Skip to Main Content

Patient Safety and Quality Improvement: A Guide

Patient safety and health care quality journals and websites, local healthcare improvement groups, sample searches and databases for finding PSQI literature.

eBooks

Healthcare-associated Infections

New Fontiers in Patient Safety

Searching the Literature..Use multiple databases and research sources in your literature search for injury prevention and safety literature.

cover of Injury Prevention

Conclusion: A literature search performed in only one database will, on average, lead to a loss of more than half of the available literature on a topic.

Comparing

Lucian Leape Institute

 patient safety logo

Hospital Safety

Every healthcare facility can immediately begin to eliminate infections, like MRSA.
...
1. Use hand-hygiene precautions for all patient contacts.
2. Make antimicrobial soap and alcohol sanitizer readily available where needed.
3. Use antimicrobial soap or alcohol sanitizer in intensive care units.
4. Identify colonized and infected patients through surveillance cultures.
5. Isolate colonized patients.
6. Use disposable gowns, gloves, and masks when caring for isolated patients.
7. Clean the patient care environment thoroughly.
8. Use disposable or dedicated equipment. Clean all shared equipment with 70% isopropyl alcohol swabs.
9. Flag colonized patients' medical records to ensure isolation if re-admitted.
10. Control antibiotic use.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America,
and Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative

Computerized Physician Orders

Harvard Medical Practice Study (HMPS)

Brennan TA, Leape LL, Laird NM, et al. Incidence of adverse events and negligence in hospitalized patients: results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study I. N Engl J Med 1991;324:370-7.

Leape L, Brennan T, Laird N, et al. The nature of adverse events in hospitalized patients. Results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study II. N Engl J Med 1991;324:377-84.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.