The processes involved in prescribing, dispensing, administering, and monitoring medications to patients are complex and prone to error. In fact, medication errors are the most common type of medical error, and they are a significant cause of preventable harm. This is especially true for hospitalized children for whom medication errors are about three times more common than in hospitalized adults. At Nationwide Children’s Hospital, we are working hard to reduce medication errors and adverse drug events. Listen to this edition of Children’s on Quality as I interview two of our experts who are leading this quality improvement effort.
President Obama’s Recovery Summer project kicked off Friday on the corner of Livingston and Parson’s and it was celebrated as the 10,000th road project paid for by government-funded stimulus money. This project includes new additions of road lanes and the widening of sidewalks in the downtown Columbus area. Governor Strickland was also welcomed as he made a visit to Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s lobby, where he signed the Obesity Bill into law. We are proud to see that the growth and expansion of Nationwide Children’s Hospital has not only been an investment for the hospital, but also a huge investment back into the community. Check out the events that made this day a part of history!
Failure to communicate is a known cause of serious medical errors. Data from the Joint Commission indicates that communication failures contribute to more than 70% of medical errors. This problem is exaggerated when patient-provider communication is complicated by language barriers, especially among immigrant populations. As many of 25% of the immigrant Asian, Hispanic and Pacific Islanders may not have anyone in the family older than 14 years old who speaks English (A.L. Cohen, et al, 2005). Immigrant children represent the fastest growing segment of the pediatric population in the United States. The staff of Nationwide Children’s Hospital care for hundreds of limited or non-English speaking children and families each year. Join me on this edition of “Children’s on Quality” and learn about the interpreter services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
This summer nearly 11 million children and young adults will head off to summer camp. Most will have a great time, but some may have problems. Sometimes, children have adjustment issues when they go away from home for the first time. Others may experience physical injuries that complicate their camp experience. What do parents need to know about getting their child ready for summer camp? How can they assure their child’s safety? Join me on this edition of Children’s on Quality as I ask these, and other questions to two experts from Nationwide Children’s Hospital: Amy Newmeyer MD, a developmental pediatrician, and Dawn Comstock Ph.D., an injury researcher.
Ohio perinatal outcomes are not good. The March of Dimes has given Ohio an “F” for our poor performance at reducing the prematurity rate in our state. In part one of this podcast, I introduced the Ohio Better Birth Outcomes (OBBO) initiative. This community-wide collaboration is how Central Ohio is addressing the problem of prematurity in Franklin County. OBBO has 4 components. In part one, I discussed the Central Ohio Scheduled Birth Initiative (COSBI) with Dr. Jay Iams, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at The Ohio State University. In part two, I interview Dr. Phil Scribano, Dr. Jack Stevens and Dr. Jay Iams regarding the other OBBO components: the Nurse-Family Partnership, Safe Spacing, and the 17-P project (17-hydroxyprogesterone).
In an average week, 2,896 babies are born in Ohio. 385 of these babies are born prematurely. 253 weigh less than three and 1/3 pounds. 23 babies will die before they reach their first birthday. Sadly, the rate of preterm birth in Ohio has increased 21 percent over the last decade. Other birth outcomes are not so good either. In 2008, the March of Dimes issued the first state-by-state Premature Birth Report Card. Ohio got a “D” for a prematurity rate of 13 percent. In 2009, Ohio’s prematurity rate increased to 13.2%, and the March of Dimes issued Ohio an “F”. How can we turn that failing grade around and improve our birth outcomes? Listen in to part one of this special two-part edition of Children’s on Quality as I interview some of the leaders of the Ohio Better Birth Outcomes project.
In the fall of 2008, Nationwide Children’s Hospital broke ground on a new 12-floor main hospital that is scheduled for completion in 2012. This new tower will be 750,000 square feet and will be surrounded by six acres of green space featuring parks and healing garden spaces for patients and families. The new building will open with more than 450 patient rooms that are 40 percent bigger and an emergency/trauma center that is twice as big as the current facility. It will also have a new pediatric intensive care, cardiac intensive care and transplant unit. Learn about the new patient care tower on this edition of Children’s on Quality.
Healthy employees are happy employees, and happy employees make better healthcare workers. That is one goal for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Employee Wellness Program. More than one-third of large employers in the U.S. have such wellness programs. They are designed to give employees “the information, tools and support they need to take charge of their health.” Advocates of the employee wellness programs claim that they reduce absenteeism, lower employer healthcare costs, and increase productivity. Tune in to the Children’s on Quality and learn about Nationwide Children’s Hospital Employee Wellness program. Listen to how this program has impacted the life of one of our employees.
With more than 80,000 visits per year, Nationwide Children’s Hospital has the 2nd busiest pediatric emergency department in the United States. Providing timely medical care to that many kids can be a real challenge. Yet, Nationwide Children’s Hospital has some of the best throughput times of any emergency department in America. What is patient throughput? How long is the typical emergency room wait time? How is it that Nationwide Children’s Hospital does so well? Find the answers to these questions on this edition of Children’s on Quality. My guests are Barbara Abdalla, RN and Kathy Nuss, MD from the Emergency Department at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
When infant car seats are properly positioned in the car, they can save hundreds, if not thousands of lives each year. But when they’re used improperly outside the car, these safety devices can lead to serious injury. When you place your infant in a car seat on a counter or table, or any high surface, you are putting your child at risk for a major fall. Infants can suffer from serious head injury, fractures or even asphyxiation. How should you properly use an infant car seat to prevent these injuries? Listen to Children’s on Quality and learn from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital experts about the safe use of infant car seats. “If it’s high, up it’s high risk.”
