Healthcare quarterly (Toronto, Ont.)
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Neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and intensive care units (ICUs) provide care for newborns in need of specialized medical attention. Across Canada, rates of NICU/ICU admission vary. Due to the high cost of monitoring and interventions these admissions cost more than general newborn stays - whether the newborn is in a specialized NICU or in an ICU in those facilities without specialized units for newborns. ⋯ We focus further on the association between NICU/ICU admission and Caesarean section (C-section). After excluding multiple births, preterm births, small for gestational age births and those delivered by women with select complications, we find an increased risk for NICU/ICU admission for babies born by C-section as their only indication. NICU/ICU admission following C-section alone may not represent the most desirable pathway of care for these newborns.
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Incident reporting offers insight into a variety of intricate processes in healthcare. However, it has been found that medication incidents are under reported in the community pharmacy setting. The Community Pharmacy Incident Reporting (CPhIR) program was created by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada specifically for incident reporting in the community pharmacy setting in Canada. ⋯ To ensure the success of the CPhIR program, a patient safety culture must be established. By gaining a deeper understanding of possible causes of medication incidents, community pharmacies can implement system-based strategies for quality improvement and to prevent potential errors from occurring again in the future. This article highlights key features of the CPhIR program that will assist community pharmacies to improve their drug distribution system and, ultimately, enhance patient safety.
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Given the rise in obesity rates, increasing capacity for bariatric surgery has become a focus for some provincial planners. Four types of bariatric procedures are now performed in Canada; however, funding for the procedures varies by jurisdiction. This article provides an update to our previous article documenting the volume of in-patient bariatric procedures but focuses on the extent to which Canadians are increasingly receiving bariatric procedures in day surgery settings.
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The objective of this study was to evaluate whether Ontario's End-of-Life Care Strategy, which aimed to shift care from acute settings to the home, improved performance on quality indicators for end-of-life home care patients in use of more home care services and fewer acute care services. The study cohort included patients at the end of life admitted into home care between April 1, 2005, and September 30, 2006, and who died before April 1, 2007. Based on their admission date, patients were divided into three six-month periods corresponding to the six months prior to the strategy's implementation compared with the 12 months after. ⋯ In conclusion, one year after the strategy's implementation, individual patients' use of end-of-life home care and acute care services remained unchanged. The strategy may require more time for its impact to be fully achieved. Measuring these quality indicators across regions may help to monitor and evaluate interventions.