Community Paramedicine: 911 Alternative Destinations Are a Patient Safety Issue

Community Paramedicine: 911 Alternative Destinations Are a Patient Safety Issue

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) served as a conduit for many previously uninsured U.S. citizens to obtain health insurance; however, insurance does not necessarily equate to timely access to care. A 2015 study found that efforts by policymakers and health insurance plans to drive Medicaid patients out of emergency departments (ED) and into primary care clinics are not ...

GMOs: Are They a Regulatory or Food Safety Issue?

Community paramedicine model of care: an observational, ethnographic case study

BACKGROUND Community paramedicine programs have emerged throughout North America and beyond in response to demographic changes and health system reform. Our aim was to identify and analyse how community paramedics create and maintain new role boundaries and identities in terms of flexibility and permeability and through this develop and frame a coherent community paramedicine model of care that...

Patient safety in community-based teaching hospitals

I t has been over 10 years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) re-ignited the patient safety movement in the United States with their publication ‘To Err is Human’. Five years after that publication there were modest improvements in certain indicators like death in low mortality Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), iatrogenic pneumothorax, and certain postoperative complications. At that time the...

Desiccant-Induced Esophageal Obstruction: An Emerging Patient Safety Issue

A desiccant is a hygroscopic substance that absorbs water to preserve and protect products from the effects of moisture over time, often used with supplements and medications. They may have similar appearance, size, and shape to the desired medication or supplement. We present a case of an esophageal foreign body obstruction caused by unintentional ingestion of a desiccant. A 75-year-old man wi...