March 2010

Patient Safety Organizations: What Every Provider Needs to Know
By Jenny Bell, RN
     Executive Director, Quantros Patient Safety Center
     Jay Lechtman, MA
     Vice President, Consulting & Program
     Development, Quantros
     Carolyn Pexton, Editor

Developed specifically for healthcare providers contemplating participation in a PSO, Patient Safety Organizations: What Every Provider Needs to Know offers an overview of The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (PSQIA), which legislated PSOs, outlines the benefits and risks of participation and differentiates between protected and unprotected patient safety data. It also offers practical advice for designing a Patient Safety Evaluation System (PSES) that maximizes protection and affords the flexibility to comply with external reporting initiatives.
Click here for the whitepaper

Risk & Insurance Online: Six RMIS Rules to Help Lower Claims Costs
By Dr. Sanjaya Kumar, President and Chief Medical Officer of Quantros, Inc.

For healthcare organizations, choosing and implementing a successful risk management information system leads to safer care and lower costs.
Click here for the article

September 2009

Taylor McCormack’s Story
In late September 2000, Catherine McCormack brought her daughter Taylor to the emergency room after recognizing signs that the shunt that had been inserted in her brain shortly after birth might be failing. Taylor continued to deteriorate until she eventually went into cardiac arrest. Subsequent CAT scans revealed that the baby was 98% brain dead.
Click here for the article

Clinical Business Intelligence to Drive Decision Support and ROI
Healthcare organizations are under increasing scrutiny to assure the public that delivered care yields a safe, quality outcome. The challenge we face is to satisfy the demand for cost effective delivery of services. Healthcare executives must review all operations and create internal accountability required for ongoing success.
Click here for the article

July 2009

High-Alert Medications:
Error Prevalence and Severity
The Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare published this article in its July/August 2009 issue that describes the medication error prevalence and severity. Dr. Sanjaya Kumar, Juliana Hart, Ali Rashidee and Jack Chen of Quantros are co-authors of this study.
Click here for the article

March 2009

Epidemiology and Impact of Patient
Falls in Healthcare Facilities
The Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare published this article in its March/April 2009 issue that describes the study and impact of patient falls in healthcare facilities. Dr. Sanjaya Kumar, Juliana Hart, Ali Rashidee and Jack Chen of Quantros are co-authors of this study.
Click here for the article

May 2006

AHRQ recognizes West Virginia Medical Institute's
Progress Improving Patient Safety in Small Hospitals
AHRQ has published a case study on their website of WVMI's progress in implementing Quantros' ORM adverse event reporting tool as a patient safety network. The program is supported by an AHRQ grant. The objective is to prevent medical errors in small, rural hospitals through one database. To date, the 28 participating hospitals have reported 24,000 events.
Click here for the Case Study

Healthcare Financial Management Association includes information from Quantros on medical error reporting in the March 2006 issue of Healthcare Financial Management DATA TRENDS.
Click here to view the article

"Voluntary Electronic Reporting of Medical Errors and
Adverse - An Analysis of 92,547 Reports from 26 Acute Care Hospitals"
The Journal of General Internal Medicine published this article in its February 2006 issue that describes the rate and types of events reported in acute care hospitals using an electronic error reporting system. Dr. Sanjaya Kumar, and Jack Chen of Quantros are co-authors of this study.
Click here for the article

January 2006

"Intensive training, IT tools are hallmarks of safety improvement program"
The January 2006 Performance Improvement Advisor featured this article about the use of Quantros' Safety and Risk Management application. Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is dramatically improving performance of all systems and decreasing medical errors with an intense focus on staff training and the use of an event reporting management system that has decreased the number of errors due to faulty patient identification and sound-alike and look-alike medications.
Click here for the article

September 2005

2005 Patient Safety Conference and Users
Group, Safety and Risk: From Data to Action.
This second annual Patient Safety Conference provided a comprehensive view of the current patient safety landscape. Expert speakers covered the new state initiatives, safety culture, and techniques that improve patient safety. Access the speaker's presentations
Access the speaker's presentations

February 2005

Getting to the Root of Medical Errors
by Sanjaya Kumar, MD, MSc, MPH, and Catherine Carson-Martin, BSN, MPA is published in the latest issue of Hospital Decisons 2005. To access the publisher's web site, click on the following link: Sovereign Publications Limited
Read the article

February 22-23, 2005 - Improving Core Measure Clinical Outcomes
Quantros partnered with VHA, Inc. and MHA Management Services Corporation to provide a forum for education and networking around the objective of improving the clinical outcomes in the National Quality Measures.
Access the conference material

April 2004

Hospitals & Health Networks
The Cause and Effect of Medication Errors
To fully attack the problem requires better understanding of where mistakes occur
read the H&HN reprint

May 2003

Trustee Magazine
Taking the Measure of a Hospital...in Real Time
Real-time Data Let Hospital Leaders Base Decisions on What's Happening Now, Not Last Year
read the Trustee reprint

Health Data Management - Clearing the Hurdles to Decision Support
Provider organizations must overcome numerous obstacles to expand the use of decision support systems.
read the reprint

Data Trends
Are You Tracking Medication-Related Incidents?
Hospital managers rely on timely and complete incident reports to identify areas for performance improvement. But how reliable are those reports, typically?
read the reprint

December 2002

Data Trends
Leveraging Staffing Effectiveness Data to Balance Satisfaction and Quality
Balancing efficiency and quality of care is challenging for healthcare organizations. But how do organizations know when labor shortages or cost cuts affect quality?
read the reprint

Professional Practice
Program to Cut Drug Errors is Setting Example for VHA
VHA New England is conducting a Medication Error Prevention Initiative (MEPI) in partnership with Quantros, a provider of real-time data collection and assessment.
read the reprint