The Missouri interpretation & translation survey: a pilot study of limited English proficiency.

A pilot study was developed and sent to health care stakeholders in Missouri; sixty-two surveys from a variety of providers and health care settings were analyzed. This preliminary survey suggests that more than a third of health care providers in Missouri routinely offer interpretation services, mostly by using paid phone service. At least 20%, however, do not offer interpreter services or the service is inadequate to properly convey pertinent health information.

Medication safety teams' guided implementation of electronic medication administration records in five nursing homes.

Background: The 1.6 million nursing home residents in the United States are at high risk for adverse effects from medication errors. In an attempt to decrease medication errors and improve safety practices, from 2003 through 2007 the study investigators partnered with five Midwestern nursing homes in implementing electronic point-of-care medication administration records (eMARs) and focused quality improvement (QI) efforts.

Nursing home error and level of staff credentials.

Providing safe nursing home care is both a clinical and fiscal challenge in many countries. The fiscal realities result in the addition of other workers, such as medication technicians or aides (CMT/A), to the health care team. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of various levels of credentialing among nursing home staff who deliver medications (RN, LPN, or CMT/A) on medication error.

Moving from a culture of blame to a culture of safety in the nursing home setting.

Topic: A culture of safety.

Purpose: To explore the current culture of blame and what organizational elements must be impacted to move toward a culture of safety in the nursing home setting.

Methods: A mixed-method approach incorporating a case study and staff member survey results were used to explicate the organizational elements impacting the current nursing home culture.