Suicide still remains a leading cause of death in America, the CDC reports, with 45,979 suicide deaths in 2020—or about a death every 11 minutes.

ECRI has published its annual report on the top patient safety concerns facing the healthcare industry. 

Water intrusion and accidental discharge of water are two of the leading causes of commercial property loss in the healthcare industry, according to The Hartford’s risk engineering consultants.

As I am fond of saying, buildings are never more perfect than the moment before you let people inside.

For ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), personnel records, governing body oversight of contractors, generator testing, and emergency preparedness were among the top problems along with medical records and medical staff credentialing and privileging, according to the accrediting organization’s latest annual survey data report.

Ensure your workers are up to date on respirator fit testing and falls protection protocols, especially if OSHA has cited your healthcare facility for those safety problems in the last five years. If the facility is found to be a “willful” repeat offender, the penalties could be much worse because each instance of a problem could be cited separately, adding up to thousands of dollars or more.

One thing often missing from the healthcare equity conversation, Mate said, is the impact of moral injury on the well-being of providers—specifically related to the inability to treat the underlying causes of patients’ suffering.

Specimen couriers are often overlooked when it comes to proper safety training. They perform the important role of transporting specimens for testing, but without the proper education and tools, they can find themselves in harmful situations.