International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care
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To evaluate the incidence of adverse events in Brazilian hospitals. ⋯ The incidence of patients with adverse events at the three hospitals was similar to that in international studies. However, the proportion of preventable adverse events was much higher in the Brazilian hospitals.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Aug 2009
Validation of a French hospitalized patients' satisfaction questionnaire: the QSH-45.
To develop a generic French self-administered instrument for measuring hospitalized patients' satisfaction based on the patient's point of view: the questionnaire for satisfaction of hospitalized (QSH) patients. ⋯ The availability of a reliable and valid French questionnaire concerning hospitalized patients' satisfaction, exclusively generated from patients' interviews, enables patient feedback to be incorporated in a continuous quality health-care improvement strategy.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Aug 2009
The incidence of adverse events in Swedish hospitals: a retrospective medical record review study.
To estimate the incidence, nature and consequences of adverse events and preventable adverse events in Swedish hospitals. ⋯ This study confirms that preventable adverse events were common, and that they caused extensive human suffering and consumed a significant amount of the available hospital resources.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Aug 2009
The Balanced Scorecard of acute settings: development process, definition of 20 strategic objectives and implementation.
Strategy development and implementation in acute care settings is often restricted by competing challenges, the pace of policy reform and the existence of parallel hierarchies. ⋯ The Balanced Scorecard, in combination with the EFQM model, is a useful tool to guide strategy development and implementation in health care organizations. As for other quality improvement and management tools not specifically developed for health care organizations, some adaptations are required to improve acceptability among professionals. The step-wise approach of strategy development and implementation presented here may support similar processes in comparable organizations.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Jun 2009
Selection of indicators for continuous monitoring of patient safety: recommendations of the project 'safety improvement for patients in Europe'.
Initiatives to improve patient safety have high priority among health professionals and politicians in most developed countries. Currently, however, assessment of patient safety problems relies mainly on case-based methodologies. The evidence for their efficiency and reproducibility, proving that safety of care has improved with their usage, is questionable. The exact incidence and prevalence of patient safety quality problems are unknown. Therefore, there is a need for firm, evidence-based methods to survey and develop patient safety and derived activities. ⋯ The patient safety indicators recommended present a set of possible measures of patient safety. One of the future perspectives of implementing patient safety indicators for systematic monitoring is that it will be possible to continuously estimate the prevalence and incidence of patient safety quality problems. The lesson learnt from quality improvement is that it will pay off in terms of improving patient safety.