All Articles on Patient Safety

• Less reaction to DTaP vaccine given in kids’ thighs than arms

  Children age 12 to 35 months who receive DTaP vaccine in their thigh muscle rather than their arm are around half as likely to be brought in for medical attention for an injection-site reaction. So says a new study of 1.4 million children at Group Health and seven other Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) centers across the country, e-published on January 14 in Pediatrics.
• Opioid-prescribing safety: Finding real-world solutions for a nationwide epidemic

  Fatal overdoses involving prescribed opioids quadrupled from 1999 to 2009, climbing to almost 16,000 U.S. deaths annually—more than cocaine and heroin overdoses combined. What wasn’t clear was how to combat this growing threat.
• Many Alzheimer’s patients get drugs with opposing effects

  Many people taking common Alzheimer’s disease medications—cholinesterase inhibitors—are given medications with anticholinergic properties, which oppose their effects. Group Health Research Institute scientists investigated how often that happens and reported on the consequences in an “Early View” study e-published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
• Opioids linked to higher risk of pneumonia in older adults

  Opioids—a class of medicines commonly given for pain—were associated with a higher risk of pneumonia in a study of 3,061 adults, aged 65 to 94, e-published in advance of publication in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study from researchers at Group Health Research Institute and the University of Washington (UW) also found that benzodiazepines, which are drugs generally given for insomnia and anxiety, did not affect pneumonia risk.
• Group Health establishes major initiative to prevent opioid abuse and overdose

  A report in the August 2011 issue of Health Affairs describes a major initiative at Group Health to make opioid prescribing safer while improving care for patients with chronic pain. Health Affairs is the nation’s premier health policy journal, and its August issue focuses on substance abuse.
• A learning health care system mobilizes to improve opioid prescribing safety

  Guided by research and monitoring patients, Group Health’s new initiative for safer opioid prescribing has produced stunning results in just nine months. Claire Trescott, MD, medical director of primary care, leads this innovative effort to protect patient safety at Group Health—and nationwide.
• Higher opioid dose linked to overdose risk in chronic pain patients

  More and more Americans with chronic pain not caused by cancer are taking medically prescribed opioids like Oxycontin (oxycodone) and Vicodin (hydrocodone). The January 19 Annals of Internal Medicine features the first study to explore the risk of overdose in patients prescribed opioids for chronic non-cancer pain in general health care. The study, published with an accompanying editorial, links risk of fatal and nonfatal opioid overdose to prescription use—strongly associating the risk with the prescribed dose.