International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care
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Int J Qual Health Care · Apr 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialThe effect of a checklist on the quality of post-anaesthesia patient handover: a randomized controlled trial.
Patient handover is an important element of continuity, quality and safety in patient care. Handover without standardized protocols is prone to information loss and might be a possible danger to patient safety. Checklists are established methods that help to structure complex processes in other high-risk fields such as aviation. In the past few years, their implementation has attracted research interest in medicine. We hypothesize that a checklist for handover between anaesthesiologist and post-anaesthesia care unit nurse will increase the amount of information transfer during patient handover after anaesthesia. ⋯ This study suggests that the use of a checklist for post-anaesthesia handover might improve the quality of patient handover by increasing the information handed over.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Apr 2013
Assessment of patient safety culture in Palestinian public hospitals.
To assess the prevalent patient safety culture in Palestinian public hospitals. ⋯ This study highlights the existence of a punitive and blame culture, under-reporting of events, lack of communication openness and inadequate management support that are key challenges for patient safe hospital care. The baseline survey results are valuable for designing and implementing the patient safety program and for measuring future progress.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Apr 2013
Compliance with the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist: deviations and possible improvements.
Previous research suggests that the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist time-out reduces communication failures and medical complications and supports development of better safety attitudes. Previous research also indicates that different values can affect the implementation of interventions. ⋯ The checklist is not always applied as intended. The components that facilitate communication are often neglected. The time-out does not appear to be conducted as a team effort. It is plausible that the personnel's conception of risk and the perceived importance of different checklist items are factors that influence checklist usage. To improve compliance and involve the whole team, the concept of risk and the perceived relevance of checklist items for all team members should be addressed.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Apr 2013
Can incident reporting improve safety? Healthcare practitioners' views of the effectiveness of incident reporting.
Recent critiques of incident reporting suggest that its role in managing safety has been over emphasized. The objective of this study was to examine the perceived effectiveness of incident reporting in improving safety in mental health and acute hospital settings by asking staff about their perceptions and experiences. ⋯ Incident reporting can be a powerful tool for developing and maintaining an awareness of risks in healthcare practice. Using incident reports to improve care is challenging and the study highlighted the complexities involved and the difficulties faced by staff in learning from incident data.