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Patient safety and quality require 'transparent' approach
Jim Conway, senior vice president for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, explained why hospitals must focus on honest patient safety reporting in a talk highlighting Patient Safety Week at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. (March 13, 2009)
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Measuring patient care
A new section of Dana-Farber's Web site offers public access to information about the quality, efficiency, and safety of patient care. Learn how we evaluate our performance and how we compare to other comprehensive cancer centers nationwide. (March 2009)
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Electronic prescribing in ambulatory care
A study of electronic prescribing in ambulatory care conducted by Dana-Farber's Thomas Isaac, MD and Saul Weingart, MD, PhD, with colleagues from area hospitals, found that physicians override more than 90 percent of warnings generated by the system. Current medication safety alerts may be inadequate to protect patient safety. (February 10, 2009) read more
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Patient adherence to oral chemotherapy
Many cancer patients fail to follow their oral chemotherapy regimens, especially after the first few years of treatment. A Boston Globe article summarizes the findings of Dana-Farber researchers who investigated the reasons for non-adherence. (February 4, 2007) read more
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Oral chemotherapy at U.S. cancer centers
Dana-Farber researchers surveyed U.S. cancer centers and discovered a lack of consensus on safe practices for prescribing, monitoring and coordination, pharmacy practices, and patient education for oral chemotherapy. The study appears in the British Medical Journal. (January 12, 2007) read more
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High-tech tools retain human touch
State-of-the-art approaches such as bar coding and online drug ordering reflect the Institute's leadership role in patient safety. (Paths of Progress Spring/Summer 2006) read more
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Online incident reporting aims to improve patient safety
Out with the old, in with the new. Another system at Dana-Farber is slated to switch from paper to electronic form on April 26, when all "unusual occurrences" will start being reported online. (March 7, 2006) read more
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Institute launches hand hygiene campaign this month
The statistics are frightening. Approximately 2 million hospitalized patients in the United States each year acquire infections that are not related to their condition, and an astounding 90,000 of these individuals die annually from those infections, estimates the Center for Disease Control (CDC). To combat this, Dana-Farber is making March a month for hand-hygiene awareness. (March 1, 2006) read more
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Center for Patient Safety Annual Report 2005
Patient safety is at the core of the Institute's mission and vision, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has been a leader in advancing safe practices and reducing the risk of medical error. The Center for Patient Safety, created in 2003, brings together clinicians, administrative staff, researchers, patients, and families to promote research, clinical improvement, and education at the Institute and beyond. This report summarizes the year's activities and plans for the future. (Jan. 1, 2006) read more
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New wristbands pave way for patient safety initiative
Beginning this month on Dana 11, patients will receive new wristbands when they check in, paving the way for a broader patient safety initiative. Unlike the old wristbands with embossed text, the new wristbands have computer-generated text that is easier to read. They also contain bar codes that will eventually link to a patient's medications, electronic medical record, and blood products, enhancing coordination of care and decreasing the chance of a medication error. (Nov. 2, 2005) read more
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Despite rarity of errors in chemotherapy orders, improvements still needed, study finds
In one of the first studies to examine chemotherapy errors in ambulatory care for cancer patients, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital have found that about three percent of chemotherapy orders in three outpatient infusion clinics studied contained mistakes. Most errors were intercepted by nurses and pharmacists before reaching patients, and none were life-threatening or caused patient harm; but the results show that room for improvement exists, even in hospitals with strong error-prevention programs, the authors say. (Oct. 25, 2005) read more
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Organizational change in the face of highly public errors
On December 3, 1994, 39-year-old Boston Globe health reporter Betsy Lehman died of complications of an overdose of cyclophosphamide, a chemotherapeutic agent she received at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for treatment of breast cancer. The media reported the event intensively, with 28 front-page headlines over the next three years. (AHRQ May 2005) read more
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Massachusetts hospitals join together to improve care and reduce errors
Dana-Farber was one of the first healthcare organizations to participate in an ambitious program to improve patient safety in the state's 105 hospitals. (March 7, 2005) read more
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Communication between primary-care physicians and patients can reduce medication-related problems, study suggests
Primary-care physicians who encourage their patients to let them know about bothersome side effects of prescribed medications -- and who address such problems promptly -- can reduce the chances that patients will be harmed by the medications, according to a new study by researchers in Boston. (Jan. 25, 2005) read more
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Dana-Farber names noted medical errors prevention expert to oversee patient safety program
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has recruited Saul Weingart, MD, PhD, a national expert on medical error prevention, to be vice president for patient safety and the director of the Center for Patient Safety. (Oct. 24, 2004) read more
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DFCI's new patient safety chief casts wide (safety) net
"There are few other world-class health-care organizations that embrace safety as part of their core missions," says Saul Weingart, MD, PhD. "I believe we can work together to splice safety into the genome of the Institute." (Paths of Progress, Fall/Winter 2004) read more
