|
|
Latest News
November 2011
ECRI INSTITUTE ISSUES "TOP TEN HEALTH TECHNOLOGY HAZARDS FOR 2012"
Each year, ECRI Institute's Health Devices Group publishes a list of the 10 medical technology hazards that hospitals should be paying the greatest attention to, along with recommendations for alleviating risks. This popular resource has become a roadmap for hospitals and health systems worldwide as they prioritise their patient safety efforts.
The 2012 Top 10 Heath Technology Hazards list includes:
- Alarm hazards
- Exposure hazards from radiation therapy and CT scans
- Medication administration errors using infusion pumps
- Cross-contamination from flexible Endoscopes
- Inattention to change management for medical device connectivity
- Enteral feeding misconnections
- Surgical fires
- Needlesticks and other sharps injuries
- Anaesthesia hazards due to incomplete pre-use inspection
- Poor usability of home-use medical devices
For more information about ECRI Institute's Top Ten Health Technology Hazards for 2012 or to obtain a copy of the full report:
- please call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk , or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
November 2011
ECRI Institute launches CT Radiation Dose Safety Resources
Research, guidance and news from ECRI Institute about a critical patient safety issue
Failure to implement measures for delivering appropriate radiation dose can result in unnecessarily high exposures, placing patients at increased risk of cancer and other conditions. ECRI Institute has helped many hospitals and healthcare systems address this critical patient safety issue with expert guidance. See below for other resources.
Guidance Articles and Evaluations
These in-depth studies are conducted by ECRI Institute's multidisciplinary team of scientists, biomedical engineers and physicists, and include ratings of CT systems in which radiation is a major component.
- 2011 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards report (Health Devices, November 2010)
Free Download
- Controlling CT Radiation Dose-Strategies and Technologies for Safeguarding Patients (Health Devices, April 2010)
- Dose Reduction Strategies (Health Devices, February 2007)
- Premium CT Systems Evaluation (Health Devices, August 2010)
Health Devices High Priority Product Safety Alerts
Our Web-based service sends weekly alerts and helps healthcare organizations respond to recalls, hazards, and reported problems with medical technology. The following alerts relate specifically to radiation dose safety:
- HD Alert H0090: US FDA warns of potential for overexposure from CT scanners.
- HDAlert A13286: GE aware of radiation overexposure from CT scanners-making recommendations
For more information about this report
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk , or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
November 2011
ECRI Institute reports on Enhanced Environmental Disinfection Systems: Can They Help You Reduce Infection Rates?
Summary
Guidance Article - Enhanced environmental disinfection systems are designed to disinfect surfaces of patient rooms using vaporised agents, UV light, or other techniques. But just how effective are they at reducing healthcare-associated infection rates?
Main Article
Infections acquired during a patient's hospital stay are a serious, and on-going, problem in healthcare. Not only do healthcare-associated infections (HAIs; also known as nosocomial infections) affect the health status of patients, they also affect a facility's reputation and its bottom line. In addition, HAIs relate to "never events"-preventable, serious adverse events that should not occur in a healthcare facility. These factors give hospitals a great deal of incentive to reduce infection rates.
Hospitals tackle HAIs in a number of ways. For instance, they encourage compliance with handwashing guidelines and implement best practice infection control guidelines, both of which have been proven to reduce infection rates. They also reduce environmental contamination-the environment in this case being everything in a patient room, such as equipment, furniture, and walls, all of which could harbour pathogens-by routinely cleaning and disinfecting patient rooms after patient discharge or transfer.
It's not always clear, however, how HAIs are spread and how best to address them. Factors such as the way a patient is exposed to the infectious agent (skin contact, ingestion, or inhalation), the infectious agent load, the virulence of the infectious agent, and the frequency of the exposure will all influence how many patients will develop infections. Added to these variables are patient-related factors such as age, general health, and reason for hospitalization, which all influence infection risks. It is also currently unclear how high microbial environmental contamination levels must be before the risk of patient infection becomes unacceptably high. With so many variables, healthcare facilities face a daunting task when trying to determine the most effective ways to reduce patient risk of HAI while conserving resources (such as staff time) and remaining fiscally responsible.
This report considers all the aspects of technologies used in this subject area and evaluates three products in this technology area.
For more information about this report:
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk , or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
November 2011
ECRI Institute launches: A Guide to Selecting Ultrasound Equipment
Summary
With so many options on the market, choosing the right ultrasound equipment for your facility can be daunting. This guide will help you navigate the marketplace and choose the best model to suit your needs.
