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(...)
Patient-Centered Care
Blood Clots: The Least-Appreciated Complication of Hospital Care?
Posted by | Patient-Centered Care, Preventing Patient HarmIf 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(...)
Hospital Star Ratings Could Use an Asterisk
Posted by | Measurement of Safety and Quality, Patient-Centered CareWhen 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(...)
Mining Patients’ Wisdom for Safer Care
Posted by | Patient-Centered Care, Preventing Patient HarmConsider, 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(...)
Getting Patients’ Loved Ones off the Sidelines: The Family Involvement Menu
Posted by | Patient-Centered Care, Preventing Patient HarmYears 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(...)
Changing The Conversation About Patient-Centered Care
Posted by | Patient-Centered CareEarlier 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(...)
“Just like me”
Posted by | Organizational and Cultural Change, Patient-Centered CareRecently 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(...)
Free patient safety course returns in June
Posted by | Patient-Centered Care, Preventing Patient HarmFor 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(...)
The Ripple Effect
Posted by | Organizational and Cultural Change, Patient-Centered CareThe 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(...)
Doctor Who?
Posted by | Organizational and Cultural Change, Patient-Centered CareOne of the most exciting things about working in patient safety and health care quality is that it’s not solely about advancing science or applying performance improvement methods. It is also about the excitement of being part of a social movement that is changing the culture of medicine—putting patients at the center of everything, sharing(...)