Keep Up Your Medication List, It May Save Your Life
In the New Year, Commit to Taking Charge of Your Own Health Care by Ilene Corina January 2022 Keeping a list of your medications may sound like merely a suggestion, but it can be a life-saving practice. Recently, I accompanied someone to an urgent care center to be seen for a chest cold. The Physician’s Assistant…
Read MoreWant to Reduce Costs Due to Employee Absenteeism? The TakeCHARGE Campaign May Be Able to Help
Lost work days among staff costs business owners in many ways
Read MorePPS April 13th 2020
PPS April 13th 2020 7:00 PM Eastern Time Step #1 Understand and Complete Your Advance Directives Continuing on the theme of The TakeCHARGE Campaign Susan Capurso, an End of Life Doula and Legacy Creator of East End Doula Care will speak about The Five Wishes Document and the essential reasons to complete this document for…
Read MoreDo You Know Your Meds?
Do You Know Your Meds? Pulse has always been about helping educate members of “the public” about being actively involved in their medical care and most important, preparing to enter the healthcare system. But it’s easy to forget that people who work in health care are also members of the public and will, inevitably, be…
Read MoreActivist Turned Advocate to Stop Medical Errors
March 2020 Ilene Corina, BCPA, President,Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education & Advocacy In March 2020, it is 30 years since the death of my son from a preventable medical error. I use this term because it is one that I read about in research; research done by healthcare professionals who talk to each other…
Read MoreHow Take Charge: 5 Steps to Safer Health Care Benefits Persons with Breast Cancer
HOW TAKE CHARGE: 5 STEPS TO SAFER HEALTH CARE BENEFITS PERSONS WITH BREAST CANCER www.TakeCHARGE.care By Donalee Thomas According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2021 more than 280,000 women in the United States would be diagnosed with breast cancer and some 43,600 would be expected to die of the disease. In addition, an estimated 2,650 men were…
Read MoreFact: Bias in Healthcare Exists. Question: How is it Addressed?
By Sinnoman O. Powell, Pulse Intern May, 2022 Many strides have been made across the healthcare system in the United States: new technologies born, sanitation methods improved, and knowledge gained. However, with these accomplishments, mistakes have also been made: politicization of health beliefs; medications once deemed to be miracle drugs of their time falling short…
Read MoreStop Opioid Over-Use
The Real “Opioid” Crisis Lies in Communication The doctor greeted the young man cheerfully after the surgery to repair his broken leg. He was just seventeen years old and fearful that his baseball days were over. “I will give you something for the pain” the doctor said. “Just take two tablets every four to six…
Read MoreDon’t Hang Up
Don’t Hang Up! When you are lying in the hospital bed, get a call from a family member or friend and are chatting away, and a doctor or nurse walks in, your first reaction is probably to say, “I have to go, the doctor is here.” Instead, it should be, “The doctor is here: I’m…
Read MoreThe Opioid Crisis
I was sitting with a patient who was still groggy after surgery when the doctor said he would send her home with pain medication. The patient said “ok”. I asked the doctor if the pain medication was an opioid and he said it was. I knew the patient didn’t want to take an opioid and…
Read MoreNational Nonprofit Day
Today, August 17th, is National Nonprofit Day. Here is what I found out: August 17, 1894, was when the Tariff Act became law and gave exemptions for charitable institutions and nonprofit organizations. Today, we celebrate National Nonprofit Day by recognizing nonprofits and the impact of their world-changing work in our local communities and on a global…
Read MoreA Medical Error
A recent report out of Ohio’s University Hospitals in Cleveland was that they made a mistake in transplanting a kidney into the wrong patient. Those of us in the patient safety field are probably not surprised. What is surprising is that the hospital leadership took full responsibility, admitted the error and apologized. I rarely comment…
Read MoreSafer Medical Care through Shared Decision Making: Is Informed Consent a Patient Safety Issue?
Shared decision-making is a dialog between clinician and patient in which the physician elicits the patient’s preferences for treatment given the available options for care. For example, if one option for treatment is a powerful chemotherapeutic drug, the patient may prefer to forgo treatment if his quality of life will be seriously impaired by fatigue, nausea, or mental disturbances
Read MorePULSE HISTORY OF PATIENT SAFETY AWARENESS WEEK
Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW), the second week of March, began as an opportunity to celebrate patient safety. The National Patient Safety Foundation recognized PSAW, and hospitals around the country also began to “celebrate” patient safety, with the National Patient Safety Foundation taking the lead. According to The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Patient Safety Awareness…
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