The use of acronyms and abbreviations is common in many areas, including healthcare. One acronym often found in written material and heard in conversations is QI. However, what does QI mean? Health Quality Ontario created the following video that highlights the key points of the QI – Quality Improvement – as it relates to healthcare. More specifically, what does QI mean in healthcare and why should we care about it? If you have not seen the video, you may wish to do so.
Category Archives: Patient Safety
Vaccination and Immunization
With the cold and flu season upon us, flu shot clinics have sprung up in a number of locations, including grocery stores, pharmacies and in shopping malls. Related to these clinics are the discussions and debates around the topic of immunization and vaccination. Should a person get a flu shot? What are the risks of getting a flu shot? What are the risks associated with not getting one? Below is a tweet that contained statistics from the US concerning immunization and vaccination.
Annual US Morbidity From Common Diseases Before and After Vaccines.#health #medicine #vaccines #vaccination pic.twitter.com/v9uA8HGPQc
— Disease Symptoms (@DiseaseSymptom) May 10, 2014
The Government of Canada has also developed the Canadian Immunization Guide that provides information about immunization. In addition, there are numerous websites, including New Health Advisor, which discuss the pros and cons of vaccinations and immunization. One thing for sure, there is no shortage of information concerning vaccination and immunization debate. On which side of the debate do you fall?
Ask a Question
Did you know that more than 100,000 Canadians are unintentionally harmed during hospital stays in 2014-2015? Unfortunately, some of these incidents result in permanent damage or even death. To help increase patient safety, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute has initiated a campaign called the “Questions Save Lives Campaign.” What question would you ask your doctor to make your health care safer?
Click here to find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved.
Dietary Supplements-Adverse Events And Emergency Room Visits
Dietary supplements are often promoted as natural and safe. However, this is not necessarily the case.
Lamar Odom’s recent brush with death has drawn the nation’s attention to dietary supplements. The former basketball player suffered an ischemic stroke and cardiac arrest induced by cocaine and two herbal male enhancement supplements, Reload and Libimax Plus. He purchased these supplements from the brothel where he was found unconscious. What Lamar and most people don’t know is that Reload contains sildenafil also known as Viagra. And Libimax Plus contains the drug tadalafil, the same ingredient in Cialis, another prescription drug for erectile dysfunction. Dietary supplements are regulated and monitored by the FDA differently from prescription medicines. The labeling information of supplements is not strictly enforced. Information may not necessarily include all ingredients and at times, the supplements may contain less or more substances than what the labeling indicates.
Click here to continue reading.
Why Does Inappropriate Prescribing Exist?
Antibiotic resistance is becoming a growing concern. One need only consider the strain of bacteria that contains genes which show no effect to colisitin, the “antibiotic of last resort,” to recognize the threat that exists. According to John Gums, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Professor of Pharmacy and Medicine at the University of Florida, there are a number of reasons that antibiotic resistance has occurred, one of which is inappropriate prescribing. While the solution to this situation is clear – doctors need to stop prescribing so many antibiotics – there are other factors at work. As Gums explains:
I believe there are two reasons inappropriate prescribing is so hard to curb. First, there is a philosophical disconnect between the data about antibiotic resistance and what drives prescriber behavior. The second is that physicians may bend to patient demand for antibiotics, even if the physician knows it won’t help or isn’t really needed.
Click here to read the article.
Uncovering Medical Errors
According to a recent study done by researchers at John Hopkins University, the number of inpatient deaths from medical errors have increased. With 251,000 error-based inpatient deaths occurring each year in the US, only heart disease and cancer cause more fatalities.
It is time to implement more aggressive measures to combat this epidemic of medical errors, even a measure that undoubtedly would not sit well with doctors, hospitals and, most certainly, their liability insurance carriers. But it is a measure that the health care industry should embrace if its No. 1 priority truly is patient safety. What is this measure? Doing away with keeping secret from the public the findings of hospital peer review committees.
Click here to read the full article.
