According to the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare, wrong site surgery occurs as often as 40 times per week in the U.S. All accredited organizations are required to use a preoperative verification process and surgical site marking process to help eliminate wrong site procedures.

Patients are often referred to the care of other specialists or health care providers, or transitioned from one care facility to another as their conditions and care needs change.

A growing body of research demonstrates that patients recall and comprehend less than half of what clinicians explain to them. A good way to help confirm your patients’ actual level of understanding is to incorporate the ‘teach back’ (also referred to as the ‘show me’ or ‘closing the loop’ method).

The California Court of Appeal has upheld a hospital board’s decision to deny staff privileges to a physician with a history of sexual harassment even though the facility’s judicial review committee had found in favor of the physician joining the staff.

Good communication between hospitalists and primary care physicians at the time of discharge is critical to patient safety and to the reduction of risk.