Never Events news and information

At the sixth International Conference on Diagnostic Error in Medicine on Wednesday, Dr. Robert Wachter gave a quick history of patient safety and quality improvement but noted that activity to reduce diagnostic errors was noticeably absent from the movement's timeline.
FULL STORY »

A sober discussion on trimming $4 trillion from the national debt got off to an unusual start. Erskine Bowles, who was co-chairman of a commission on fiscal responsibility convened by President Barack Obama, began with a shoutout to his personal orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Walter Beaver, who Bowles...
FULL STORY »

They might be known by the term "never events," but a newly released analysis from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, finds that serious surgical errors, such as wrong-site surgery and objects retained after procedures, are alarmingly common in U.S. hospitals.
FULL STORY »

Seven institutions participating in a Joint Commission and American College of Surgeons quality-improvement project to reduce colorectal surgical-site infection rates saved more than $3.7 million by avoiding 135 infections over a 2½-year period.
FULL STORY »

The 406-bed St. Raphael Campus of Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital is the recipient of the inaugural Partnership in Prevention Award, a joint project of HHS, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
FULL STORY »

Despite the looming threat of multidrug-resistant organisms, authors of a new study found wide variations in hospitals' screening and infection-control practices within their intensive-care units.
FULL STORY »

Charles Sanford left a Minneapolis shelter for his own apartment in June, a move that has meant relief from the anxiety of being homeless and the joy of cooking in his own kitchen.
FULL STORY »

A four-year federally financed program aimed at reducing rates of central line-associated bloodstream infections made big strides in prevention but not necessarily in state-by-state participation.
FULL STORY »

A national project targeting central line-associated bloodstream infections has lowered overall rates of such infections by 40% among participating hospitals, according to government data released Monday.
FULL STORY »

Imagine a hospital where the ICU's myriad devices seamlessly exchange data and where a patient's loss of dignity is viewed as a preventable harm on the same order as a fall or a bloodstream infection.
FULL STORY »