Web conference to address patient safety in ICU
Thursday September 6, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
Healthcare professionals working in intensive care units (ICU) are encouraged to connect to a web conference Sept. 20 to hear expert speakers talk about implementing effective patient safety and technology strategies in the ICU.

The conference, titled Critical Care Safety Web Conference: Essentials for ICU Patient Care and Technology, is being organized by the ECRI Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to using the discipline of applied scientific research to improve patient care.

“Although the ICU is one of the most challenging hospital environments for patient safety, strategies exist to prevent patient harm in ICUs,” the ECRI Institute reports. “Successful strategies focus on a culture of safety, careful deployment of technology and education.”

The web conference has been designed for critical care physicians and nurses, ICU managers, administrators of critical care services, risk managers, patient safety officers, clinical and biomedical engineering professionals and medical directors.

ECRI says those in attendance will gain an understanding of steps to take in implementing an ICU safety program, how to gauge the effectiveness of an ICU patient safety program and how other hospitals have re-engineered their approach to safety.

The Guest speakers for the conference include:

• James Keller, vice president of health technology evaluation and safety with the ECRI Institute. Keller will discuss the impact medical technology has on patient safety in the critical care setting as well as some of the most common and highest-impact medical technology patient safety problems in the ICU. Strategies to minimize those risks will also be discussed.
• Dr. Peter Pronovost, professor in the departments of anesthesiology and critical care, surgery and health policy and management at The John Hopkins University School of Medicine. Pronovost will talk about developing and implementing critical care safety programs aimed at improving safety culture, identifying safety concerns, learning from errors and gauging the effectiveness of the program.
• Dr. Robert Welsh, vice chief of surgical services, chief of thoracic surgery at Beaumont Hospital. Welsh will describe a strategy for gaining leadership support of safety improvement initiatives and steps to take in order to implement it. He will also discuss selecting potential indicators to monitor the effectiveness of any safety program.
• Kathleen Shostek, a senior risk management analyst with the ECRI Institute will moderate the conference.

The deadline to register for the conference is Sept. 14 and the cost to attend is $249. For more information, phone (610) 825-6000, ext. 5891 or e-mail clientservices@ecri.org.