Patient Safety

WINNIPEG – Among the issues that led to patient deaths, according to critical incident reports from the first nine months of 2024, were bed rail entrapment, delays in receiving medical diagnosis and treatment, poor monitoring, and a patient leaving an ER without being seen. Read More

OTTAWA – During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital staffing challenges such as sick time, overtime and the use of agency workers grew dramatically, while at the same time rates of potentially preventable harm to patients increased, according to a report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). The report, Hospital staffing and hospital harm trends throughout the pandemic, uses costing and administrative data to compare pandemic trends with pre-COVID-19 times. Read More

OTTAWA – In a major stride towards advancing patient centric care and enhancing operational efficiency, The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), and Lumenix proudly announce the signing of an innovative partnership, to deploy cutting-edge artificial intelligence in the healthcare setting. Lumenix, a leader in building technologies and artificial intelligence, is set to install its Artificially Intelligent Monitoring System (AIMS) platform technology at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus in the fall of 2023. Read More

MONTREAL – Medical errors and accidents causing “grave and permanent consequences” to patients soared by more than 36 percent in Quebec in the 2021-22 fiscal year, according to an in-depth report made public in June. By law, hospitals and clinics must declare medical incidents (which almost always involve errors) as well as accidents, but many don’t always do so. Still, the report identified a total of 442,726 so-called “undesirable or adverse events” in Quebec’s health system, up by 0.46 percent from the year before. Read More

OTTAWA – To reduce the hazard of staff strain and injury, and to promote patient safety, Bruyère has ordered four units of an innovative new patient transfer device created by Canadian company Able Innovations. The ALTA Platform is designed to safely transfer a patient laterally from one surface to another, with only one staff member, thereby reducing the risk of injury to frontline staff and providing a better and more comfortable patient experience. Read More

VANCOUVER – Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) is celebrating being its first site designated as a Using Blood Wisely hospital, an initiative of Choosing Wisely Canada and Canadian Blood Services. Awarded in August, the Using Blood Wisely designation symbolizes VGH’s commitment to red blood cell stewardship and the continuous pursuit of quality improvement. Read More

WATERLOO, Ont. – A national medical study using Cloud DX’s Connected Health™ platform, led by P.J. Devereaux and Michael McGillion (pictured) of the Population Health Research Institute, proves remote patient monitoring (RPM) improves patient outcomes. Results show post-surgical RPM provides greater detection and correction of drug errors, reduces patient pain, and could reduce hospital re-admissions and emergency room visits. Read More

VANCOUVER – Researchers at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia are working to reduce adverse drug events (ADEs), the harmful and unintended consequences of medication that send two million Canadians to visit emergency departments every year. They’ve created software called ActionADE to document ADES and communicate with pharmacies to help prevent re-dispensing drugs that have led to patient harm. Read More

CALGARY – To reduce deaths from drug overdoses, Alberta Health has unveiled a new app called the Digital Overdose Response System (DORS). The app will trigger a call from the STARS emergency centre if an individual becomes unresponsive to a timer – similar to B.C.’s Lifeguard app. Read More