5 Key Steps to Assessing and Identifying At-Risk Patients for Respiratory Compromise

by Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety) The cost of opioid-related adverse events, in terms of both human life and hospital expenses, remains at the forefront of the public eye. It has been estimated that yearly costs in the United States as...
Read Post |

5 Key Learnings to Create a Culture of Patient Safety with Capnography: Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety Releases Interview With...

The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety today released an interview with Peggy Lange, RT (Director of the Respiratory Care Department, St. Cloud Hospital) about a project that examined acute response team (ART) calls regarding patients who had received procedural or conscious sedat...
Read Post |

5 Keys to Reducing Harms from Opioids: A Discussion with Stephanie Uses, PharmD, MJ, JD, Patient Safety Analyst, ECRI Institute

ECRI Institute recently released the 2016 Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for Healthcare Organizations. Of ECRI’s top 10 patient safety concerns, inadequate monitoring for respiratory depression has the greatest likelihood of preventable harm. This occurs when the patient receives opioids and...
Read Post |

Can Failure-to-Rescue be Improved?

by Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety) There is a need to improve rapid response teams and code blue activations. 50% of Code Blue events involve patients receiving opioids. Moreover, unrecognized postoperative respiratory failure that resu...
Read Post |