Healthcare quarterly (Toronto, Ont.)
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Implementing evidence is the basis for improving the organization of care, with the ultimate goal of achieving optimal patient outcomes. As implementing evidence can be a challenging task due to human and system barriers, we propose an innovative framework to facilitate knowledge translation at the bedside. This model is based on a problem-solving approach that was tested in the field of critical care. This method can be adapted to any healthcare environment as the problems encountered when trying to implement guidelines and protocols are common.
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Over the past three years I have had the opportunity to be involved in two integration projects regarding cancer services. Both projects crossed jurisdictional, geographical and healthcare-provider boundaries and used cooperation and collaboration to work toward the goal of an integrated, quality, multi-disciplinary, seamless, patient-centred approach to cancer care. The projects have provided a perspective of what worked well and what could be improved when integrating healthcare services across organizational and provider boundaries. Governance emerged as a key determinant of project progress and successful change.
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Adverse drug events, including in-hospital medication errors, are a well-documented world-wide problem. This interdisciplinary team set out to examine the issues related to the labelling of injectable drugs. We sought answers to the following two questions: (1) To what extent do injectable drug labels adhere to existing Canadian design practice recommendations and regulations for labelling and (2) is there a need to make changes to the recommendations or regulations for labelling of injectable drugs in Canada? The project contained three phases. ⋯ The third phase involved a preliminary human factors experiment addressing one problem identified with existing labels. Our finding is that existing injectable drug labels do not adhere sufficiently to available best design standards for labels and also do not adhere to all Canadian Food and Drug Regulations. Recommendations are made to inform future enhancements to labelling standards, guidelines and regulations.