Latest news with #patientsafety
CNA
3 days ago
- Business
- CNA
Kaiser Permanente says it is facing intermittent network disruptions
Healthcare conglomerate Kaiser Permanente said on Wednesday it is facing intermittent network disruptions affecting several of its systems, including electronic health records and patient services. The outage has impacted online features such as e-visits, billing, messaging and access to medical records, the company said, adding that some pharmacy, lab, radiology and call center operations are also experiencing delays. "Our technical teams are engaged and working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible," Kaiser Permanente said. The company said it has backup systems and procedures in place to support continuous patient care and secure access to medical records.
Zawya
3 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
BD collaborates with General Administration of Pharmaceutical Care at the Ministry of Health, and IHOP
Healthcare leaders gather to explore innovative medication management, digital transformation, and patient safety as part in a shared commitment to advance the world of health. Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – The Saudi entity of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology organization, in collaboration with the General Administration of Pharmaceutical Care at the Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia and IHOP successfully hosted today the Connected Medication Management (CMM) Roadshow in Riyadh. The event brought together healthcare leaders and professionals to discuss innovative medication management strategies, with a focus on enhancing patient safety, improving workflow efficiency, and supporting healthcare worker safety. Opening Keynotes from Dr. Mohammed Alshennawi, General Director, General Administration of Pharmaceutical Care at the Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia, and Wassim Mohsen, BD's Business Director, Medication Management Solutions for Middle East and Africa set the tone for an insightful day centred on critical topics including interoperability and connected medication management. The roadshow also featured a series of insightful presentations from esteemed healthcare professionals across the Kingdom. Dr. Abdulwahhab AlShammari, Assistant Professor of Health Informatics at KSAU-HS, who presented on the impact of AI in healthcare and transforming patient outcomes. Dr. Abdullah AlShehry, Director of Pharmacy at King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh who shared a success story on implementing pharmacy automation and its role in achieving operational excellence. Additionally, Dr. Hisham Momattin, Corporate Pharmacy Director at Al Mouwasat Hospital, presented insights on optimizing outpatient pharmacy workflows to improve patient outcomes in the outpatient set up. Dr. Afnan Almordi, Head of project Management and Pharmacy Informatics Section, General Administration of Pharmaceutical care at the Ministry of Health, elaborated more on the integration of pharmacy informatics in everyday pharmacy practice. Finally, Dr. Maher Mominah, Pharmacy Informatics and Automation Manager at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, who shared his extensive experience in navigating the complexities of pharmacy automation. Reflecting on the importance of the event, Dr. Mohammed Alshennawi commented, 'Connected medication management is a critical component of Saudi Arabia's healthcare transformation. Events like these are platforms for us to engage and share best practices and drive innovation in patient care, ultimately supporting the Kingdom's Vision 2030.' Maher Elhassan, Vice President and General Manager, Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey (MENAT) at BD, added, 'The CMM Roadshow is a testament to our ongoing commitment to supporting the healthcare sector in Saudi Arabia by leveraging digital solutions to improve patient safety and operational efficiency. We are proud to collaborate with the Ministry of Health to create a smarter, more connected healthcare ecosystem.' Omar Malabarey, Country General Manager, BD Saudi Arabia, remarked, 'As healthcare systems evolve, it is crucial to integrate cutting-edge technologies that are safer, simpler and smarter. The CMM Roadshow reflects BD's commitment to supporting this transformation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.' The event also featured interactive workshops on critical topics, including medication safety, automated dispensing, and the future of pharmacy automation, providing attendees with practical insights and hands-on experience. About BD: BD is one of the largest global medical technology companies in the world and is advancing the world of health by improving medical discovery, diagnostics, and the delivery of care. The company supports the heroes on the frontlines of health care by developing innovative technology, services and solutions that help advance both clinical therapy for patients and clinical process for health care providers. BD and its more than 70,000 