Top 10 healthcare employer hazards to correct in 2011 Some things in the hospital staffing blogosphere just cannot be overlooked. "Top 10 Healthcare Technology Hazards for 2011" published by Media HealthLeaders is one. This list is enough to make any healthcare employer evaluate and revaluate again patient safety standards, practitioner safeguards and equipment reliability and training. Medical research group, ECRI Institute compiled the list, say authors, to encourage healthcare employers to take preventive measures and to "formulate programs to minimize dangers." Additionally, say hospital headhunters, extra attention to hospital staffing and healthcare recruitment tactics could result in higher quality candidates, increased patient safety and a reduction in clinical errors. Standards used for the list include recall information, medical device problem reporting and investigation of  "device-related" incidents. The following includes excerpts from the list.* 1. Radiation overdose Forty healthcare employer incidents of software errors, manufacturing-required software modifications or dose calculation errors for radiotherapy systems, linear accelerators and radiation treatment planning systems occurred between July 2009 and July 2010, reports ECRI. 2. Nursing alarm fatigue Nursing alarm fatigue can happen when the number of alarms begins to overwhelm healthcare staff, causing them to modify alarm settings to reduce the number of alarms [+]

Why some nurses are becoming desensitized to hospital alarms Patient safety is foremost in providing excellent healthcare—which is why “alarm fatigue” is an alarming topic. The best way to increase awareness among the medical community, especially those in nursing jobs, is to educate them on what, exactly, nursing alarm fatigue is and when it is most likely to occur. Recently, a hospital in the northeast with a very busy nursing floor had an ill patient’s alarm sounding. Surrounded by constantly beeping monitors, nurses failed to respond to this heart patient’s alarm, signaling a drop in heart rate and ending in fatality 20 minutes later. Nursing Alarm Fatigue has been blamed; it happens because nurses become desensitized to round the clock beeping. You may be suffering from this fatigue, if, while performing your duties you hear so many ubiquitous alarms, you no longer react with the appropriate degree of concern or speed. In the case of the incident stated above, investigators found that the tragedy was due, in part, to the alarm’s volume adjustment by an unknown person; rather than scandal, investigators suspected the alarm was disabled simply because hospital staff sensed its potential to [+]