3 Stories You Need But May Have Missed This Week

We know you’re busy, but we don’t want you to miss important healthcare quality and patient safety news. Below is a roundup of stories you may have missed but need to take a look at before calling it a week. (Sign up on the right if you’d like these news alerts delivered to you.)

1. Federal Study Shows IT Improves Outcomes Access AHRQ’s new report, Findings and Lessons From the Improving Quality Through Clinician Use of Health IT Grant Initiative, which highlights IT tools now proven to enhance decision support, clinical workflow and care coordination.
2. Talking Scales and Telemedicine: ACO Tools to Keep Patients Out of the Hospital Discover how certain telehealth tools are helping patients nationwide become more actively  involved in their own healthcare and, in turn, avoid hospital visits as a result of heightened engagement and consistency.
3. Operating-Room Fire at Hospital Burns Patient, Prompts Changes Learn what new policies FirstHealth of North Carolina has instituted across its system to safeguard against incidents like the fire that resulted when vapor from sterilizing fluid ignited during an emergency life-saving procedure performed in one of its facilities in June.