Journal of evaluation in clinical practice
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Emergency hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge from hospital are considered a marker for the quality of hospital care, patient experience, the discharge process and integration with community services. This paper describes the frequency and variations in cause of emergency readmissions at 30 and 90 days following discharge after acute stroke from two stroke units. ⋯ Understanding differences in readmission event rates between hospitals at 30 and 90 days can support local planning of patient needs in the first weeks after stroke discharge and to investigate ways for hospital to reduce the impact of readmission. It is recommended that stroke services use both 30 and 90-day readmissions to inform service evaluation and improvement.
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This article describes the planning and development of a novel self-management support protocol, self-management engaging together (SET) for Health, purposefully designed and embedded within traditional case management services to be accessible to people living with schizophrenia and comorbidities. Drawing on established self-management principles, SET for Health was codesigned by researchers, healthcare providers and clients, to create a practical and meaningful intervention to support the target group to manage their own health and wellness. Decision making is described behind tailoring the self-management innovation to meet the needs of an at risk, disadvantaged group served by tertiary, public health care in Canada. ⋯ Planning and developing a model of self-management support for integration into traditional schizophrenia case management services required attention to the complex social ecological nature of the treatment approach and the workplace context. Demonstration of proof of concept is described in a separate paper.
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Moving towards high quality primary health care, involving family physicians in primary care research becomes an essential prerequisite to ensures a better adoption and routinization of patient-centred, evidence-based practices. ⋯ The protocol of this review was registered with the SPOR Evidence Alliance and on the PROSPERO platform (registration number: CRD42020189322).
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Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is highly prevalent among veterans. Many veterans with PTSD respond well to serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs). Nonresponders may be prescribed augmenting medications, which are not as well-studied in PTSD. ⋯ Importantly, these effects could be explained by regression to the mean, additional interventions or confounding. These findings should be further explored with placebo controlled randomized clinical trials.
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Observational Study
Evaluation of a fast-and-frugal clinical decision algorithm ('pathways') on clinical outcomes in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 treated with anticoagulants.
Critics have charged that evidence-based medicine (EBM) overemphasises algorithmic rules over unstructured clinical experience and intuition, but the role of structured decision support systems in improving health outcomes remains uncertain. We aim to assess if delivery of anticoagulant prophylaxis in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 according to an algorithm based on evidence-based clinical practice guideline (CPG) improved clinical outcomes compared with administration of anticoagulant treatment given at individual practitioners' discretion. ⋯ When delivered using a structured FFT algorithm, CPG shortened the hospital stay and help avoided admission to ICU, but it did not affect other relevant outcomes.