Main Article
The diagnostic ultrasound market has seen dramatic growth in recent years. With so many models available, it can be a challenge to figure out which ones have the features needed for a particular hospital department or application. In some cases, making the right ultrasound purchase can save money if the scanner can be used for most or all of the scans in the facility. On the pages that follow, we provide guidance to help you determine which features and applications you'll need to consider when choosing an ultrasound system.
To use this guide, first look up the department or facility for which you are purchasing the device; this information can be found in Section 1. Next, decide which applications within that listing are important to you, and then prioritize each application; information on these applications can be found in Section 2, and a glossary defining many of these applications and terms can be found. Finally, compile a consolidated list of desired features to incorporate into a request for proposal so that different suppliers' products can be compared effectively.
This article discusses many of the general-use applications of ultrasound scanners. It does not include a number of dedicated ultrasound scanners with transducers and other features intended for certain special-purpose applications-for example, bladder, dedicated breast, endoscopic, intracardiac, intravascular, laparoscopic, ophthalmic, and transcranial.
For more information about this report:
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk , or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
August 2011
Evaluation of External Manual Defibrillators
In a recent Health Devices Evaluation (April 2011), ECRI Institute reviewed, tested, and rated eight external manual defibrillators based on safety and the availability of certain features and functions critical to your purchasing decision. For example: Is the unit equipped with real-time CPR feedback? Does it have advanced monitoring capabilities that you would find useful? "Defibrillator failures in emergency resuscitation attempts" is listed as #10 on ECRI Institute's Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2011.Our Evaluation identifies ways to help ensure that your facility's devices are functioning correctly, and safely
High Priority Health Devices Alerts
Respond quickly to recalls, product safety alerts and reported medical device problems with ECRI Institute Alerts, delivered regularly to our members, and an integral part of our automated Alerts Tracker hazard and recall management system. Below are alerts related to defibrillators and related components.
Confusing "No Shock Delivered" messages on Philips HeadStart defibrillators may delay therapy
Certain Physio-Control defibrillator cables may be unable to perform ECG monitoring
Free Download: Defibrillator User Checklist
Effective user checks can go a long way toward guaranteeing that your defibrillators will be ready for use whenever they are needed. Download a free user checklist designed for automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
For more information about ECRI Institute's device evaluation:
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk, or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
August 2011
Guidance on Cassette Sized digital radiography detectors
Cassette-size digital radiography (DR) detectors are the latest addition to the DR field. These detectors have the same dimensions as conventional film and computed radiography (CR) cassettes, allowing them to be used to replace those cassettes without the additional costs of replacing or modifying existing x-ray equipment.
Until the introduction of these detectors, a facility that wanted to procure DR technology had to EITHER buy sophisticated (and expensive) x-ray systems designed specifically for DR OR perform costly modifications to its existing non-DR x-ray systems.
Also, even with the systems designed around DR, patient positioning was difficult for certain projections because these systems' DR detectors are usually fixed into a table or upright stand. (Hence, we refer to these systems as built-in DR systems or fixed DR systems.) To address this problem, these systems were often supplemented with CR, which allows more flexible positioning-but has inferior image quality and less efficient workflow.
Cassette-size DR detectors provide all the advantages of DR technology, including instant image availability and better image quality than film or CR technology. They also replace CR detectors as a supplement to built-in DR systems. By adding cassette-size DR detectors, some facilities can go 100% DR and phase out CR. The result is a significant improvement in both patient throughput and image quality.
This Health Devices article reviews and compares three such systems.
For more information about ECRI Institute's guide to cassette sized DR detectors:
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk, or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
August 2011
Choosing the best equipment servicing option
How do you decide who should service your medical equipment? Should it be the original equipment manufacturer (OEM)? A third-party/independent service organization (ISO)? Or should your clinical engineering department take on some or all of the responsibility? The decision can be difficult, and all the relevant factors-such as cost and the level of support required-must be examined to compare their relative importance.
One effective way of making the decision is to create a matrix to organize and assess all relevant factors. Once all the necessary information has been gathered and the costs of each option have been projected, the hospital can use the matrix to evaluate the servicing options side by side. This will enable the hospital to identify differences among the options and to assess the significance of those differences, which can help make the decision easier. In this article-the third and final in our series focusing on equipment servicing-we examine the decision process for selecting the type of service that's right for your facility.
For more information about ECRI Institute's guide to technology servicing:
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk, or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
August 2011
Operating Theatre Technology Integration White Paper
An integrated Operating Theatre gives surgical staff control of audio and video signal routing--including camera, video display monitor, and C-arm signals--from a centralised location within the operating room, perhaps also feeding information to nurse scheduling stations and to remote locations for educational purposes.
