Violence prevention training for ED staff.

The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System is a confidential, statewide Internet reporting system to which all Pennsylvania hospitals, outpatient-surgery facilities, and birthing centers, as well as some abortion facilities, must file information on medical errors. Safety Monitor is a column from Pennsylvania's Patient Safety Authority, the authority that informs nurses on issues that can affect patient safety and presents strategies they can easily integrate into practice. For more information on the authority, visit www.

The safe use of negative-pressure wound therapy.

The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System is a confidential, statewide Internet reporting system to which all Pennsylvania hospitals, outpatient-surgery facilities, and birthing centers, as well as some abortion facilities, must file information on medical errors. Safety Monitor is a column from Pennsylvania's Patient Safety Authority, the authority that informs nurses on issues that can affect patient safety and presents strategies they can easily integrate into practice. For more information on the authority, visit www.

Wrong site surgery near misses and actual occurrences.

Under coordination by the Patient Safety Authority, staff members in facilities across Pennsylvania analyzed 97 wrong site surgery near misses and 44 actual occurrences using a common analysis form from August 2007 to August 2008. These assessments were aggregated and compared by the Patient Safety Authority. Assessments in which near misses were identified that did not advance to actual wrong site occurrences were significantly more likely to report compliance with patient identification and preoperative reconciliation protocols, accurate scheduling, notation of the surgical site on the consent form, participation of the surgeon in preoperative verification, participation of all surgical team members in the time out, time outs performed with the site marking visible after draping, and the surgeon explicitly empowering team members to speak up if concerned and acknowledging concerns when expressed.

Wrong-site surgery: can we prevent it?

Wrong-site surgery happens frequently enough that it is a significant risk for many surgeons during their professional careers. But it is an event that should never happen. Most wrong-site surgery is wrong-side surgery, followed by wrong-digit and wrong-vertebral-level surgery.