4 Stories You Need: Why Readmissions Can Be a Good Thing, How Fatigue Impacts Patient Safety

We know you’re busy, but we don’t want you to miss important healthcare quality and patient safety news. Here are a few stories you may want 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. Hospital Readmissions are Not the Enemy 
   Researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital are questioning whether or not readmissions are an appropriate measure of quality especially when it comes to treating conditions like heart failure, COPD and stroke. HealthLeaders Media
2. Fatigue, Sleep Deprivation, and Patient Safety
   A new Patient Safety Primer from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality suggests that a combination of organizational policies and personal commitment to healthy sleep habits is necessary in order to successfully address sleep deprivation issues with physicians. AHRQ Patient Safety Network
3. Nurse views ‘underused’ as indicator of patient safety
   A study conducted in Stokholm, Sweden found that patient deaths within 30 days following admission for general, vascular or orthopaedic surgery were significantly lower in hospitals where registered nurses had awarded the facilities high ratings for quality and patient safety. Nursing Times
4. What’s in the pipeline? Will we learn?
   Last July, a newborn died in an Australian hospital after receiving nitrous oxide instead of oxygen. A Root Cause Analysis revealed the errors that led up to the unexpected poor outcome, but consider the benefits of going a step further and employing a human factors approach that could lead to the installation of needed safeguards.  patientsafe