employees have a passion and commitment to help enhance the safety and efficiency of clinicians' care delivery process, enable laboratory scientists to accurately detect disease and advance researchers' capabilities to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics. BD has a presence in virtually every country and partners with organizations around the world to address some of the most challenging global health issues. By working in close collaboration with customers, BD can help enhance outcomes, lower costs, increase efficiencies, improve safety, and expand access to health care. For more information on BD, please visit or connect with us on LinkedIn at X (formerly Twitter) @BDandCo or Instagram @becton_dickinson. For more information (Press only): BD@
The Independent
4 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Mental health A&E units won't cut trolley waits and will put patients at risk, doctors warn
Mental health A&E units will not address long waits for vulnerable patients or cut emergency care waiting times, doctors have warned. The units, planned for England, will be staffed with specialist doctors and nurses to provide 24/7 support for patients feeling suicidal or experiencing symptoms such as psychosis or mania in a bid to relieve pressure on hospitals amid the ongoing 'corridor care' crisis. But doctors have raised concerns that they could compromise patient safety and warned they will not end the long waits facing mental health patients, or any others waiting to be seen. Consultant psychiatrist Dr Nuwan Dissanayaka said patients who need both physical and mental health care may not have access to the staff who can spot the signs and address emergency physical health problems. He said people attending the proposed hubs with symptoms of a mental health crisis may have an underlying physical health care problem, which also need to be addressed. Dr Dissanayaka gave examples of physical health problems which 'mimic' mental illness, such as confusion in dementia patients, and also warned that patients who need physical care following issues such as self-harm or overdoses could also not be treated within the hubs. He added: 'Having a better waiting area, with staff who are not appropriately qualified to manage issues which are not primarily mental health related, is not an alternative to A&E. It does not improve the overall care of mental health patients, even if a proportion of them prefer it. 'The factors which have contributed to the rise in mental ill health - not enough beds, not enough staff, poor workforce planning, inadequate community services - won't be addressed by having a better waiting area. And the risks for patients inappropriately placed there from serious physical illness, together with a lack of access to assessment and treatment, are worrying.' Have you been impacted by this issue? Email: The hubs are already in operation at 14 different hospitals but NHS England told The Independent that waiting time data for those has not yet been collected. Robert Howard, professor of Old Age Psychiatry, told The Independent : 'I think the actual problem is the amount of time people have to wait for a bed and that this isn't going to make any difference to that. 'I have real concerns about the safety of patients who may have undiagnosed physical problems, if you are being assessed away from a normal A&E department where there will be access to that physical health investigation and treatment.' Data obtained by The Independent found the number of mental health patients waiting more than 12 hours in emergency departments across England has increased, with 27 per cent of these patients waiting longer than this in January 2025, up from 22 per cent in 2023. The proportion of mental health patients waiting for more than 12 hours in A&E is far higher compared to patients overall, of whom 10 per cent wait this long. Previous exposés by The Independent have revealed that mental health patients are waiting up to eight days in emergency departments for a bed. The Royal College of Emergency Medicine also pointed out that the initiative would 'do nothing to alleviate the problem, which is a lack of beds'. Mental health A&Es proposed by NHS England have been in operation across several hospitals already. One study into their efficacy published in December 2023 found the units 'did not, in general, meaningfully reduce emergency department visits or psychiatric admissions' and 'generally cost more to run than the savings they generated in the short term'. However, the study also found that they were valued by patients and clinicians and could improve the quality of care experienced by those suffering a mental health crisis. Another study of four hubs in London found they were regarded by patients and staff as 'safe' and a place where patients were treated with 'kindness, dignity and respect'. It found an 'optimistic outlook', however, it did raise concerns about low staffing levels at the units.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Medical errors are still harming patients. AI could help change that.
