Review fire and evacuation drills to ensure you can get all patients and visitors out without injury or death, just as a Massachusetts hospital did on Tuesday, February 7, after a transformer caught fire in the basement of a connecting building.

Congenital syphilis rates going up across the country

While some waivers have been extended for two years, other freedoms—including an important Ryan Haight Act provision—will end soon, forcing some providers to take action now.

Originally, I had planned this for sometime in January, but suddenly I find myself on the cusp of February and the “packing up the decorations” conversation is way past due.

OSHA inspectors were among those who responded to the site to conduct an investigation when a worker died after falling several stories from the roof of a Massachusetts hospital building in January.

Most organizations agree that ending avoidable disparities and harm in healthcare is not just a social concern, but a patient safety one as well—one that will require strong, engaged, and committed leadership. At the end of the IHI’s presentation, viewers were able to ask some leadership questions to speakers Ron Wyatt, MD, MHA, vice president and patient safety officer of MCIC Vermont, and Qiana Thomason, president and CEO of the Health Forward Foundation.

Expect more patients in the emergency room (ER) seeking help with behavioral health issues when the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ends—especially if the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) does not act to renew PHE-related flexibilities allowing prescriptions of controlled substances through telehealth.

In 2016, because of several incidents in national high-containment laboratories, a “safety stand-down” was recommended. That term gets used often, but not everyone understands how a safety stand-down works. Has your department been in a similar situation? Have you encountered a series of similar safety events that created the need for everyone to stop and review?