"Because of limited capital investment resources, the numerous requests for integrated operating rooms have created a real challenge," states Jennifer Myers, ECRI Institute's Vice President of SELECT Health Technology Services. "Not only are the configuration options seemingly endless, but it is difficult to identify a quantifiable ROI."
To help sort out the options, the paper defines 3 scenarios:
- Modernising a general OR
- Integrating a specialty OR (such as cardiovascular or hybrid)
- Building a state-of-the-art integrated OR for educational purposes
The paper also identifies three types of suppliers: surgical video, A/V, and medical/surgical suppliers. Market interest data from the ECRI Institute health technology services program's 2,500 members is revealed, including average, high, and low costs for each type of vendor and configuration scenario.
Return On Investment? Nobody has made a convincing hard, quantifiable ROI case, but there are benefits outlined in the paper. There are ways to cut costs and 6 tips are listed. The 1st is purchasing your wall-mounted displays from a local video equipment retailer.
The new "infographic" style graphically displays to senior hospital staff a quick and helpful view of the issues surrounding Operating Theatre Integration. Simple illustrations and data-driven charts allow viewers to grasp the key concepts in minutes.
For more information about ECRI Institute's Operating Theatre Integration paper:
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk, or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
April 2011
ECRI Institute Evaluates Surgical Lighting Systems
The surgical lighting market is quickly moving in the direction of LED-based models. Compared to traditional halogen models, LED lights produce less heat, use less energy, and are better able to reduce shadows over the surgical field. In addition, LEDs last much longer than halogen bulbs.
In this month's Evaluation, we take a look at four LED light models, testing each one's medium-size lighthead.
For more information about ECRI Institute's PCA Infusion device evaluation:
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk, or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
April 2011
ECRI Institute Evaluates PCA Infusion Devices
Patient-controlled analgesic (PCA) infusion pumps allow patients to initiate doses of pain-relieving medication as needed, within the limits set by a clinician. However, even a small programming error can have disastrous consequences-specifically oversedation, which can lead to life-threatening narcotic-induced respiratory depression. Safety features like dose error reduction systems (DERS) are critical to preventing such errors.
In the Evaluation, we look at nine PCA pumps from four suppliers. We base our ratings primarily on safety and ease of use. We also present our updated Evaluation criteria for all infusion pumps-large-volume, PCA, syringe and ambulatory.
For more information about ECRI Institute's PCA Infusion device evaluation
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk, or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
April 2011
ECRI INSTITUTE ISSUES "TOP TEN HEALTH TECHNOLOGY HAZARDS FOR 2011"
Each year, ECRI Institute's Health Devices Group publishes a list of the 10 medical technology hazards that hospitals should be paying the greatest attention to, along with recommendations for alleviating risks. This popular resource has become a roadmap for hospitals and health systems worldwide as they prioritise their patient safety efforts.
The 2011 Top 10 Heath Technology Hazards list, first published in the November 2010 issue of Health Devices, includes:
- Radiation overdose and other dose errors during radiation therapy
- Alarm hazards
- Cross-contamination from flexible endoscopes
- The high radiation dose of CT scans
- Data loss, system incompatibilities, and other health IT complications
- Luer misconnections
- Oversedation during use of PCA pumps
- Needlesticks and other sharps injuries
- Surgical fires
- Defibrillator failures in emergency rescue attempts
For more information about ECRI Institute's Top Ten Health Technology Hazards for 2011:
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk, or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
April 2011
ECRI Institute Alarm Safety Reviews
Alarm hazards rank #2 in ECRI Institute's Top Ten List of Health Technology Hazards for 2011. ECRI Institute has decades of experience in analysing hazards from medical devices. Most of the reports involving alarm problems are with patient monitors (including telemetry) and ventilators.
ECRI Institute is pleased to be able to offer healthcare institutions a service that addresses this issue and considers aspects such as:
- Technology
- Cultural aspects
- Infrastructure
- Clinical Practices with Alarms
For more information about ECRI Institute's Alarms Safety Review:
- call: +44 (0)1707 831001 fax: +44 (0)1707 393138 , e-mail: info@ecri.org.uk, or write to ECRI Institute, Weltech Centre, Ridgeway, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL8 2AA
April 2011
ECRI-AIMS Annual User Meeting
This year's ECRI-AIMS Annual User meeting will be held on the 15th & 16th June 2011. It will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Birmingham NEC the same as it has for the last three years or so. Spaces are limited so we would suggest registering as soon as possible by completing the on-line Registration Form.
If you require more information or have any queries then:
- contact the ECRI-AIMS Sales & Support Team either by email at aims@ecri.org.uk or by calling the dedicated number +44 (0)1707 831 003
Latest News 2012
Latest News 2010
Latest News Pre 2010 |
