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
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.
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Incidence of adverse events (AEs) among home care patients and preventability ratings were estimated. Risk factors, AE types and factors associated with AEs were identified. ⋯ Providing health care through home care programs creates unintended harm to patients. The incidence rate of AEs of 13.2% suggests a significant number of home care patients experience AEs, one-third of which were considered preventable. Improvements in patient and informal caregiver education, skill development and clinical planning may be useful interventions to reduce AEs.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Feb 2013
The effect of a workflow-based response system on hospital-wide voluntary incident reporting rates.
Hospital incident reporting systems are usually evaluated on their theoretical benefit to the hospital or increase in reporting rates alone. ⋯ The addition of the workflow-based response system to the hospital incident reporting system significantly increased hospital-wide voluntary incident report rates at all incident injury levels.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Feb 2013
Quality and safety of hospital discharge: a study on experiences and perceptions of patients, relatives and care providers.
To identify barriers experienced and perceived at discharge by physicians, nurses, patients and relatives. ⋯ This is the first study that provides a clear picture of the experiences and perceptions of stakeholders regarding handovers at hospital discharge. Lack of knowledge, understanding and interest between hospital and community care providers are important causes for ineffective and unsafe discharge. The study suggests that improvement efforts should be focused more on these aspects, as primary conditions for improving hospital discharge.