John Wiederspan is well aware of how things can go wrong in the high-pressure, high-stakes environment of an operating room. 'During situations such as trauma, or a patient doing poorly, there's a real rush to try and get emergency drugs into the patient as fast as possible,' said Wiederspan, a nurse anesthetist at UW Medicine in Seattle. 'And that's when mistakes can occur, when you're flustered, your adrenaline's rushing, you're drawing up drugs and you're trying to push them.' Despite ongoing efforts to improve patient safety, it's estimated that at least 1 in 20 patients still experience medical mistakes in the health care system. One of the most common categories of mistakes is medication errors, where for one reason or another, a patient is given either the wrong dose of a drug or the wrong drug altogether. In the U.S., these errors injure approximately 1.3 million people a year and result in one death each day, according to the World Health Organization. In response, many hospitals have introduced guardrails, ranging from color coding schemes that make it easier to differentiate between similarly named drugs, to barcode scanners that verify that the correct medicine has been given to the correct patient. Despite these attempts, medication mistakes still occur with alarming regularity. 'I had read some studies that said basically 90% of anesthesiologists admit to having a medication error at some point in their career,' said Dr. Kelly Michaelsen, Wiederspan's colleague at UW Medicine and an assistant professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Washington. She started to wonder whether emerging technologies could help. As both a medical professional and a trained engineer, it struck her that spotting an error about to be made, and alerting the anesthesiologists in real time, should be within the capabilities of AI. 'I was like, 'This seems like something that shouldn't be too hard for AI to do,'' she said. 'Ninety-nine percent of the medications we use are these same 10-20 drugs, and so my idea was that we could train an AI to recognize them and act as a second set of eyes.' Michaelsen focused on vial swap errors, which account for around 20% of all medication mistakes. All injectable drugs come in labeled vials, which are then transferred to a labeled syringe on a medication cart in the operating room. But in some cases, someone selects the wrong vial, or the syringe is labeled incorrectly, and the patient is injected with the wrong drug. In one particularly notorious vial swap error, a 75-year-old woman being treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee was injected with a fatal dose of the paralyzing drug vecuronium instead of the sedative Versed, resulting in her death and a subsequent high-profile criminal trial. Michaelsen thought such tragedies could be prevented through 'smart eyewear' — adding an AI-powered wearable camera to the protective eyeglasses worn by all staff during operations. Working with her colleagues in the University of Washington computer science department, she designed a system that can scan the immediate environment for syringe and vial labels, read them and detect whether they match up. 'It zooms in on the label and detects, say, propofol inside the syringe, but ondansetron inside the vial, and so it produces a warning,' she said. 'Or the two labels are the same, so that's all good, move on with your day.' Building the device took Michaelsen and her team more than three years, half of which was spent getting approval to use prerecorded video streams of anesthesiologists correctly preparing medications inside the operating room. Once given the green light, she was able to train the AI on this data, along with additional footage — this time in a lab setting — of mistakes being made. 'There's lots of issues with alarm fatigue in the operating room, so we had to make sure it works very well, it can do a near perfect job of detecting errors, and so [if used for real] it wouldn't be giving false alarms,' she said. 'For obvious ethical reasons, we couldn't be making mistakes on purpose with patients involved, so we did that in a simulated operating room.' In a study published late last year, Michaelsen reported that the device detected vial swap errors with 99.6% accuracy. All that's left is to decide the best way for warning messages to be relayed and it could be ready for real-world use, pending Food and Drug Administration clearance. The study was not funded by AI tech companies. 'I'm leaning towards auditory feedback because a lot of the headsets like GoPro or Google Glasses have built-in microphones,' she said. 'Just a little warning message which makes sure people stop for a second and make sure they're doing what they think they're doing.' Wiederspan has tested the device and said he's optimistic about its potential for improving patient safety, although he described the current GoPro headset as being a little bulky. 'Once it gets a bit smaller, I think you're going to get more buy-in from anesthesia providers to use it,' Wiederspan said. 'But I think it's going to be great. Anything that's going to make our job a little bit easier, spot any potential mistakes and help bring our focus back to the patient is a good thing.' Patient safety advocates have been calling for the implementation of error-preventing AI tools for some time. Dr. Dan Cole, vice chair of the anesthesiology department at UCLA Health and president of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation, likened their potential for reducing risk to that of self-driving cars and improving road safety. But while Cole is encouraged by the UW study and other AI-based research projects to prevent prescribing and dispensing errors in pharmacies, he said there are still questions surrounding the most effective ways to integrate these technologies into clinical care. 'The UW trial idea was indeed a breakthrough,' he said. 