BMJ quality & safety
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BMJ quality & safety · Oct 2011
Randomized Controlled TrialThe ability of a behaviour-specific patient questionnaire to identify poorly performing doctors.
Doctors' ability to communicate with patients varies. Patient questionnaires are often used to assess doctors' communication skills. ⋯ Using a patient-reported questionnaire of doctors' communication skills, favourable assessments of doctors by patients were mostly discordant with the views of expert observers. Only very poor performance identified by patients was in agreement with the views of expert observers. The results suggest that patient reports alone may not be sufficient to identify all doctors whose communication skills need improvement training.
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BMJ quality & safety · Oct 2011
Teamwork and team performance in multidisciplinary cancer teams: development and evaluation of an observational assessment tool.
Team performance is important in multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), but no tools exist for assessment. Our objective was to construct a robust tool for scientific assessment of MDT performance. ⋯ Scientific observational metrics can be reliably used by medical and non-medical observers in cancer MDTs. Such robust assessment tools provide part of a toolkit for team evaluation and enhancement.
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BMJ quality & safety · Oct 2011
Quality improvement project to reduce perioperative opioid oversedation events in a paediatric hospital.
Narcotics are responsible for many adverse drug events in children and there has been an increase in opioid oversedation events in hospitalised patients. ⋯ Opioid-related oversedation events decreased over the course of the study. Because the perioperative period is an especially likely time for opioid oversedation events, strict opioid prescribing practices, while maintaining adequate pain control and improved sedation assessment during the perioperative period, were emphasised. The restructured pain service and increased visits by pain team experts were also associated with the reduction in oversedation events.
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BMJ quality & safety · Oct 2011
Patient safety factors in children dying in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU): a case notes review study.
To identify patient safety factors in pre-hospital and hospital management of critically ill children dying in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). ⋯ Adverse events in pre-PICU hospital care were common in children who subsequently died in PICU. CIs occurred throughout the patient journey. Interventional studies of healthcare organisation and delivery are necessary to identify appropriate strategies to improve patient safety.