Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety / Joint Commission Resources
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · Oct 2009
Assessing processes of care to promote timely initiation of antibiotic therapy for emergency department patients hospitalized for pneumonia.
A mixed-methods quality improvement (QI) project for patients with pneumonia hospitalized from the emergency department (ED) was undertaken to (1) delineate the basic steps in the flow of patient care from presentation in the ED to time to first antibiotic dose (TFAD), (2) identify perceived barriers to and facilitators of reduced TFAD within these steps, (3) describe QI strategies to improve TFAD rates, and (4) identify perceived strategies for facilities to enhance performance. ⋯ TFAD relies on a series of complex, stepwise processes of care that involve numerous hospital departments and is often delayed by well-described barriers. Addressing these barriers, as well as involving facility leadership in setting institutional QI goals, could possibly improve performance on this pneumonia quality measure.
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · Oct 2009
Patient preferences for and satisfaction with methods of communicating test results in a primary care practice.
Appropriate and timely communication of test results is an important element of high-quality health care. Patients' preferences regarding and satisfaction with test result notification methods in a primary care practice were evaluated. ⋯ The results describe primary care patients preferences for communication from their providers. Disparities exist between current practice and patient preferences in this important care delivery process. A telephone call from a physician or nurse practitioner was used to deliver test results for fewer than half of the patients who preferred to receive their results by this method. Future work should explore reimbursement of patient-preferred options and assess ways to improve resource-conscious test result communication methods.