BMJ open
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To investigate potential violations of patient confidentiality or other breaches of medical ethics committed by physicians and medical students active on the social networking site Twitter. ⋯ In this study of physicians and medical students on Twitter, we observed potential violations of patient privacy and other breaches of medical ethics. Our findings underline that every physician and medical student has to consider his or her presence on social networking sites. It remains to be investigated if the introduction of social networking site guidelines for medical professionals will improve awareness.
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Bold claims have been made for the ability of the WHO surgical checklist to reduce surgical morbidity and mortality and improve patient safety regardless of the setting. Little is known about how far the challenges faced by low-income countries are the same as those in high-income countries or different. We aimed to identify and compare the influences on checklist implementation and compliance in the UK and Africa. ⋯ Surgical checklist implementation is likely to be optimised, regardless of the setting, when used as a tool in multifaceted cultural and organisational programmes to strengthen patient safety. It cannot be assumed that the introduction of a checklist will automatically lead to improved communication and clinical processes.
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To determine if there is a significant difference in the infection rates of wounds irrigated with sterile normal saline (SS) versus tap water (TW), before primary wound closure. ⋯ There is no difference in the infection rate of wounds irrigated with either TW or SS solution, with a clinical trend towards fewer wound infections in the TW group, making it a safe and cost-effective alternative to SS for wound irrigation.
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To determine the potential of opportunistic glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) testing of pathology samples to detect previously unknown diabetes. ⋯ Opportunistic testing of referred pathology samples can be an effective method of screening for diabetes, especially in hospital-based and older persons.
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Investigate the use of call-out (CO) and closed-loop communication (CLC) during a simulated emergency situation, and its relation to profession, age, gender, ethnicity, years in profession, educational experience, work experience and leadership style. ⋯ This study showed that despite focus on the importance of communication in terms of CO and CLC, the difficulty in achieving safe and reliable verbal communication within the interdisciplinary team remained. This finding indicates the need for validated training models combined with further implementation studies.