January 2017

Up Front

Dana-Farber pioneers ways to teach patient safety practices to families

The Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center is devoting new resources to help prevent central-line infections when patients return home. 

Five Questions

Five Questions with M. Denise Desrochers, BSN, RN, CPON

" ... it's really important not to seem critical, but just to encourage repetition and empower people through knowledge and education."

- Desrochers, outpatient line care nurse educator at Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center 

Safety Successes

Fighting pressure ulcers in a
high-risk population

Even for a very common patient safety challenge like pressure ulcers, the key to better care is learning from each and every adverse episode, as the staff at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital can attest. 

What it really takes to stop central line-associated infections

When UMass Memorial in Worcester met with success in stemming these infections, the next challenge was to make sure the improvements stick. 

Safety Snapshot

Your hand hygiene data may be off the mark

A new study suggests that if you rely on auditors to gauge hand hygiene compliance in your hospital, you may not see the whole picture. 

Just one thing

New Year’s resolution:
Get patient identification right every time

Patient mix-ups remain a problem across health care settings. What to do? As always, go back to basics. Here's a list of 10 tips. 

Patient Safety Beat is published monthly by the Betsy Lehman Center, a state agency that uses communications, research, and data to catalyze the efforts of providers, policymakers, and consumers working toward safer health care in Massachusetts.