What’s New in the Patient Safety World
December 2011
ECRI’s Annual Top
10 Health Technology Hazards
ECRI Institute has again done their now annual compilation of the Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for the year 2012. The reprint can be downloaded for free from the ECRI site but you must register for that download.
The list is quite similar to their annual list of its Top
10 Health Technology Hazards for 2011 (see our January 2011 What’s New in the Patient Safety World column “ECRI’s
Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2011”) though the order of rankings
has changed somewhat.
At the top of this
year’s list is alarm hazards. They provide an excellent discussion of
not only alarm fatigue but a whole host of problems related to alarm systems in
general and they provide a solid set of recommendations that each organization
should consider.
Number 2 on their
list is exposure hazard from radiation therapy and CT. Other hazards making the
list include infusion pumps, surgical fires, cross-contamination of endoscopes,
enteral feeding misconnections, needlesticks/sharps injuries, and
pre-inspection of anesthesia equipment before use on patients. A new topic this
year is failure to contemplate effects on all devices connected to a system
when a change to one part of the system is undertaken. Another new one deals
with poor usability of medical devices for home use.
References:
ECRI Institute 2012 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards
https://www.ecri.org/2012_Top_10_Hazards
ECRI. ECRI Institute’s 2011 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards. Health Devices 2010; 39(11): 386-398
https://www.ecri.org/Forms/Pages/2011_Top_10_Technology_Hazards.aspx
http://www.patientsafetysolutions.com/
What’s New in the Patient Safety World Archive