Voices for Safer Care

Insights from the Armstrong Institute

Physician introducing self to patient

The Patient Wish List

Since undergoing a double-lung transplant at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in December 2011, Podge Reed Jr. has had four medical admissions, two surgical admissions, eight outpatient procedures requiring anesthesia, more than 100 outpatient appointments, and 700 labs and other tests. He's amassed enough experiences with the health care system to write a book. So far, […]

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Doctor, nurse and patient

Learning from the Leaders in Patient Experience

Hospitals across the country are searching for ways to create the "always positive" patient experience. For example, we want our patients to tell us that their pain was always addressed, that clinicians were always responsive to their needs and that our communications at discharge time always helped prepare them to take care of themselves once […]

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large compression stockings

Blood Clots: The Least-Appreciated Complication of Hospital Care?

If you were undergoing a surgical procedure, would you ever think to refuse the antibiotics your physician had ordered to prevent an infection? For most hospitalized patients, that would be unfathomable. And yet, when it comes to another common complication with a far greater death toll than surgical-site infections, both patients and health care professionals […]

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Serving pills

Hospital Star Ratings Could Use an Asterisk

When you stay at a five-star hotel — if you are so lucky — you might expect a bowl of fresh fruit in your room every morning, gourmet restaurants on-site, and staff members who know your name and anticipate your needs. At a one-star hotel, you may just hope for value, cleanliness and decent water pressure. The […]

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Engaging patients in decisions

Mining Patients’ Wisdom for Safer Care

Consider, for a moment, that you are a new physician. A patient, who is a lifelong smoker, comes to your clinic complaining of shortness of breath, and after conducting several tests you diagnose him with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Relying on your training, you prescribe medications, arrange for follow-up visits and describe activities that can […]

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Husband helping with care activities

Getting Patients’ Loved Ones off the Sidelines: The Family Involvement Menu

Years ago, I felt firsthand what it was like to be the helpless family member of a hospitalized patient. My mother had undergone surgery in a hospital nearly three hours away, and things had not gone well. She was unconscious when I arrived in the intensive care unit. One of the first things I noticed […]

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Blog Image_Changing the conversation

Changing The Conversation About Patient-Centered Care

Earlier this year, our hospital staff was weighing a new 24/7 family presence policy to allow immediate family members to stay with  patients 24 hours a day. We knew this was a step in the direction of delivering patient- and family-centered care. We presented the proposal at a meeting of our Patient and Family Advisory […]

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just-like-me

“Just like me”

Recently in one of The Johns Hopkins Hospital's intensive care units, a patient was dying from cancer and sepsis, and there was nothing that I, nurse Mandy Schwartz or anyone else could do to stop it. Yet as the patient’s family—two daughters and a husband—suffered at her bedside, Mandy saw their need for comfort, and […]

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Free patient safety course returns in June

For the second year in a row, The Johns Hopkins University will lead a free online course, The Science of Safety in Healthcare, which begins June 2 and continues for five weeks. If you have ever wanted an introduction to patient safety concepts—or have colleagues with interest—this five-week course is a great opportunity. Transforming our […]

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The Ripple Effect

The doughnut shop I pass on my drive to the hospital isn't the kind of place where you might expect to see outpourings of random kindness. It sits in the shadow of a raised highway, a few doors down from a bail bond business and a block away from a prison complex that resembles a […]

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About the Armstrong Institute Blog

Voices for Safer Care serves as a forum for health care professionals, patients and others who are committed to ending preventable harm, improving patients’ outcomes and experiences, and reducing waste in health care. The “voices” are those of the buy modafinil clinicians, researchers and staff experts of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, as well as anyone who joins the dialogue.

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Recent Posts

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Categories

  • Designing Safer Systems
  • Measurement of Safety and Quality
  • Organizational and Cultural Change
  • Patient-Centered Care
  • Preventing Patient Harm