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention... Many people are prescribed antibiotics without good reason. This may lead to resistance of bacteria, overgrowth of harmful bacteria in the gut, and possibly even death. Taking medications unnecessarily exposes one to the harmful side effects and drug-drug interactions of these medications without the benefit. The CDC is trying to prevent these problems by educating patients and physicians regarding the proper use of antibiotics. Next time your doctor prescribes an antibiotic ask questions like: What disease/infection are treating me for? Is there a clinical guideline you are following? Is my infection actually bacterial? What can I do to prevent antibiotic associated diarrhea? How do I take this medicine safely? Will it interact with my current medications? What are the side effects I can expect? From CDC: "Upper respiratory infections account for three quarters of all antibiotics prescribed by off

When the Institute of Medicine estimated that 98,000 Americans die every year from medical errors, shock waves went through our healthcare system. Many in the field claimed that the estimate was faulty and full of hyperbole. Eight or nine years later we know that the number was indeed flawed...way off. We now know that there are 15,000,000 episodes of patient harm annually in our hospitals. That is correct - 15 million times every year someone is hurt by a medical procedure, or the wrong medicine, or the wrong diagnosis. 99,000 people die from healthcare associated infections alone every 12 months. Now add in the patients who die from medication errors and drug interactions, misdiagnoses, failure to rescue, falls in the hospital, and pressure ulcers... The data is staggering. Many more than 98,000 die each year...many more. Perhaps the sixth leading cause of death in America. What can we do? How can you make a difference? How does one protect one's family? Stand up for yourself. Sp