BMJ quality & safety
-
BMJ quality & safety · Feb 2011
Measuring patients' experiences and views of the emergency and urgent care system: psychometric testing of the urgent care system questionnaire.
Patients seeking emergency and urgent care tend to experience a system, making choices about which service to use and making use of a number of services within a healthcare episode. The aim was to psychometrically test the Urgent Care System Questionnaire (UCSQ) for the routine measurement of the patient perspective of the emergency and urgent care system. ⋯ Preliminary testing suggests that the UCSQ has reasonable acceptability, validity and reliability. Further testing is required, particularly its responsiveness to changes in emergency and urgent care systems.
-
To review studies on hospital doctors' handovers to identify the methods and main findings. ⋯ The handover literature does not fully identify where communication failures typically occur or influencing conditions, thus hampering the design of effective handover training and tools. A systematic analysis of all the stages of doctors' handovers is required.
-
BMJ quality & safety · Feb 2011
Elimination of central-venous-catheter-related bloodstream infections from the intensive care unit.
Central-venous-catheter (CVC)-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI) is a complication of intensive care stay which can have important adverse consequences for both patient and institution. There are a number of evidence-based interventions that reduce CRBSI, but it is recognised that consistently applying the best evidence every time is a challenge. ⋯ The authors describe a significant reduction in CRBSI for the first time in a UK ICU. The authors summarised and simplified what to do, measured and provided feedback on outcomes, and improved expectations of performance standards for care processes. The authors believe that these approaches are worthy of serious consideration elsewhere.
-
BMJ quality & safety · Feb 2011
The impact of the medical emergency team on the resuscitation practice of critical care nurses.
Medical Emergency Teams (MET)/rapid response are replacing Cardiac Arrest teams in acute hospitals. There is a lack of knowledge about how Critical Care Nurses (CCNs), rostered on MET construct their responsibilities/roles. ⋯ 'Ongoing Assessment' and 'Re-evaluating Risk' occupied almost half of the MET nurses time, whereas 'Establishing Patient Acuity, the key activity in CA teams, occupied only 4%. These findings provide evidence of the roles of CCNs in the MET and suggest that education and training of MET nurses should support these roles.