International journal of evidence-based healthcare
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Int J Evid Based Healthc · Jun 2015
ReviewFormat guidelines to make them vivid, intuitive, and visual: use simple formatting rules to optimize usability and accessibility of clinical practice guidelines.
We present simple formatting rules derived from an extensive literature review that can improve the format of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), and potentially increase the likelihood of being used. ⋯ The way text documents are formatted influences their accessibility and usability. Optimizing the formatting of CPGs is a relatively inexpensive intervention and can be used to facilitate the dissemination of evidence in healthcare. Applying simple formatting principles to make documents more vivid, intuitive, and visual is a practical approach that has the potential to influence the usability of guidelines and to influence the extent to which guidelines are read, remembered, and used in practice.
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Int J Evid Based Healthc · Jun 2015
The effect of Cincinnati Prehospital Stroke Scale on telephone triage of stroke patients: evidence-based practice in emergency medical services.
The emergency medical service is designed to recognize and transfer critically ill patients. Evidence-based practice has rarely been emphasized in the emergency medical service field, especially in the dispatch center. ⋯ CPSS is more efficient for use by telephone triage nurses in identifying stroke. The use of CPSS assists nurses by reducing the triage error and supports the evidence-based care. It needs to be developed to cover signs and symptoms of posterior-circulation stroke patients.
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Int J Evid Based Healthc · Mar 2015
Health care worker hand hygiene in the pediatric special care unit at Mulago National Referral Hospital in Uganda: a best practice implementation project.
The hands of a health care worker are a common vehicle of pathogen transmission in hospital settings. Health care worker hand hygiene is therefore critical for patients' well being. Whilst failure of health care workers to comply with the best hand hygiene practice is a problem in all health care settings, issues of lack of access to adequate cleaning equipment and in some cases even running water make practicing good hand hygiene particularly difficult in low-resource developing country settings. This study reports an audit and feedback project that focused on the hand hygiene of the health care worker in the pediatric special care unit of the Mulago National Referral Hospital, which is a low-resource setting in Uganda. ⋯ The project provides another example of how audit can be used as a tool to improve health practice, even in a low-resource setting. At the same time, it showed how difficult it is to achieve compliance with best hand hygiene practice in a low-resource hospital. The project highlights the importance of continued education/awareness raising on the importance of good hand hygiene practice as well as investment in infrastructure and cleaning supplies for achieving and sustaining good hand hygiene among workers in a low-resource hospital setting. A key contribution of the project was the legacy it left in the form of knowledge about how to use audit and feedback as a tool to promote the best practice. A similar project has been implemented in the maternity ward at the hospital and further audits are planned.
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Int J Evid Based Healthc · Jun 2014
ReviewEfficacy of hospital in the home services providing care for patients admitted from emergency departments: an integrative review.
Increases in emergency department (ED) demand may compromise patient outcomes, leading not only to overcrowding in the ED, increased ED waiting times and increased ED length of stay, but also compromising patient safety; the risk of adverse events is known to rise in the presence of overcrowding. Hospital in the home (HiTH) services may offer one means of reducing ED demand. ⋯ Given evidence suggesting that HiTH services which recruit patients directly from the ED contribute to cost-savings, greater patient satisfaction and safety and efficacy outcomes that are at least equivalent to those associated with hospital-based care, the expansion of such programmes might therefore be considered a priority for policy makers.