Joint Commission issues new heparin rules

Anne Zieger — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:53:07 -0400

In recent years, there's been nearly 60,000 heparin-related errors in hospitals, with about 1,700 result in patient harm or death. To turn this around, the Joint Commission has issued a safety alert giving hospitals a new, strict set of rules for administering the drug.

The safety alert advises hospitals that they need to adopt preventive measures, such as bar coding for medicines or computerized drug orders. It's also advising hospitals to monitor patients who take these drugs more closely, and make sure that adult-strength heparin doses are stored nowhere near children's doses.

To see to it that hospitals are meeting these standards, Joint Commission investigators plan to make unannounced visits and check up on their compliance. Hospitals that don't comply could have their accreditation revoked.

To learn more about the Joint Commission's new alert:
- read this item from the Associated Press

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Joint Commission issues rules designed to stop bad behavior by doctors

Anne Zieger — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:38:52 -0400

The Joint Commission has issued a safety alert announcing new requirements for preventing intimidating behavior by doctors. In its statement, the Joint Commission noted that physician threats, outbursts and the use of condescending language, among other behaviors, can make nurses afraid to challenge doctors when they're concerned about potential problems. This can lead to increased medical errors, the group said. (Readers of this publication have all heard tales of, for example, wrong-side or wrong-organ surgery that went ahead because Dr. X wouldn't listen to nurses.)

Nurses who feel bullied aren't just afraid to challenge doctors they feel are making mistakes. They may even be afraid to call them with routine questions, which can lead to patient care problems, researchers have noted. Worse, nurses may make mistakes themselves, due to stress, after having a particularly stressful encounter with a bullying doctor.

However, the Joint Commission hopes to reduce these incidents dramatically. By next year, hospitals will be required to have codes of conduct and processes in place for managing inappropriate behavior by medical staff, including a policy specifically defining acceptable and unacceptable behavior. If they don't, the penalties will be stiff. Hospitals without appropriate anti-bullying systems in place could lose their all-important Joint Commission accreditation.

To learn more about the Joint Commission's ruling:
- read this Associated Press piece
- read the Joint Commission statement

Safety Alert

Joint Commission issues new heparin rules

Joint Commission issues rules designed to stop bad behavior by doctors