Despite increased emphasis on patient safety, little progress has been made in making hospitals safer, says Johns Hopkins critical care specialist Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., in an article in the Dec. 24 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A major reform of the way that NHS hospitals pay for legal liability insurance has led to improvements in patient safety, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

When a pilot sits in the cockpit, she methodically goes through a checklist of all systems and equipment before the plane is fired up. Even if the pilot has flown that plane and route 1000 times, the items on the checklist are reviewed one by one and no-one would think of flying the plane without completing the checklist.

Progress in patient safety research could slow to a crawl unless regulators work out a host of ethical issues, Johns Hopkins researchers assert in an upcoming opinion piece.

Lawton Comanche County Memorial Hospital was named a 2008 " Distinguished Hospital for Patient Safety," according to the fifth annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study.

Patient satisfaction surveys reveal Saint Luke's metro facilities provide best hospital experience.

Patient safety incidents cost the federal Medicare program $8.8 billion and resulted in 238,337 potentially preventable deaths during 2004 through 2006, according to HealthGrades' fifth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study.

It seems that Britney Spears was not the only celebrity patient medical records of whom were improperly accessed and by the hospital employees. Recent privacy breaches at UCLA Medical Center have brought the issue of the privacy of patient medical records to national attention.

An open-access commentary in the December 2007 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology examines a recently launched a global initiative by the World Health Organization (WHO) to combat healthcare-associated infection by improving hand hygiene in health care.

Healthcare developers will be able to increase patient safety and clinician effectiveness with the new Microsoft® Health Common User Interface (CUI), available today from Microsoft Corp. The guidance and software code are available to download at no cost, and are designed to support the delivery of safe patient care across a healthcare system.

The handover of patient information during nursing shift changes is a key area under investigation in a national effort to improve patient safety in hospitals.

Government support for reforms deemed critical; health information technology, public quality reporting, pay for performance seen as effective strategies