Clinton Administration Proposes Initiatives
WASHINGTON, DC- In response to a report from the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine showing between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year because of medical mistakes, the Clinton Administration has created a proposal to reduce medical errors by 50% in five years. The proposal would require Veterans Administration (VA) and Pentagon run hospitals to establish a mandatory error reporting system and to update their current patient safety systems. The VA hospital in Topeka, Kansas, already issues patients plastic wrist bracelets with bar codes to guarantee they are given the correct medicine. If the nurse takes the wrong drug off the medication cart, an alarm sounds. Since the hospital has started the experiment with bar code bracelets, medication errors have dropped 64.5%. The VA is also implementing a "blame-free" system so that errors will be reported without reprimand, then investigated so a solution for prevention of a similar future error can be avoided.
The Institute of Medicine's report claims medication errors totaling more than 7,000 are the most widespread of the problems. These errors can result from incorrectly administered drugs due to illegible handwriting, misunderstanding the verbal issue of a drug's dosage, or not being aware of a drug's warning. Therefore, one of the Clinton Administration's initiatives requests that the FDA develop new standards to reduce drug-mistaken identities due to similar names or packaging and reduce oversights of drug-to-drug interaction. The proposal also requires hospitals that participate in Medicare to have an active error reduction program.
Clinton promised funds in the fiscal year 2001 budget including $33 million for medical error reporting systems at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and $20 million for medical error research and a new Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.
Beyond the Surface: Rethinking Environmental Hygiene Validation at Exchange25
June 30th 2025Environmental hygiene is about more than just shiny surfaces. At Exchange25, infection prevention experts urged the field to look deeper, rethink blame, and validate cleaning efforts across the entire care environment, not just EVS tasks.
A Controversial Reboot: New Vaccine Panel Faces Scrutiny, Support, and Sharp Divides
June 26th 2025As the newly appointed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met for the first time under sweeping changes by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the national spotlight turned to the panel’s legitimacy, vaccine guidance, and whether science or ideology would steer public health policy in a polarized era.
Getting Down and Dirty With PPE: Presentations at HSPA by Jill Holdsworth and Katie Belski
June 26th 2025In the heart of the hospital, decontamination technicians tackle one of health care’s dirtiest—and most vital—jobs. At HSPA 2025, 6 packed workshops led by experts Jill Holdsworth and Katie Belski spotlighted the crucial, often-overlooked art of PPE removal. The message was clear: proper doffing saves lives, starting with your own.