Debriefing - An Effective Patient Safety Process
Have you ever met with your team after an event occurred to discuss what you did right and what you did wrong? Did you find it helpful?

In a recent webinar, we focused on the debriefing process and how you can use it at your organization to make sustainable improvements in patient safety and care.

View the slides for:
- An introduction to debriefing
- Tools and resources to conduct your own debriefs
- Real-life examples of the debriefing process and its benefits

Pride Comes Before the Malpractice Suit: Patient Communication
We have the stats and information - 210,000 to 440,000 patients die each year from preventable harm; a significant proportion of these deaths are the result of communication failures; and patients don't think healthcare practitioners listen to them - but where is the action?

There are a number of things medical professionals can do to improve patient communication and prevent patient harm. In our Clarity blog, we cover a few ideas, including avoiding "cookbook medicine," keeping an open mind and asking the patient for help.

Read the blog entry for more details.

AHRQ Releases Playbook on Integrating Behavioral Health
AHRQ's Academy for Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care created a new interactive guide to support the integration of behavioral health in primary care and other ambulatory settings. The guide provides real-world examples of the integration process, a self-assessment checklist, pitfalls to avoid, an online community forum, and many other resources. 

Check out the playbook to help improve your healthcare delivery and patient outcomes!

Additional Resources:
- The Client Experience Toolkit
- Screening Tools for Primary Care
- SAMHSA-HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions Website
- Integrating Physical and Behavioral Health Care in Medicaid Toolkit
- The 4 Quadrant Model and Evidence-Based Practices

7 Approaches Leaders Can Take to Improve Care Teams
In a session at the Health Forum and American Hospital Leadership Summit, two hospital leaders from the University of Alabama Hospital and Western Connecticut Health Network opened up about how they successfully helped their care teams resolve their fundamental issues and sustain improvements. The leaders created a framework centered on 7 elements of leadership, which includes aligning accountability and authenticity, hardwiring team communications and gaining agreement on practice standards. 

Read the H&HN article to learn more about the approaches.

A New Healthcare Privacy Concern: Pokémon Go
Pokémon Go is taking the world by storm and is now the most popular mobile game app in the United States. It has become so popular, healthcare organizations are concerned about privacy and security issues at their facilities. Patient privacy and hospital security is put at risk because the game could be capturing sensitive images and hospital information. Some organizations have gone as far as prohibiting staff from playing the game during work hours or on hospital property. There is also the added problem of gameplay locations situated near hospitals. 

For more on this story, read Medicare Compliance Watch's article, Boston Hospital Warns Staff of Privacy Violations with Pokémon Go.

Aging Physicians: Should There be a Mandatory Retirement Age or Mandatory Exams? 
There is a new debate in healthcare right now and it centers on aging physicians and their ability to practice medicine. Many physicians are working well beyond traditional retirement age causing a number of groups and health systems to be concerned about the skills of these physicians and their competencies. Some health systems are creating policies that require clinicians to undergo physical, cognitive and clinical testing after a certain age, but these programs have not been well received by practitioners. The idea of a mandatory retirement age has been rejected by most, but there is a general consensus that there should be mandatory objective evaluations.

Where do you stand on the topic? Read more about it in Modern Healthcare's article, More hospitals screen aging surgeons to make sure their skills are still sharp.

Hospitals Use Low-Tech Defense for High-Tech Attacks
Healthcare providers have seen the benefits of electronic systems, but with the rise of cyber-attacks, they need to have contingency plans in place to make sure staff can perform their jobs in case their computer systems go down. The issues don't stop at cyber-attacks either. Natural disasters and general system errors can limit a healthcare provider's use of technology, and ultimately hinder his or her delivery of care. 

An article from Bloomberg BNA discusses the subject further and provides a little food for thought. 

50+ Bed Hospitals & the Affordable Care Act
Soon, hospitals with 50+ beds that want to participate in the Health Insurance Marketplace will need to conduct work through a patient safety evaluation system. The mandates goes into effect January 1, 2017, and the best way to meet this requirement is through a Patient Safety Organization.

Don't wait to take action. Clarity PSO can help you meet the mandate and provide you with a variety of other valuable services. Contact us today for more information.

PSO Learning Series Report - Perinatal Events & Communication
It is widely known that communication failures are among the top root causes of patient safety events and often times lead to devastating outcomes. A recent Joint Commission report reinforces this fact by identifying communication failures as a root cause in 70% of US perinatal sentinel events.

Because of this alarming statistic, our latest Clarity PSO Learning Series Report explores communication issues with a special focus on perinatal events.

Download the Report.

Anesthesiology Safety Webinar
Date: September 15, 2016   ♦   Time: 11am - 12pm CDT   ♦   Register

The summer may be winding down, but our safety activities are still in full force. Join us for the webinar, The End of Summer, the Start of Anesthesiology Safety, as our speaker, John Blenko, MD, puts the spotlight on anesthesiology and walks us through the specific areas he thinks we should focus on to keep our patients safe. Anesthesia providers have been at the forefront of patient safety for decades, but we need to remind hospital administration and medical personnel that this discipline touches patients every day and still needs our attention. Even when things are going well, there is always room for improvement. 

Register Today! This webinar will be beneficial to all types of providers and leadership.

RQS Insider
We are pleased to give you a sneak peek at our new educational series, RQS Insider. Our RQS Insider bulletins focus on risk, quality and safety issues and offer tips to help you assess and manage potential risk exposures within your organization.

Download our first bulletin, How Aware Are You? Putting the Spotlight on Behavioral Health, and stay tuned for information on future installments.

The Healthcare SafetyZone® Blog
Like what you see in the newsletter? Follow our Blog for more news, information, education and everything risk-quality-safety related! For us, this blog represents our commitment to use every avenue possible to share education and to foster discussion around the subjects of healthcare and patient safety.

Visit Us at These Upcoming Events
2016 Community Health Institute & Expo - Booth #706
August 28-30, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago

ASHRM 2016 Annual Conference & Exhibition - Booth #410
September 25-28, 2016 at the Orange County Convention Center in FL