News: ECRI publishes top technological hazards, includes alert fatigue

While surgical staplers are the top medical technology hazard for 2020, another hazard that hits closer to home for CDI professionals also landed a slot in the top 10, according to the Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI). Coming in at number six, alarm, alert, and notification fatigue presents a serious concern for both patient safety and physician engagement in CDI.

CDI professionals know the difficulties that come from over-notified physicians receiving queries, true, but those added notifications are also leading to serious breaches in patient safety and care, according to the ECRI.

Of course, notification fatigue is only one of the top 10 hazards, according to ECRI. Here is the entire list and ECRI’s suggestions for remedying the issues:

1. Surgical staplers: ECRI’s recommendations for safe use of surgical staplers include hands-on practice with specific staplers that are used in healthcare settings.
2. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS): Recommendations for POCUS safety include user training and credentialing, exam documentation, and data archiving.
3. Infection risks from sterile processing: Recommendations to improve sterile processing in these settings include designating a qualified staff member to support infection prevention and control practices.
4. Hemodialysis risks with central venous catheters (CVC) in the home health setting: ECRI’s recommendations included limiting the use of CVCs for patients receiving home health care as the risks of home dialysis may outweigh the benefits.
5. Surgical robotic procedures: Recommendations for safe use of surgical robots in new procedures include training, credentialing, and privileging operating room staff in the new applications.
6. Alarm, alert, and notification overload: Recommendations include decreasing overall notification burden and helping clinical staff to develop critical thinking skills to ease cognitive overload.
7. Cybersecurity risks in the home health setting: ECRI’s recommendations include assessing system security during device procurement and addressing security considerations during installation, both at the patient’s house and on the provider’s network.
8. Missing implant data for MRI scan patients: Recommendations include creating implant lists in patients’ electronic medical records.
9. Medication errors from dose timing discrepancies in EHRs: Recommendations include prominently displayed medication administration times in the EHR order-entry system, allowing providers to easily modify that time, and including a “now” option for medications that need to be administered as soon as possible.
10. Loose nuts and bolts in medical devices: ECRI recommends that clinical engineers inspect devices regularly and that clinical staff alert appropriate personnel about any loose or missing fasteners, irregular device movement, or unusual noises coming from the device.

Though not all the top 10 hazards are within CDI specialists’s purview, they can certainly work to reduce the alert fatigue by working with providers and the IT department to develop solutions to limit the number of CDI-related notifications while still achieving a high query response rate. Interested readers can learn more about this process in the March/April edition of the CDI Journal.

Editor’s note: To download the full report from ECRI, click here. To read HealthLeaders Media’s coverage of this story, click here. To read how CDI can help to reduce alert fatigue, click here.