Contents Outline

PART I. Overview
1. An Introduction to the Compendium
1.1 General Overview
1.2 How to Use this Compendium
1.3 Acknowledgments
2. Drawing on Safety Practices from Outside Healthcare
3. Evidence-Based Review Methodology
PART II. Reporting and Responding to Patient Safety Problems
4. Incident Reporting
5. Root Cause Analysis
PART III. Patient Safety Practices & Targets
Section A. Adverse Drug Events (ADEs)
6. Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) with Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs)
7. The Clinical Pharmacist’s Role in Preventing Adverse Drug Events
8. Computer Adverse Drug Event (ADE) Detection and Alerts
9. Protocols for High-Risk Drugs: Reducing Adverse Drug Events Related to Anticoagulants
10. Unit-Dose Drug Distribution Systems
11. Automated Medication Dispensing Devices
Section B. Infection Control
12. Practices to Improve Handwashing Compliance
13. Impact of Barrier Precautions in Reducing the Transmission of Serious Nosocomial Infections
14. Impact of Changes in Antibiotic Use Practices on Nosocomial Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance—Clostridium Difficile and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE)
15. Prevention of Nosocomial Urinary Tract Infections
15.1 Use of Silver Alloy Urinary Catheters
15.2 Use of Suprapubic Catheters
16. Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Associated Infections
16.1 Use of Maximum Barrier Precautions during Central Venous Catheter Insertion
16.2 Use of Central Venous Catheters Coated with Antibacterial or Antiseptic Agents
16.3 Use of Chlorhexidine Gluconate at the Central Venous Catheter Insertion Site
  16.4 Other Practices
17. Prevention of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP)
  17.1 Patient Positioning: Semi-recumbent Positioning and Continuous Oscillation
  17.2 Continuous Aspiration of Subglottic Secretions
  17.3 Selective Digestive Tract Decontamination
  17.4 Sucralfate and Prevention of VAP
Section C. Surgery, Anesthesia, and Perioperative Medicine
18. Localizing Care to High-Volume Centers
19. Learning Curves for New Procedures—the Case of Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy
20. Prevention of Surgical Site Infections
  20.1 Prophylactic Antibiotics
  20.2 Perioperative Normothermia
  20.3 Supplemental Perioperative Oxygen
  20.4 Perioperative Glucose Control
21. Ultrasound Guidance of Central Vein Catheterization
22. The Retained Surgical Sponge
23. Pre-Anesthesia Checklists To Improve Patient Safety
24. The Impact Of Intraoperative Monitoring On Patient Safety
25. Beta-blockers and Reduction of Perioperative Cardiac Events
Section D. Safety Practices for Hospitalized or Institutionalized Elders
26. Prevention of Falls in Hospitalized and Institutionalized Older People
  26.1 Identification Bracelets for High-Risk Patients
  26.2 Interventions that Decrease the Use of Physical Restraints
  26.3 Bed Alarms
  26.4 Special Hospital Flooring Materials to Reduce Injuries from Patient Falls
  26.5 Hip Protectors to Prevent Hip Fracture
27. Prevention of Pressure Ulcers in Older Patients
28. Prevention of Delirium in Older Hospitalized Patients
29. Multidisciplinary Geriatric Consultation Services
30. Geriatric Evaluation and Management Units for Hospitalized Patients
Section E. General Clinical Topics
31. Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism
32. Prevention of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy
33. Nutritional Support
34. Prevention of Clinically Significant Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Intensive Care Unit Patients
35. Reducing Errors in the Interpretation of Plain Radiographs and Computed Tomography Scans
36. Pneumococcal Vaccination Prior to Hospital Discharge
37. Pain Management
  37.1 Use of Analgesics in the Acute Abdomen
  37.2 Acute Pain Services
  37.3 Prophylactic Antiemetics During Patient-controlled Analgesia Therapy
  37.4 Non-pharmacologic Interventions for Postoperative Plan
Section F. Organization, Structure, and Culture
38. “Closed” Intensive Care Units and Other Models of Care for Critically Ill Patients
39. Nurse Staffing, Models of Care Delivery, and Interventions
40. Promoting a Culture of Safety
Section G. Systems Issues and Human Factors
41. Human Factors and Medical Devices
  41.1 The Use of Human Factors in Reducing Device-related Medical Errors
  41.2 Refining the Performance of Medical Device Alarms
  41.3 Equipment Checklists in Anesthesia
42. Information Transfer
  42.1 Information Transfer Between Inpatient and Outpatient Pharmacies
  42.2 Sign-Out Systems for Cross-Coverage
  42.3 Discharge Summaries and Follow-up
  42.4 Notifying Patients of Abnormal Results
43. Prevention of Misidentifications
  43.1 Bar Coding
  43.2 Strategies to Avoid Wrong-Site Surgery
44. Crew Resource Management and its Applications in Medicine
45. Simulator-Based Training and Patient Safety
46. Fatigue, Sleepiness, and Medical Errors
47. Safety During Transportation of Critically Ill Patients
  47.1 Interhospital Transport
  47.2 Intrahospital Transport
Section H. Role of the Patient
48. Procedures For Obtaining Informed Consent
49. Advance Planning For End-of-Life Care
50. Other Practices Related to Patient Participation
PART IV. Promoting And Implementing Safety Practices
51. Practice Guidelines
52. Critical Pathways
53. Clinical Decision Support Systems
54. Educational Techniques Used in Changing Provider Behavior
55. Legislation, Accreditation, and Market-Driven and Other Approaches to Improving Patient Safety
PART V. Analyzing The Practices
56. Methodology for Summarizing the Evidence for the Practices
57. Practices Rated by Strength of Evidence
58. Practices Rated by Research Priority
59. Listing of All Practices, Categorical Ratings, and Comments