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(InfinityQS: Chantilly, VA) -- With the Jan. 4 signing of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the most significant update in American food safety was passed into law since the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938. This new law authorizes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to increase…
U.S. health care organizations, from multihospital systems to rural community health centers, are gearing up for the challenge of their times: the effect of health care reform on how they care for patients and how they run their operations. Future health care organizations will need to find a way…
(ISPE: Tampa, FL) -- As part of its 2011 conference, “Applying Solutions to Emerging Industry Challenges,” the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE), a global, nonprofit association of more than 22,000 professionals, will feature eight educational sessions designed to help…
(Harvard Medical School: Boston) -- Researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMA) and Massachusetts General Hospital have found wide disparities among four common measures of hospitalwide mortality rates, with competing methods yielding both higher and lower-than-expected rates for the same…
(URAC: Washington) -- URAC, a leading health care accreditation and education organization, has released revisions to three products within its suite of Pharmacy Quality Management Accreditation programs. These revisions are part of organization’s commitment to regular comprehensive review of its…
Most Massachusetts physician groups are using results from a statewide patient survey to help improve patient experiences, but a significant number are not making use of the information or are making relatively limited efforts, according to a new RAND Corp. study.
Although physician…
(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- From newborns switched in the nursery to medication mix-ups and hospital-acquired infections, we are all familiar with the horror stories about hospital safety. The safety issue in U.S. hospitals has become so profound and embedded, that we cannot hope to fix it…
(Vinca LLC: Eden Prairie, MN) -- Quality systems professionals at Vinca LLC have outlined the steps to use in developing quality management systems with clients. The first step they recommend is to complete a thorough project plan.
An effective plan must begin with solid information about what…
(EAGLE Food Registrations: Dayton, OH) -- EAGLE Food Registrations Inc., specializing in third-party certification to international management system standards, announced it will begin certifying companies to the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Ethical Sourcing Standard on Jan. 3.
SQF Ethical Sourcing…
(Institute for Healthcare Improvement: Cambridge, MA) -- During Dec. 9–12, some 50 patient activist leaders travelled to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) National Forum on Quality Improvement in Orlando, Florida, to share experiences and consider ways to combine forces to be that…
(CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- In the book Leading the Lean Healthcare Journey: Driving Culture Change to Increase Value (CRC Press, 2010), by Joan Wellman, Patrick Hagan, and Dr. Howard Jeffries, every health care organization can learn from Seattle Children’s Hospital’s continuous improvement…
(Productivity Press: Boca Raton, FL) -- What does the production line at a car manufacturer have to do with a doctor scrubbing in for brain surgery?
A lot, as it turns out.
For almost 10 years, Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle has adopted the essential principles of the Toyota…
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n his new book, Essentials for the Improvement of Healthcare Using Lean & Six Sigma (CRC Press, 2010), author Diomidis H. Stamatis (aka Dean) presents solutions to the problems that plague the health care industry by providing case studies and explaining a multitude of quality tools and…
(UL: Northbrook, IL) -- Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a world provider of product safety testing and certification, has released an extensive resource, “UL’s Comprehensive 60601 3rd edition Q&A” that addresses more than 70 frequently asked questions (FAQ) regarding IEC 60601 third edition,…
Despite recent headlines targeting Johnson & Johnson’s uncorrected manufacturing problems and deficiencies, most makers of approved drug and biological products are meeting their regulatory obligations and targets for postmarketing studies and clinical trials in a timely manner, according to a…
(Cognex Corp.: Natick, MA) -- Tough competition means food and beverage manufacturers and packagers cannot afford production errors. This is why they must increasingly rely on machine vision systems and image-based ID readers to help achieve quality, improve productivity, and comply with product…
(Agilent Technologies: Santa Clara, CA) -- Agilent Technologies Inc. has introduced the 708-DS Dissolution Apparatus, a quality control instrument that can be configured for manual and automated applications. The new device includes an improved design that minimizes variability and improves…
(Pilgrim Software Inc.: Tampa, FL) -- Pilgrim Software Inc., a global provider of enterprise risk, compliance, and quality management (ERCQM) software solutions, has announced the availability of SmartSolve 9, the latest and most enhanced version of its integrated process automation platform…
The term “never events” refers to particularly shocking medical errors that should never occur (e.g., wrong-site, wrong-patient, wrong-procedure surgeries). There are other terms used in official capacities for such errors, but none have captured the nation’s attention or perhaps done more toward…
(Morehead: Charlotte, NC) -- Morehead, the human-capital research firm, will host a webinar titled “Secrets of a Winning Healthcare Organization.” The free hour-long webinar will be broadcast on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010 at 1 p.m. EST.
Rod Wilkes, senior vice president of Morehead’s Client…
(ISPE: Tampla, FL) -- ISPE, a global not-for-profit association of 22,000 pharmaceutical science and manufacturing professionals, has announced the release of GAMP Good Practice Guide: Calibration Management, Second Edition, which coincided with the start of the 2010 ISPE Annual Meeting in…
(NSF: Ann Arbor, MI) -- NSF International, a provider of global food safety certifications, has launched an online tool to help food companies assess their readiness for certification to standards benchmarked to the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). NSF International offers a free, 21-question…
(NSF: Ann Arbor, MI) -- NSF International, a provider of global food safety certifications, has launched an online tool to help food companies assess their readiness for certification to standards benchmarked to the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). NSF International offers a free, 21-question…
(FDA: Silver Spring, MD) -- A public-private organization will provide produce growers and packagers with fundamental, on-farm food safety knowledge, in advance of a proposed produce safety regulation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural…
(Connexall: Boulder, CO) -- Connexall, a leader in enterprise middleware for health care alarm management, lean-enabling workflow automation, and comprehensive reporting, is helping to improve patient satisfaction at one of the nation’s foremost cancer treatment facilities. The technology enables…