The Patient Safety Blog by Pascal Metrics

  • Dr. Don Berwick Renews Call to Improve Patient Safety

Dr. Don Berwick Responds to NEJM-published Harvard Trigger Study by Renewing Call for Automated Harm Detection

“They may not welcome the duty to push patient safety back to strategic prominence. Nevertheless, ‘first do no harm’ remains a sacred obligation for all in health care, and success requires ‘constancy of purpose for improvement.’ Without renewed board and executive leadership and accountability for safety and without concerted, persistent investment in and monitoring of change, a summary study 34 years from now may again look all too familiar, with millions upon millions of patients, families, and health care staff paying the price for inaction.”

2023-02-07T13:39:19-05:00January 12th, 2023|

Trigger-based Patient Safety Method Finds High Rate of Preventable Harm in Hospitals – New Harvard Study Reveals

Dr. David Bates, Dr. Elizabeth Mort, and co-authors from Mass Gen Brigham and affiliates sought to evaluate the current state of patient safety using a trigger-based method across 11 Massachusetts hospitals using 2018 data. To summarize the remarkable findings, the study identified one adverse event in every four admissions, and approximately a quarter of those were preventable.    

2023-02-07T13:39:23-05:00January 12th, 2023|
  • safety and risk thumbnail image

Patient Safety and Risk Management 1: The Problem

Patient safety generally relies on software portals to report events.  The idea is that, if a “culture of safety” is positive, clinicians and staff will report patient safety events.  For its part, risk management generally relies on claims management software.  The idea is that, once a lawsuit is on the books, a risk management team will manage that case until its conclusion.  These two workflows are not only occurring at different time frames along the journey of a patient and her family but they also are addressing very different needs and, as a result, reflect very different requirements for “success.” 

2023-02-08T16:33:48-05:00December 31st, 2022|
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