Smart Healthcare Safety from ECRI

Whether from fear of contracting coronavirus, commitment to social distancing recommendations, hesitation to burden a stressed healthcare system—or all of the above—many people are avoiding needed medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic even in the face of potentially life-threatening emergencies. In this episode, we're talking about the need for patients to still seek and receive routine and emergency care that's not related to the pandemic, and how providers can communicate to patients to encourage that care. We’ll also discuss how to communicate changes to routine practice that patients should expect upon their arrival. Learn more about how ECRI can help from our website at www.ecri.org, where you'll find our COVID-19 Resource Center with publicly available resources to help providers across the continuum of care. ECRI members can also access sample communication scripts for physician practices to encourage patient. Interested in learning more? Contact us at (610) 825-6000 or clientservices@ecri.org.

Alarm safety has been a recognized problem in healthcare for more than a decade. A component of that is alarm fatigue—a situation when a provider, frustrated by nuisance alarms that may not be actionable, eventually starts ignoring alarms that are important and actionable. Alarm fatigue ultimately puts patient safety in jeopardy. In this episode, we'll talk about why this problem has persisted, the intersection of people and technology that can make it worse, and strategies for combatting it. Learn more about how ECRI can help from our website at www.ecri.org. Also, you can download our Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2020, which offers a global view of alarm management, focusing on the cognitive load resulting from all of the alarms, alerts, and other notifications that confront clinicians on a daily basis. Interested in learning more? Contact us at (610) 825-6000 or clientservices@ecri.org.

This episode is part of a special series in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In this episode, we're talking about some of the first steps healthcare organizations are taking in resuming more normal operations—a necessary process but one that can be fraught with risk for patients and providers alike. We’ll discuss the planning necessary to resume care, as well as one critical step that most re-opening guides and checklists haven't discussed. ECRI offers additional resources in our COVID-19 Resource Center to help providers across the continuum of care. Interested in learning more? Contact us at (610) 825-6000 or clientservices@ecri.org.

This episode is part of a special series in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  COVID-19 brings an enormous set of challenges to aging care facilities around the country. In this episode, we're talking about the role of transparency and notifications following adverse events in aging services. We’ll discuss why these practices are key in building trust with residents and families, as well as how they reduce the burden on caregivers. ECRI offers additional resources in our COVID-19 Resource Center to help providers across the continuum of care. You'll also find our latest free white paper on incident identification and notifications. Interested in learning more? Contact us at (610) 825-6000 or clientservices@ecri.org.

This is a special episode produced in conjunction with our colleagues in ECRI's Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety. The Partnership is working with EHRA to explore how health IT can help integrate behavioral health and primary care. Many Americans with behavioral health conditions receive their behavioral care from their primary care providers—in fact, we estimate that one in five primary care visits includes behavioral health indications. On top of that, nearly 30% of adults with chronic disease have behavioral health needs as well. And yet, only one-third of patients with behavioral health conditions report receiving the care they need. In this episode, we'll talk about why this integration is so important and what the collaboration hopes to accomplish. Interested in learning more? Contact us at (610) 825-6000 or clientservices@ecri.org.

In this episode, we're talking about measuring safety culture in healthcare, particularly in light of an updated Culture of Safety Survey released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The changes affect how organizations will be able to use the results of past surveys to track their own growth and how they'll be able to compare results to AHRQ's national database. We'll talk about why and how safety culture should be assessed, some common pitfalls we've seen in helping organizations do an assessment, and strategies for a successful initiative. ECRI’s Proactive Risk Assessment team works with hospitals, medical offices, ambulatory surgery centers, and nursing homes to develop surveys that not only assess safety culture, but also assess clinical and operational risks. Interested in learning more? Contact us at (610) 825-6000 or clientservices@ecri.org.

In this episode, we're talking about COVID-19, the disease caused by a novel coronavirus that originated in the Chinese city Wuhan. Now designated a public health emergency by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, as of the time of this recording, the virus has been associated with tens of thousands of cases and more than two thousand deaths. We'll discuss the virus in the context of outbreak preparedness more broadly and what healthcare providers can do next. For healthcare professionals, the thought of being unprepared or under-prepared for coronavirus, or another infectious disease outbreak as the flu, is alarming. To help healthcare organizations protect workers as well as patients, ECRI has developed the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Outbreak Preparedness Center with links to free resources and guidance from U.S. and international healthcare organizations. You can also find a case study of one hospital's emergency drill, which included more than 50 members of the local community.

In this episode, we’re talking about the new affiliation between ECRI Institute and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, or ISMP. We first announced this affiliation in November 2019 and made it official in January 2020—and now we're excited to look ahead with the two organizations' leaders at the impact we can have together to improve healthcare quality and safety. ECRI President and CEO, Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, and ISMP President, Mike Cohen, RPh, MS, FASHP, discuss the urgent need by the healthcare industry for independent, fact-based, transparent evaluations of new technologies and treatments. As we work on integration planning, we are focused on bringing our Patient Safety Organizations together, expanding our membership offerings, as well as enhancing our educational programs in order to provide resources that make people’s jobs easier and make patients safer. Interested in learning more? Contact us at 610.825.6000 or email clientservices@ecri.org.