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 2005
Waiting for orthopaedic surgery: factors associated with waiting times and patients' opinion.
To assess waiting times for three groups of orthopaedic patients in Sweden and to identify factors explaining variations in waiting time. Also examined were factors associated with patients' perceptions that waiting times were too long. ⋯ Hospital-related factors are more important than patient characteristics as explanations of variations in waiting times for orthopaedic surgery. Patients value short waiting times and the possibility of influencing the date of surgery.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Apr 2005
Undertreatment of acute pain in the emergency department: a challenge.
Evaluation and improvement of pain management in our emergency department (ED). ⋯ Inadequate pain management in the ED appears related to poor staff assessment of pain and may be improved by routine VAS recording and by a nurse-based pain protocol.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Apr 2005
Development of a set of strategy-based system-level cancer care performance indicators in Ontario, Canada.
To develop a set of scientifically sound and managerially useful system-level cancer care performance indicators for public reporting in Ontario, Canada. ⋯ The resulting instrument incorporates a credible evidence basis for performance measurement aligned to the five strategic goals for the Ontario cancer system. It represents the integrating of a management culture, focused on the implementation of a new strategic direction for the cancer system, with the underlying evidence-based culture of clinicians.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Feb 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical TrialEffects of a multidisciplinary, post-discharge continuance of care intervention on quality of life, discharge satisfaction, and hospital length of stay: a randomized controlled trial.
To determine the impact of a hospital-coordinated discharge care plan, involving a multidisciplinary team of primary health care providers, on hospital length of stay, quality of life, and both patient and general practitioner inclusion in, and satisfaction with, discharge procedures. ⋯ Our results indicate that a multidisciplinary discharge care plan, initiated before separation, improves quality of life, involvement, and satisfaction with discharge care, and hospital-general practitioner integration. As such, it possesses benefits over current Western Australian hospital discharge procedures for the care of chronically ill populations.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Feb 2005
Comparative StudyComparing processes of stroke care in high- and low-mortality hospitals in the West Midlands, UK.
There are wide variations in hospital-specific mortality for stroke. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there were differences in quality of care when a group of hospitals with high standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) in nationally published league tables were compared with a group with low SMRs. ⋯ Our results show that there is scope for improving the quality of stroke care irrespective of where a hospital ranks in terms of mortality. The lack of association between SMR and quality of care as assessed by process measures casts some doubt over the value of ranking hospitals in terms of stroke SMR.