Insights & News in Healthcare Safety

ECRI Statement on Equitable Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccine

The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) just released a draft framework on equitable allocation of COVID-19 vaccine. The NASEM has published this publicly for review and...

How to Use Technology to Facilitate the Integration of Behavioral Health with Primary Care

An Inside Look into the Current Partnership Workgroup COVID-19 anxiety is increasingly part of our everyday lives. The resulting disruptions in daily routines can create or worsen anxiety and rais...

Using Technology to Facilitate the Integration of Behavioral Health with Primary Care: The Importance of Data Sharing

A Continuing Inside Look into the Partnership Workgroup on Optimizing Health IT for Safe Integration of Behavioral Health and Primary Care "Integration" of behavioral health and primary care is a p...

Taking a Stand against Racial Injustice

Tightly woven into ECRI’s DNA is the imperative to speak truth to power, based on facts and evidence. The facts are that for centuries in the United States, racism has caused historic and acute tr...

Reducing the Noise from Alerts, Alarms, and Notifications

When technology entered healthcare, so too did alerts. Alerts acted as attention grabbers, reminders, notices of changes in a patient's condition, and warnings about malfunctions or improper funct...

Healthcare Acquired Infection Risks from Worker Fingernails and Polish

Infection prevention is of vital concern right now, and reducing disease transmission between healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients is critical for patient safety.  One source of danger to patient...

Four Ways to Say No to Adverse Drug Reactions

The seeds of an adverse drug interaction can be planted at any point in the care process, by any of the individuals involved. For instance, take a look at these common scenarios: A clinician, over...

Rethinking Incident Investigations in Senior Care

Decisions made and actions taken in the first minutes and hours after an incident occurs in an aging services organization set the stage for everything else that follows. For instance, consider thi...

The EtO Sterilization Dilemma

Ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization has been in the news a lot lately, and healthcare has much at stake. According to officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approximately 56% of a...