Journal of patient safety
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Journal of patient safety · Sep 2012
Integrating patient safety standards into the accreditation program: a qualitative study to assess the readiness of Lebanese hospitals to implement into routine practice.
Concerns about quality of care have led to the integration of patient safety standards and goals in national and international accreditation programs. Since 2005, two national hospital accreditation surveys have been conducted in Lebanon. In 2010, the Ministry of Health integrated patient safety standards into the current program. This study is one of the first efforts in Lebanon and the region to assess hospitals' readiness to integrate patient safety standards into routine practice. ⋯ Integrating patient safety initiatives into routine practices requires a cultural shift in health-care organizations. Before assessing whether hospitals comply with patient safety standards, it is important to provide them with sufficient training and education on how to successfully implement these standards. Study findings provide valuable lessons for Lebanon and other countries, which are in the process or currently mandating the implementation of patient safety standards and/or accreditation programs.
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Journal of patient safety · Sep 2012
The cost of harm and savings through safety: using simulated patients for leadership decision support.
The ultimate objective of this program is to provide an approach to understanding and communicating health-care harm and cost to compel health-care provider leadership teams to vote "yes" to investments in patient safety initiatives, with the confidence that clinical, financial, and operational performance will be improved by such programs. ⋯ The final result of this project was to demonstrate a prototype leadership decision-support investment model approach that addresses clinical, operational, and financial performance for typical hospitals.
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Journal of patient safety · Jun 2012
Safety in the home healthcare sector: development of a new household safety checklist.
Unsafe household conditions could adversely affect safety and quality in home health care. However, risk identification tools and procedures that can be readily implemented in this setting are lacking. To address this need, we developed and tested a new household safety checklist and accompanying training program. ⋯ Home healthcare paraprofessionals can be effectively trained to identify commonplace household hazards. Using this checklist as a guide, visual household inspections were easily performed by trained HHCPS. Additional studies are needed to evaluate the reliability of the checklist and to determine if hazard identification leads to interventions that improve performance outcomes.
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Journal of patient safety · Mar 2012
An examination of opportunities for the active patient in improving patient safety.
Patients can make valuable contributions to their health care safety. Little is known, however, about the factors that could affect patient participation in safety-related aspects of their health care management. Examining and understanding how patient involvement in safety-related behaviors can be conceptualized will allow greater insight into why patients may be more willing to participate in some behaviors more than others may. ⋯ We believe that thinking of patient involvement in safety relating to properties and characteristics of the behavior together with the barriers to involvement could aid the design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions aimed at encouraging patient participation. It will also enable a greater understanding and assessment of not only what interventions may be effective (at encouraging patient involvement) but when they might be effective (i.e., what stage of the care pathway) and why.