DALLAS – A joint scientific statement from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology reminds health care providers that they need to be more aware that cardiac arrest from a medication-induced heart rhythm problem is a rare but potentially catastrophic event.

The statement, published online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association and Journal of the American College of Cardiology, is endorsed by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. The rhythm disturbance, called Torsade de Pointes (TdP), has a characteristic electrocardiogram, or ECG, pattern described as a “twisting” of points on the read-out. The abnormal rhythm is associated with a drop in blood pressure, which can lead to fainting.

Co-authors of the study include Barbara J. Drew, R.N., Ph.D., (Chair); Michael J. Ackerman, M.D., Ph.D.; Marjorie Funk, R.N., Ph.D.; Brian Gibler, M.D.; Paul D. Kligfield, M.D.; Venugopal Menon, M.D.; George Philippides, M.D.; Dan M. Roden, M.D.; and Wojciech Zareba, M.D., Ph.D.

Other Health Safety news :

• Kaiser Permanente’s Sacramento trial project to use tablet PCs could free physicians and nurses from paper files. The trial being conducted in Sacramento is part of a broader program dubbed “Destination Bedside,” reports the San Jose Mercury News. Kaiser expects to choose an electronic tablet by the end of the year for use at its hospitals nationwide. If the trial works, patient safety could be improved with easy access to X-rays, medical charts, prescriptions and notes.

• Florham Park, N.J.-based Nestle HealthCare Nutrition announced a new initiative to promote safer medication delivery through an enteral feeding tube in hospitals based on ideas from the group American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, or A.S.P.E.N. The checklist includes:

  • Ceasing addition of medication directly into an enteral feeding formula

  • Administering each medication separately

  • Flushing the tube before and after each medication is administered

  • Diluting solid or liquid medication as appropriate

  • Administering medication using a clean oral or enteral syringe

Feb 8, 2010 11:39 ET

Nestle HealthCare Nutrition and HealthCare Professionals Join Forces to Improve Patient Safety ‘Be A.W.A.R.E.’ Initiative Drives Awareness for Improving the Safety of Enteral Medication Delivery FLORHAM PARK, N.J., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Nestle HealthCare Nutrition today announced the launch of a new initiative to promote safer medication delivery through an enteral feeding tube in hospitals based on the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.) Enteral Nutrition Practice Recommendations. The “Be A.W.A.R.E.” campaign is designed to increase awareness and knowledge of the simple steps needed to increase patient safety among medical professionals who deliver medications to hospital patients. The “Be A.W.A.R.E.” campaign will be implemented in hospitals nationwide to help reduce the risk of medication errors and improve patient outcomes. In releasing recommendations for improving enteral feeding safety last year, A.S.P.E.N. noted that practice differs considerably from guidelines for medication delivery through the enteral route. Surveys found that practitioners failed to complete certain simple practices and that such failures may contribute to measurable adverse outcomes. Practices that have been noted to be of concern include: -- Failing to flush enteral feeding tubes before or between medications -- Administering multiple drugs together -- Improperly diluting liquid medication -- Crushing modified-release dosage forms “We are committed to raising awareness about safe tube-feeding practices,” said Carol Siegel, MS, RD, head of medical affairs for Nestle Nutrition. “Medication delivery errors can have serious consequences. This is a serious problem that needs industry-wide recognition. It will require the attention and collaboration of hospitals, healthcare professionals, quality improvement groups and manufacturers to improve patient safety.” The "Be A.W.A.R.E." campaign promotes simple steps including: -- Ceasing addition of medication directly into an enteral feeding formula -- Administering each medication separately -- Flushing the tube before and after each medication is administered -- Diluting solid or liquid medication as appropriate -- Administering medication using a clean oral or enteral syringe

ROSEMONT, Ill. - A major physician group, American Society for Surgery of the Hand Corporate Advisory Council, has released its “10 Commandments” that will define how its members deal with industry contacts and medical research.

The key to the guidelines is the idea that while industry support is needed for product innovation, companies should not influence or control the educational or research activities of ASSH members. In addition, the guidelines dictate that all consulting activities will be reimbursed at fair market rates, in explicit contracts, and gifts and companion travel will be prohibited. See www.assh.org. (more…)

SAN DIEGO - A new survey of hospital administrators finds that if healthcare becomes universal, there will be not enough doctors to meet the demand.

The survey, sponsored by the hospital staffing company AMN Healthcare and the Council on Physician and Nurse Supply, said that seventy percent of administrators said there would not be enough doctors to meet demand if access becomes universal, 51 percent said there would not be enough nurses, 48 percent said there would not be enough allied healthcare professionals and 45 percent said there would not be enough pharmacists. CEOs reported an average hospital vacancy rate of 11 percent for physicians, six percent for nurses, five percent for allied healthcare professionals and five percent for pharmacists.

Other headlines for today include:

• A new Rand Corporation study, set for release in the New England Journal of Medicine, recommends a number of promising approaches to slow health care spending include adoption of electronic health records, programs to better-manage chronic diseases, strengthening patients’ use of primary care and encouraging wider use of lower-cost providers such as nurse practitioners and settings such as retail health clinics.
• Women are six times more likely to be separated or divorced soon after a diagnosis of cancer than if a man, a new study reports. The study by the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, which includes Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, UW Medicine and Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, confirmed earlier research that put the overall rate among patients at 11.6 percent, similar to the population. However, researchers were surprised by the difference in separation and divorce rates by gender. The rate when the woman was the patient was 20.8 percent compared to 2.9 percent when the man was the patient.