On May 22, the FDA approved a nasal spray that can be used for emergency treatment for overdoses caused by fentanyl and other opioids. The medicine, Opvee, was first approved as an injection in the 1990s, but the FDA announcement means it can be given as a prescription nasal spray.

This lack of consistency in patient identification leads to medical errors and financial burdens for patients, clinicians, and institutions. Repeated medical care due to duplicate records costs an average of $1,950 per inpatient stay and over $1,700 per emergency department visit. According to Black Book Research (2021), 35% of all denied claims result from inaccurate patient identification, costing the average hospital $2.5 million and the U.S. healthcare system over $6.7 billion annually.

Most antibiotic prescriptions in the United States are made in outpatient settings and as many as 30% of those prescriptions may be unnecessary. Antibiotic overuse has been linked to antibiotic resistance and antibiotic-associated adverse effects.

If one accepts that one of the fundamental goals of the accreditation survey process is to generate findings, there is no reason to think that frequently cited standards, etc., by other organizations providing oversight (for instance, our good friends at OSHA) might not draw some attention when one considers where compliance vulnerabilities might be found.

Use evidence-based reasoning to get more people, including clinicians, involved in environmental sustainability efforts in your healthcare system.

Creating and sustaining a culture of safety has been a challenge for many healthcare organizations, but the objective value in having one can’t be overstated. Organizations like the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, ECRI, and OSHA all tout a safety culture as a beneficial endeavor for both staff and patients alike.

Check all fire doors to ensure they latch properly and that labels on the fire door assemblies are legible.

Be prepared for COVID-19 cases to increase in number and potentially severity if the general public becomes too lax in vaccination, testing, and using precautions once the public health emergency (PHE) officially ends on May 11.