ECRI: Patient Identification Errors Common, Potentially Fatal

By Paige Minemyer, Posted on FierceHealthcare, Sep 26, 2016

"Wrong-patient" errors are not uncommon and such mistakes may have deadly consequence, according to a new report. 

Researchers from ECRI Institute, a nonprofit group focused on patient safety, examined more than 7,600 cases of wrong patient errors recorded between January 2013 and June 2015 at more than 181 facilities. They concluded that these instances, which were reported voluntarily without fear of malpractice repercussions, represent just a small portion of such errors. More than 90 percent of the mistakes were detected before patient harm occurred, according to the report, but two were fatal and others may have had similar consequences had they not been caught. 

Examples included a patient who was given another's hypertension medication at 10 times the normal dose; a patient who was not supposed to eat but was brought the wrong meal tray and nearly choked; and an infant that was infected by hepatitis after being given breast milk from the wrong mother, according to the report. One patient was not resuscitated in the operating room because doctors pulled up the wrong health record, which included a do-not-resuscitate order, according to the report.

Read the full article.

National Health IT Week #NHITWeek

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

Welcome to National Health IT Week 2016! This annual celebration is a time for all of us to reflect on the progress we have made and recommit ourselves to advancing the promise of health information technology. We are looking forward to a busy week where we'll be highlighting that progress, as well as unveiling some new health IT tools and resources. 

Join or follow the conversation via Twitter: #NHITWeek 

For more information on events happening throughout National Health IT Week (NHIT Week) or for ideas to highlight NHIT in your organization, visit http://healthitweek.org

New FAQ on Availability of PHI Maintained by a Business Associate

Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the US Department of Health and Human Services, Sep 28, 2016

OCR has released a new FAQ addressing whether a business associate of a HIPAA covered entity may block or terminate access by the covered entity to the protected health information maintained by the business associate for or on behalf of the covered entity, clarifying that business associates may not use such information in a manner or to accomplish a purpose or a result that would violate the HIPAA Rules. You may find the new FAQ here.

Updates ICD-10 Flexibility FAQs and 2017 Codes

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Sep 21, 2016

The CMS website offers official resources to help providers with ICD-10, including the Updates to the Clarifying Questions and Answers Related to the July 6, 2015, CMS/AMA Joint Announcement and Guidance Regarding ICD-10 Flexibilities. Other helpful resources include: 

• Step-by-step resource list to help you quickly locate contacts
• 2017 ICD-10-CM diagnosis code set and guidelines 
• 2017 ICD-10-PCS inpatient procedure code set and guidelines 

 Remember the 2017 ICD-10 codes become effective October 1, 2016.