Articles: checklist.
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Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a hospital-acquired infection that may develop in patients 48 hours after mechanical ventilation. The project goal was to determine whether a ventilator-associated pneumonia care bundle checklist embedded into an existing electronic health record would increase completeness of nursing documentation in an intensive care unit setting. With the embedded checklist, there were significant improvements in nursing documentation and a decreased incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia.
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Paediatric anaesthesia · Jul 2013
Handoff checklists improve the reliability of patient handoffs in the operating room and postanesthesia care unit.
Ineffective communications among healthcare providers are common and increases the risk of medical errors. During the perioperative period, multiple handoffs occur within a short period of time, and failure to convey important patient information can compromise safety. We used quality improvement methodology to improve the reliability of our handoffs in the operating room and postanesthesia care unit (PACU). ⋯ We utilized quality improvement methodology to develop and implement standardized checklists for handoffs of care in the operating room and PACU. Acceptance of and adherence to the standardized handoff protocols dramatically increased the quality and reliability of our handoff process.
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Int J Qual Health Care · Jul 2013
Clinical TrialVentilator-associated pneumonia prevention by education and two combined bedside strategies.
The objective of the study was to reduce the ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) incidence rates through a rational prevention program. ⋯ A reduction in VAP rates and on their risk after a set of preventive tools was observed. However, some other co-interventions not related to the primary interventions may have contributed to these results.
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In 2007, the World Health Organization created a Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) that encompassed a simple set of surgical safety standards. The threefold purpose of this study was to add ambulatory-specific items to the SSC, to introduce the items into an ambulatory surgical facility, and to determine if patient outcomes regarding postoperative pain and nausea/vomiting improved following implementation. In addition, safety attitudes, antibiotic timing, regional anesthesia/nerve blocks, preemptive pain medications, prophylactic antiemetics, length of stay, and hospital admission were also assessed. ⋯ Potential reasons for lack of uptake and integration include poor "user" buy-in, an overly lengthy checklist, and lack of prioritization of ambulatory-specific items. A shortened SSC was developed based on the results of this study. This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT00934310.
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Editorial Comment
Application of a modified surgical safety checklist: user beware!