Plos One
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Effects of facilitated family case conferencing for advanced dementia: A cluster randomised clinical trial.
Palliative care planning for nursing home residents with advanced dementia is often suboptimal. This study compared effects of facilitated case conferencing (FCC) with usual care (UC) on end-of-life care. ⋯ FCC facilitates a palliative approach to care. Future trials of case conferencing should consider outcomes and processes regarding decision making and planning for anticipated events and acute illness.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
End of life care for people with dementia: The views of health professionals, social care service managers and frontline staff on key requirements for good practice.
Evidence consistently shows that people with advanced dementia experience suboptimal end of life care compared to those with cancer; with increased hospitalisation, inadequate pain control and fewer palliative care interventions. Understanding the views of those service managers and frontline staff who organise and provide care is crucial in order to develop better end of life care for people with dementia. ⋯ The significant challenges of providing good end of life care for people with dementia requires that different forms of expertise should be recognised and used; including the skills and knowledge of care assistants. Successfully engaging with people with dementia and family members and helping them to recognise the dying trajectory requires a supportive integration of emotional and technical expertise. The study strengthens the existing evidence base in this area and will be used with a related set of studies (on the views of other stakeholders and observations and interviews conducted in four services) to develop an evidence-based intervention.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Peripheral Venous Catheter-Related Adverse Events: Evaluation from a Multicentre Epidemiological Study in France (the CATHEVAL Project).
Peripheral venous catheters (PVC) are medical devices most frequently used during hospital care. Although the frequency of specific PVC-related adverse events (PVCAEs) has been reported, the global risk related to the insertion of this device is poorly estimated. The aim of this study is to determine the incidence of PVCAEs during the indwell time, after catheter removal, and to identify practice-mirroring risk factors. ⋯ Limitation of breaches in healthcare quality including post-removal monitoring should be reinforced to prevent PVC-related adverse events in hospital settings.
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Multicenter Study
A multi-centric Study of Candida bloodstream infection in Lima-Callao, Peru: Species distribution, antifungal resistance and clinical outcomes.
The incidence of candidemia is increasing in developing countries. Very little is known about the epidemiology of candidemia in Peru. The aim of this study is to describe the incidence, microbiology, clinical presentation and outcomes of Candida bloodstream infections in three Lima-Callao hospitals. ⋯ We found a very high proportion of non-albicans Candida species. Despite this, the decreased susceptibility/resistance to fluconazole was only 13.3% and not seen in the other antifungals. Overall, the incidence of candidemia mortality was high when compared to other international studies. It is possible, that the delay in initiating antifungal treatment contributed to the elevated mortality rate, in spite of low antifungal resistance.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Reports of unintended consequences of financial incentives to improve management of hypertension.
Given the increase in financial-incentive programs nationwide, many physicians and physician groups are concerned about potential unintended consequences of providing financial incentives to improve quality of care. However, few studies examine whether actual unintended consequences result from providing financial incentives to physicians. We sought to document the extent to which the unintended consequences discussed in the literature were observable in a randomized clinical trial (RCT) of financial incentives. ⋯ Many unintended consequences of financial incentives noted were either only concerns or attributable to ancillary quality-improvement initiatives. Actual unintended consequences included improved documentation of care without necessarily improving actual care, and positive unintended consequences.