Reducing the epidemic of hospital acquired infections has been a primary goal for hospital administrators and federal regulators alike over the past few years. A prime cause of hospital infections, poor hand washing practices by healthcare workers, has been in the cross hairs. Now health care workers are encouraged to wash before each and every patient interaction. The results are a reduction in illnesses transmitted by health care workers.Now, the Wall Street Journal (10/21, Hobson) “Health Blog” reports, a national hospital oversight group is targeting another type of error that is a major cause of medical threats to patients. Bad handoffs. These are errors in communication that result when a patient is handed off from one caregiver to another. This is important, because 80% of hospital errors occur when a patient is handed off and signals get crossed. Read More.