Talking about blood…not sweat and tears!
Transfusions of blood and blood products are an important part of healthcare. When adverse events related to transfusions occur, the impact on patients can be considerable with negative outcomes such as ABO blood group incompatibility, delays in care, inappropriate...
Seniors safety: Bradley Centre’s mission to prevent harm due to falls
Patient “falls” are the most frequently reported patient safety event in BC PSLS, accounting for nearly 40% of all events reported in our provincial database. Falls can lead to loss of mobility, serious injury or even death, which is why many healthcare facilities...
Home Support Workers Promote Safety and Quality on the Sunshine Coast
At a time when incident reporting systems have become increasingly paramount to improving healthcare safety, a group of home support staff on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast have risen to the top to overcome some interesting challenges with reporting patient safety...
From stacks to renos! A successful campaign for medication safety
Development of the new Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre (ARHCC) has led to an increase in the number of patients coming to the facility for chemotherapy treatment. Storage space for cancer medications was starting to become inadequate and a serious...
Goodbye, black holes! Hello, bubbles!
By Guest Blogger: Darren Frizzell How can we use BC PSLS data to drive organizational change and help healthcare providers who may be drowning in mountains of work? This is my focus and the main question I have been striving to answer during my time with BC PSLS...
Island Health introduces “Insulin Safety Initiative” for patients and staff
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada considers insulin as one of the Top 5 “high alert” medications due to its narrow therapeutic index and its frequency of use. When used in error, insulin has an increased risk of causing significant patient harm – “too...