What’s New in the Patient Safety World
December 2016
ECRI’s Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2017
ECRI Institute has published its annual list of its Top 10
Health Technology Hazards for 2017 (ECRI 2016). The full
report details the risks of each of the technologies and makes very useful
recommendations on what your organization should be doing to minimize those
risks. Their 2017 list:
- Infusion errors
- Inadequate cleaning of complex reusable instruments
- Missed ventilator alarms
- Undetected opioid-induced respiratory depression
- Infection risks with heater-cooler devices used in cardiothoracic
surgery
- Software management gaps
- Occupational radiation hazards in hybrid ORs
- Automated dispensing cabinets setup and use errors
- Surgical stapler misuse and malfunction
- Device failures caused by cleaning products and practices
As is our usual practice we don’t go into detail about items on their list because we encourage you to go right to their excellent resources on these topics. We’re happy to see that under alarm management they have highlighted failures to communicate alarms effectively to staff, a topic we discussed in detail in our February 9, 2016 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “It was just a matter of time…”.
Go to the ECRI site to download the full report. It is a free download but you’ll need to register to receive it.
References:
ECRI Institute. Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2017.
https://www.ecri.org/Pages/2017-Hazards.aspx
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