Journal of health services research & policy
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A new Department of Health policy in England, published in 2007, recommended changes to the pre-employment health checks performed on health care workers before taking up their employment. The policy proposed that all new health care workers should receive immunization against TB and hepatitis B and should be offered testing for hepatitis C and HIV. It also advanced a new requirement that staff who perform exposure-prone procedures must be tested for TB, hepatitis B and C and HIV and must test negative for these diseases. ⋯ Secondary objectives of the directive are to maintain confidence in the workforce and reduce the burden of patient notification exercises. This essay explores some of the shortcomings of this policy and examines the reasons why this policy will fail to meet its objectives. The justification for this new guidance is questioned and some of the ethical issues are highlighted.
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J Health Serv Res Policy · Jan 2010
Feedback from reporting patient safety incidents--are NHS trusts learning lessons?
For the study, first published in 2006, the researchers examined how well NHS organisations had attempted to use the information they gathered from adverse clinical incidents and whether they were learning from it. By looking at existing relevant research worldwide, interviewing experts, surveying NHS organizations (acute, community and ambulance), consulting health care and other high-risk industry safety experts and NHS risk managers, and investigating case studies of good practice, they developed a model to assess how ready NHS systems were to learn from incidents. This is known as Safety Action and Information Feedback from Incident Reporting (SAIFIR).
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J Health Serv Res Policy · Jan 2010
Testing new devices to help prevent 'misconnection' errors in health care.
The study, the first part of which was published in 2008, looked at, prospectively, how effective and safe new, non-traditional connectors were for use in spinal connector equipment such as spinal needles and infusion lines. The researchers analysed existing evidence on adverse incidents in this area, held workshops to discuss the problem, tested new devices with a simulator, and evaluated them in clinical practice trials at four different hospitals in England.
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The study, first published in 2006, looks at patient safety from the perspective of surgery, looking at surgeons' technical skills, surgical team performance in the operating theatre, the team's views of their performance, interruptions and distractions, and multidisciplinary team training in surgery using simulated training scenarios.