'As with driverless taxis, I'm a bit reluctant to use the technology at this point, but based on the potential for improved safety, I am quite sure I will use it in the future.' Melissa Sheldrick, a patient safety advocate from Ontario who lost her 8-year-old son Andrew to a medication error in 2016, echoed those thoughts. Sheldrick said that while technology can make a difference, the root cause of many medical errors is often a series of contributing factors, from lack of communication to vital data being compartmentalized within separate hospital departments or systems. 'Technology is an important layer in safety, but it's just one layer and cannot be relied upon as a fail-safe,' she said. Others feel that AI can play a key role in preventing mistakes, particularly in demanding environments such as the operating room and emergency room, where creating more checklists and asking for extra vigilance has proved ineffective at stopping errors. 'These interventions either add friction or demand perfect attention from already overburdened providers in a sometimes chaotic reality with numerous distractions and competing priorities,' said Dr. Nicholas Cordella, an assistant professor of medicine at Boston University's Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. 'AI-enabled cameras allow for passive monitoring without adding cognitive burden to clinicians and staff.' AI tools are likely to be deployed to prevent errors in an even broader range of situations. At UW Medicine, Michaelsen is considering expanding her device to also detect the volume of the drug present in a syringe, as a way of preventing underdosing and overdosing errors. 'This is another area where harm can occur, especially in pediatrics, because you've got patients [in the same department] where there can be a hundredfold difference in size, from a brand-new premature baby to an overweight 18-year-old,' she said. 'Sometimes we have to dilute medications, but as you do dilutions there's chances for errors. It isn't happening to every single patient, but we do this enough times a day and to enough people that there is a possibility for people to get injured.' Wiederspan said he can also see AI-powered wearable cameras being used in the emergency room and on the hospital floor to help prevent errors when dispensing oral medications. 'I know Kelly's currently working on using the system with intravenous drugs, but if it can be tailored to oral medications, I think that's going to help too,' Wiederspan said. 'I used to work in a cardiac unit, and sometimes these patients are on a plethora of drugs, a little cup full of all these pills. So maybe the AI can catch errors there as well.' Of course, broader uses of AI throughout a hospital also come with data protection and privacy concerns, especially if the technology happens to be scanning patient faces and screens or documents containing their medical information. In UW Medicine's case, Michaelsen said this is not an issue as the tool is only trained to look for labels on syringes, and does not actively store any data. 'Privacy concerns represent a significant challenge with passive, always-on camera technology,' Cordella said. 'There needs to be clear standards with monitoring for breaches, and the technology should be introduced with full transparency to both patients and health care staff.' He also noted the possibility of more insidious issues such as clinicians starting to excessively rely on AI, reducing their own vigilance and neglecting traditional safety practices. 'There's also a potential slippery slope here,' Cordella said. 'If this technology proves successful for medication error detection, there could be pressure to expand it to monitor other aspects of clinician behavior, raising ethical questions about the boundary between a supportive safety tool and intrusive workplace monitoring.' But while the prospect of AI entering hospitals on a wider basis certainly presents the need for stringent oversight, many who work in the operating room feel it has enormous potential to do good by keeping patients safe and buying medical professionals valuable time in critical situations. 'Time is of the essence in an emergency situation where you're trying to give blood, lifesaving medications, checking vital signs, and you're trying to rush through these processes,' Wiederspan said. 'I think that's where this kind of wearable technology can really come into play, helping us shave off vital seconds and create more time where we can really focus on the patient.' This article was originally published on
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Emily Chesterton: GMC at High Court over physician associate role
A legal challenge will be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice later on Wednesday about the role of physician associates (PA) in the case has been brought against the General Medical Council (GMC) by retired teachers Brendan and Marion Chesterton, whose daughter Emily died in 2022 after a blood clot was missed in two appointments with a with Anaesthetics United, they are seeking more clarity from the GMC about the scope of the PA role in a bid to improve patient safety amid increasing concern about how PAs and anaesthetic associates (AA) are being deployed in healthcare GMC took over the regulation of physician associates and anaesthetic associates in December. What do physician associates do? Physician associates and anaesthetic associates started working in the NHS in 2003, and it is thought it currently employs more than 5,000 of and AAs qualify after completing a part-funded two-year master's degree. They usually need a bioscience-related undergraduate degree, but that is not always a role includes taking medical histories, conducting physical examinations and developing treatment plans. They are not authorised to prescribe medicines nor to order scans involving ionising radiation, such as X-rays or CT scans. They work as part of a multidisciplinary team with supervision from a named senior doctor. When the government appointed the GMC to regulate PAs and AAs last year, the regulatory body's chief executive Charlie Massey said it would help to ensure they "have the necessary education and training, meet our standards, and can be held to account if serious concerns are raised". 