BMJ quality & safety
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BMJ quality & safety · Jan 2018
Mortality of hospitalised internal medicine patients bedspaced to non-internal medicine inpatient units: retrospective cohort study.
To compare inhospital mortality of general internal medicine (GIM) patients bedspaced to off-service wards with GIM inpatients admitted to assigned GIM wards. ⋯ Bedspaced patients had significantly higher inhospital mortality than patients admitted to assigned GIM wards. The risk was highest at admission and subsequently declined. The results of this single centre study may not be generalisable to other hospitals and may be influenced by residual confounding. Despite these limitations, the relationship between bedspacing and patient outcomes requires investigation at other institutions to determine if this common practice represents a modifiable patient safety indicator.
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BMJ quality & safety · Jan 2018
Variation and statistical reliability of publicly reported primary care diagnostic activity indicators for cancer: a cross-sectional ecological study of routine data.
Recent public reporting initiatives in England highlight general practice variation in indicators of diagnostic activity related to cancer. We aimed to quantify the size and sources of variation and the reliability of practice-level estimates of such indicators, to better inform how this information is interpreted and used for quality improvement purposes. ⋯ Use of indicators of diagnostic activity in individual general practices should principally focus on process indicators which have adequate or high reliability and not outcome indicators which are unreliable at practice level.
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BMJ quality & safety · Jan 2018
International comparison of emergency hospital use for infants: data linkage cohort study in Canada and England.
To compare emergency hospital use for infants in Ontario (Canada) and England. ⋯ Children attending ED in England were much more likely to be admitted than those in Ontario. The tendency towards more frequent, shorter admissions in England could be due to more pressure to admit within waiting time targets, or less availability of paediatric expertise in ED. Further evaluations should consider where best to focus resources, including in-hospital, primary care and paediatric care in the community.