Voices for Safer Care

Insights from the Armstrong Institute

Former NASA astronaut Story Musgrave anchored to a robotic arm during one of his many space walks to make repairs and upgrades to the Hubble Space Telescope. (Photo credit: NASA)

Mission Critical

Lessons from a lifetime thinker and doer At just 7 years old, Story Musgrave faced a crisis that tested his critical thinking. While pretending to drive his father’s red farm tractor, he unlocked the brake, sending himself and the tractor down the hill into the river. He didn’t want to admit he was at fault, […]

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36 hours. Unlimited possibilities to transform health care.

Imagine this. You are locked in Turner Concourse for 36 hours with relative strangers, tasked with creating a project that will revolutionize health care. Now what? If you are one of this year’s MedHacks participants, you are out of the gate running, ready to innovate and transform health care. MedHacks, run by Johns Hopkins University […]

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poster session presentations

Radiology’s Quality Improvement Committee: A Formula for Success

"That’s how it’s always been done" is a phrase you will not hear uttered in the Department of Radiology and Radiological Science at The Johns Hopkins Hospital or at Johns Hopkins Medical Imaging. Organizations often cite historical precedent for why “option A” is being implemented instead of trying “option B.” The radiology department has seen […]

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Distributed Mission Operations Center at Kirkland AFB

“War Gaming” for Patient Safety

Over a decade ago, I consulted on a project for the U.S. Air Force involving very large-scale simulations. These "war games" involved more than 1,500 participants around the world — some in simulators and some using real equipment in training mode. In a warehouse-sized building, a wall of gigantic screens captured the mock battle, as a […]

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Health application

How We Can Engineer a Less Costly Health Care System

If we want to rein in the costs of the U.S. health-care system — now equal to nearly 18 percent of the nation's gross domestic product — we cannot ignore the fragmented technologies used to help heal and save lives. At first glance, the devices, monitors, electronic health records and machines found in today's hospitals […]

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Measuring blood pressure

Reinventing the Physical Exam

In the technology-thick landscape of modern health care, the physical exam remains in a backwoods. Sure, there have been advances — blood-pressure cuffs, for example, now inflate themselves — but on the whole the exam has barely changed in the past century. Patients still open up and say "ah," take deep breaths and gaze at […]

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Flint Water Plant

How the Flint Water Crisis Is a Cautionary Tale for Health Care

There has been no shortage of blame for the poisoning of Flint, Michigan's water supply. In March, a governor-appointed task force issued a report that rebuked local, state and federal authorities for their actions — and inactions — that created the public health crisis. Then, in late April, state prosecutors announced the first charges in the […]

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Interior of HERA

Seeking the Right Stuff for Teams: In the Hospital or Distant Space

Wanted: Talented, highly driven individuals to take on multiyear work assignment with potential for benefiting humankind. Requires the highest levels of technical skill, teamwork and adaptability. Must be able to tolerate social isolation, mental and physical fatigue, demanding and uneven work schedules, days and nights away from home. Risk of depression and burnout. Must be […]

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Growth chart

Patient Safety at 15: How Much Have We Grown?

Fifteen-year anniversaries often come and go without fuss, overlooked in favor of those we can mark in full decades. Yet recently, at Johns Hopkins and nationally, we've crossed that mark for a couple of events in patient safety that merit both celebration and reflection. In January 2001, a series of lapses at Johns Hopkins led […]

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prototype infusion pump

Five Steps to Innovative Solutions for Health Care Improvement

In my role as the patient safety innovation coordinator for the Armstrong Institute, I spend a lot of time helping clinicians improve processes in health care delivery. Oftentimes I've found that when faced with a challenge we all have a tendency to go right to solutions we're comfortable with. Especially in health care, we’re used […]

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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

  • Mission Critical
  • Armstrong Institute Hosts Inaugural Observership Program
  • 36 hours. Unlimited possibilities to transform health care.
  • Radiology’s Quality Improvement Committee: A Formula for Success
  • Paving the Way for Peer Support Programs

Categories

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