'No more Emilys' Ms Chesterton, from Salford, died after a blood clot was missed in two appointments with a PA whom she had believed was a GP. She was 30 years was seen by the physician associate after she called her GP practice, in Crouch End in north London, complaining of pain in her calf, which had become hard. The PA recommended Ms Chesterton should take her condition became worse. Mrs Chesterton told the BBC that her daughter had "difficulty walking" and "was breathless and lightheaded".She said: "In the second appointment, the PA diagnosed her with a calf sprain, long Covid and anxiety. The PA did not examine Emily's calves, and did not make it clear that she was not a doctor."Ms Chesterton had a blood clot in her left leg, which led to her dying of a pulmonary coroner's conclusion was that she "should have been immediately referred to a hospital emergency unit" and, if she had been seen, it was likely that she would have Chesterton told the BBC: "To lose a child is so very painful. It is not the right order of this world." She added that she hoped the High Court case would mean there will be "no more Emilys". How does GMC regulation work? Government legislation governing PA and AA regulation means GMC registration will not become a legal requirement for PAs and AAs to be able to practise until December that point it will be an offence to practise either role in the UK without registration.A GMC spokesperson said: "Regulation will help to assure patients, colleagues and employers that they are safe to practise and can be held to account if serious concerns are raised."To register with us, physician associates and anaesthesia associates need to show that they have the knowledge, skills and experience to treat patients safely, and that there are no outstanding concerns about their fitness to practise."The GMC said it strongly encouraged those who were not already registered to ensure they do so. There are currently 2,479 physician associates and 109 anaesthetics associates registered with the January, the secretary of state for health and social care started an independent review of the PA and AA roles "to agree recommendations for the future". The Leng review states it will consider "the safety of the roles and their contribution to multidisciplinary healthcare teams". United Medical Associate Professionals (UMAPs), a trade union set up in 2023 to represent PAs and AAs, said in a statement: "We would like to acknowledge the strength and resolve of the Chesterton family. Whilst we may not agree with all of the public positions that have emerged around their case, we admire their determination at a time of profound personal grief."The statement added that PAs were "highly trained healthcare professionals", many of whom had previously held senior roles as nurses, pharmacists or within the clinical continued: "The current judicial review brought by Anaesthetists United against the GMC is of concern, not only because it seeks to impose disproportionately restrictive scope-of-practice conditions on one profession alone, but because, if successful, it would set a dangerous precedent for regulating all clinicians through rigid, written scopes." Mrs Chesterton told the BBC that when she found out her daughter had been seen by a physician associate, she did not know what one was. She said: "To lose a child is absolutely devastating, but to find out your child's death was preventable is heart-breaking."Ms Chesterton's father Brendan said: "It's against protocol that Emily was seen twice by a physician associate for the same issue, and she shouldn't have been prescribing."Her GP surgery, The Vale Practice, told the BBC it was "deeply saddened" by Ms Chesterton's death, and said it now only provided appointments with GPs, nurses and pharmacists after a "thorough" added that staff had been told to ensure that "a patient understands their role at the start of each appointment". 'They should recognise their responsibility' The Chestertons told the BBC that since the GMC took over regulation, the scope of the PA role had not become clearer, despite them being told by the body that "supervision would be more defined".The GMC has said it is not appropriate for it to provide advice on how individual PAs and AAs might develop their skills over time. It said this was "a matter for employers and will vary depending on the clinical context and workforce needs". "We would expect employers to be aware of - and have regard to - relevant guidance on scope of practice produced by the royal colleges and other professional bodies when they are making decisions about deployment." A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "This is a tragic case and our thoughts are with Emily Chesterton's family and friends."The secretary of state has launched an independent review into [the] physician and anaesthesia associate professions to establish the facts and make sure we get the right people in the right places, providing the right care."Regulation of PAs and AAs by the General Medical Council began in December 2024 to ensure patient safety and professional accountability."For Mrs Chesterton, what she and her husband would like to see happen is straightforward."What we want them (the GMC) to do is to recognise their responsibility," she told BBC London. "They were assigned by Parliament to regulate, so that's what they should be doing and not passing it down to employers."They should be creating a proper scope of practice with a defined structure for supervision for patient safety, so there are no more Emilys."
