BMJ : British medical journal
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To provide information on the frequency and reasons for outcome reporting bias in clinical trials. ⋯ The prevalence of incomplete outcome reporting is high. Trialists seemed generally unaware of the implications for the evidence base of not reporting all outcomes and protocol changes. A general lack of consensus regarding the choice of outcomes in particular clinical settings was evident and affects trial design, conduct, analysis, and reporting.
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To independently evaluate the impact of the second phase of the Health Foundation's Safer Patients Initiative (SPI2) on a range of patient safety measures. Design A controlled before and after design. Five substudies: survey of staff attitudes; review of case notes from high risk (respiratory) patients in medical wards; review of case notes from surgical patients; indirect evaluation of hand hygiene by measuring hospital use of handwashing materials; measurement of outcomes (adverse events, mortality among high risk patients admitted to medical wards, patients' satisfaction, mortality in intensive care, rates of hospital acquired infection). Setting NHS hospitals in England. ⋯ Many aspects of care are already good or improving across the NHS in England, suggesting considerable improvements in quality across the board. These improvements are probably due to contemporaneous policy activities relating to patient safety, including those with features similar to the SPI, and the emergence of professional consensus on some clinical processes. This phenomenon might have attenuated the incremental effect of the SPI, making it difficult to detect. Alternatively, the full impact of the SPI might be observable only in the longer term. The conclusion of this study could have been different if concurrent controls had not been used.
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To assess the compliance of Asian intensive care units and hospitals to the Surviving Sepsis Campaign's resuscitation and management bundles. Secondary objectives were to evaluate the impact of compliance on mortality and the organisational characteristics of hospitals that were associated with higher compliance. ⋯ While mortality from severe sepsis is high, compliance with resuscitation and management bundles is generally poor in much of Asia. As the centres included in this study might not be fully representative, achievement rates reported might overestimate the true degree of compliance with recommended care and should be interpreted with caution. Achievement of targets for blood cultures, antibiotics, and central venous pressure was independently associated with improved survival.
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To explore how transitions to a palliative care approach are perceived to be managed in acute hospital settings in England. ⋯ Significant barriers to implementing a policy of structured transitions to palliative care in acute hospitals were identified by health professionals in both primary and secondary care. These need to be addressed if current UK policy on management of palliative care in acute hospitals is to be established.
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To evaluate whether implementation of the Michigan Keystone ICU project, a comprehensive statewide quality improvement initiative focused on reduction of infections, was associated with reductions in hospital mortality and length of stay for adults aged 65 or more admitted to intensive care units. ⋯ Implementation of the Keystone ICU project was associated with a significant decrease in hospital mortality in Michigan compared with the surrounding area. The project was not, however, sufficiently powered to show a significant difference in length of stay.