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Patient Safety

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Photo: Lori Wilson, Children’s Medical Center Dallas

Understanding Patient Safety

Preventable harm occurs even in the best hospitals, and children’s hospitals are focused on improving patient safety practices for the best outcomes. The association sponsors collaboratives and initiatives around top patient safety issues, including the Child Health Patient Safety Organization (Child Health PSO), and partners with other organizations. 


Featured Resource

Toolkit
Diagnostic Safety Toolkit May 15, 2020

The diagnostic safety toolkit provides strategies to make improvements through communication. It's designed to use anywhere in an organization and with any diagnosis.

Resources

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Article
How to Effectively Articulate Your Scientific Work
February 1, 2021

Tell a story of discovery in layperson’s terms, and you can inspire future investigators.

Report
Resilience in Action: Child Health Patient Safety Organization 2020 Annual Report
December 15, 2020

Children’s hospitals are positioned to proactively assess and mitigate preventable harm and become more resilient institutions.

Article
Virtual Technology Aids in Monitoring Behavioral Health Patient Safety
October 27, 2020

The increasing use of video technology in health care today can help hospitals explore new or blended models for behavioral health patient safety observation.

Article
High-touch Cleaning Bundle Reduces Bloodstream Infections
October 22, 2020

Implementing new cleaning practices in patient rooms can reduce some hospital-acquired infections.

Definition or Specification
Evaluating Pediatric Sepsis Definitions Designed for Electronic Health Record Extraction and Multicenter Quality Improvement
August 26, 2020

A description of IPSO definitions' effectiveness for large-scale data abstraction, identifying patients treated for sepsis, as well as practical utility for use in quality improvement.

Article
Use Data and Research to Create a Quality Improvement Cultural Shift
August 3, 2020

This diagnostic safety expert says health care teams can overcome the complexity of communication to improve performance and patient care.

Article
Identify Facility Design Issues to Improve Safety
August 3, 2020

Find and address design issues at the right time in the construction process that could affect patient and staff safety.

Article
Researchers' Quest to Explain Popular Antibiotic Link to Respiratory Illness
July 28, 2020

Researchers strive to honor the memory of a former patient by uncovering the cause of her mysterious illness, educating others of the risk.

Article
Track Cognitive Bias to Improve Patient Safety
July 15, 2020

This children’s hospital traced 50% of serious safety events to cognitive bias and created targeted interventions to mitigate the most common cognitive biases found in health care.

Toolkit
Diagnostic Safety Toolkit
May 15, 2020

The diagnostic safety toolkit provides strategies to make improvements through communication. It's designed to use anywhere in an organization and with any diagnosis.

Alert
Improving Communication in the Diagnostic Process
April 22, 2020

Child Health PSO has identified a safety concern related to communication failures in the diagnostic process. This alert was developed after conducting a common cause analysis of the Child Health PSO database.

Article
Does White Bagging Pose a Risk to Patient Safety?
March 13, 2020

The practice is increasing as a way of managing costs, it can create potential patient safety concerns.

Article
Leader's Perspective: Preventing the Spread of Coronavirus in the U.S.
March 11, 2020

As the death toll climbs internationally, children’s hospital leaders are stressing the importance of screening everyone and taking prompt action for those exhibiting symptoms.

Article
Focus on Staff Education and New Practices Reduce ED Escalations in Behavioral Health Patients
March 4, 2020

Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., created a task force specifically focused on creating safer environments for encounters with patients in the ED.

Article
Study: 1 in 4 Hospitalized Kids Receives Antibiotics They Don't Need
February 14, 2020

A study reviewed medical records of more than 11,000 pediatric patients to identify suboptimal antibiotic prescriptions.

Article
How One Children's Hospital is Reducing Patient Harm
February 4, 2020

The implementation of a new safety principle focuses less on what goes wrong and more on what goes right.

Article
Explore Quality and Safety Improvements with Pediatric Health Care Professionals
February 4, 2020

At the Quality and Safety in Children’s Health Conference, a variety of speakers share best practices and attendees collaborate to uncover answers to pediatric-specific challenges in health care.

Article
Clinical Surveillance Helps Prevent Hospital-Acquired Infections
December 31, 2019

Clinical surveillance isn’t new for some children’s hospitals, but the practice is evolving thanks to better technology and being implemented more broadly.

Analysis or Summary
Cures 2.0: CHA Letter Responding to RFI
December 18, 2019

CHA submitted comments to the request for information on a Cures 2.0 package.

Article
Controlling Pediatric IV Acetaminophen Use Reduces Safety Risks and Medication Waste
December 11, 2019

Here’s how children’s hospitals improved their drug use policies.

Article
How Provider Stress Can Lead to Cognitive Bias and Diagnostic Errors
December 3, 2019

Burnout rates are on the rise and can have patient repercussions. Use these seven strategies to reduce the risk of diagnostic errors to avoid cognitive biases in patient care.

Report
Building Resiliency: Child Health Patient Safety Organization 2019 Annual Report
November 26, 2019

Learning from multi-center reported serious safety events, children’s hospitals celebrate 10 years of opportunity to learn together to improve safety under Child Health Patient Safety Organization’s (PSO) privilege and confidentiality protections.

Report
Improving Rates of Counseling Parents/Caregivers of Patients with Suicidality on Restricting Access to Lethal Means
November 21, 2019

Best practices for improving counseling on restricting access to lethal means developed based on the Pediatric Hospital Care Improvement Project (P-HIP) 12-month learning collaborative.

Report
Promoting Safe Hospital-to-Home Transitions
November 21, 2019

Best practices for improving hospital-to-home family/caregiver written discharge instructions to reduce potential medical complications.

Article
Preventing Thermal Injuries and Pediatric Harm
October 24, 2019

Here’s how a children’s hospital leveraged its infrastructure to put a thermal injury risk assessment into action and improve patient outcomes.

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Diagnostic Safety

safety toolkit

A toolkit to address communication failures within the diagnostic process.

Patient Safety Alerts

Child Health PSO Patient Safety Action Alerts provide immediate notification of patient safety concerns for most  pediatric health care providers. 

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