Personal Health, patient safety

Fall Prevention: Positively Impacting the Health and Quality of Life of Older Adult Patients

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at least one in three adults age 65 and older falls each year, and three quarters of them will fall again within six months. Based on recent census estimates, this means that nearly 122,000 older San Diegans will fall this year. Not only will 91,000 of these older adults fall again, but between 24,000 and 35,000 will suffer injuries that will make it difficult to get around or to live alone. Without preventive interventions, these figures are expected to double by 2030 as the population increases and ages in the county.

“Best Buy Drugs” and Patient Safety

Introduction

The plethora of increasingly available medicines creates a dizzying array of options in the therapeutic arsenal for physicians. Further, parsing through the relevant evidence-based literature on medications in each of their forms is a daunting task at best.

Driver Safety Evaluation in Virtual Reality

A Driving Performance Laboratory has been established at Sharp Memorial Rehabilitation Services to evaluate and train patients with stroke and brain injury who wish to resume driving. A driving simulator similar to those used to train pilots is the centerpiece of a group of computer-based technologies that allows clinicians and therapists to work with patients soon after a stroke and other conditions affecting brain function.

Health Illiteracy

You and I can read. Individually, we started reading long ago. We read every day. Ours is a profession centered on learning and teaching. Indeed, we take for granted our reading abilities and tend to assume others can read too.

The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act

Introduction

Patient safety activities have often been thwarted by the vagaries of the legal system. Information and analysis of medical errors, system weaknesses, and proactive effort to promote safety can and are subject to legal discovery by attorneys to support their lawsuits. This situation chills any efforts to work in this area, particularly by non-hospital physicians who have virtually no protections for participating in this work.