6 Stories You Need: 3D-Printed Drug for Epilepsy, Standardizing ED Handoffs, and More

Starting with a pharmaceutical innovation that may make it easier for patients to take their medications as prescribed, here’s a roundup of important healthcare quality and patient safety 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. FDA Clears First 3D-Printed Drug
   Learn more about how the first FDA-approved oral drug, manufactured using three-dimensional printing technology, may improve medication adherence for epilepsy patients.
2. FDA Issues Cleaning Precautions for Duodenoscopes
   Find out what four additional steps the FDA says clinicians can take to reduce risk of dangerous infection when using tough-to-clean duodenoscopes.
3. Hospital Hardware Hacking
   Cybersecurity concerns have prompted the FDA to recommend that hospitals STOP using Hospira Simbiq pumps. Read what temporary precautions need to be taken until replacements can be installed.
4. A potential weak link in patient safety: ER to inpatient handoffs
   After new research revealed a definite disconnect between ED and admitting physicians, University of Nebraska Medical Center is piloting a program to standardize the approach used for ED-to-hospital handoffs. Access the UNMC study, published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, here.
5. Hospital checklists are meant to save lives — So why do they often fail?
   Not all hospitals have achieved the same impressive results as the facilities that participated in initial trials using checklists. Learn what impact proper and complete use of a checklist can have on outcomes.
6. Hospital Nurses Wash Their Hands Less Often at the End of Their Shifts
   Read a new study, led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, showing that the further caregivers are into their shift and the more intense their work, the less likely they are to wash their hands according to proper protocol.