Articles

Factors associated with surgical site infection among women undergoing obstetrics surgery at Felegehiwot Referral Hospital, Bahir Dar, Northwest Ethiopia: a retrospective cross-sectional study

Surgical site infections are one of the most common healthcare-associated infections in low- and middle-income countries, which cause prolonged hospital stays and increase patient susceptibility to other nosoc...

Authors: Getnet Gedefaw, Azezu Asires, Shumiye Shiferaw and Dagne Addisu

Pharmacy staff views on the implementation of patient handheld medication tools to improve information transfer: a qualitative study

The risks of poor information transfer across healthcare settings are well documented, particularly for medication. Various patient-held tools have been designed to hold information about patients’ medicines t...

Authors: Tasneem Waly, Sara Garfield and Bryony Dean Franklin

Professional culture, information security and healthcare quality—an interview study of physicians’ and nurses’ perspectives on value conflicts in the use of electronic medical records

Digital healthcare information systems impose new demands on healthcare professionals, and information security rules may induce stressful value conflicts, which the professional culture may help professionals...

Authors: Maria Skyvell Nilsson, Marianne Törner and Anders Pousette

Pain assessment and management of trauma patients in an emergency department of a tertiary hospital in Tanzania

Proper pain assessment is a core component in management of trauma patients but prior literature has suggested that pain management is inadequate in emergency settings. With the development of emergency medici...

Authors: George D. Dilunga, Hendry R. Sawe, Irene B. Kulola, Juma A. Mfinanga, Nanyori J. Lucumay, Elly M. Mulesi and Ellen J. Weber

The impact of a national quality register in the analysis of risks and adverse events among older adults in nursing homes and hospital wards—a Swedish Senior Alert survey

The proportion of elderly in the population in Sweden is increasing. Older adults are more vulnerable to disease and disability which in turn increases the prevalence of negative events as pressure ulcers, mal...

Authors: Anna Trinks, Catharina Hägglin, Dennis Nordvall, Elisabet Rothenberg and Helle Wijk

Variability in staff perceptions of patient safety culture in Norwegian nursing homes—a longitudinal cross-sectional study

Patients in nursing homes are at risk of adverse events, representing a highly vulnerable group that is chronically weak and cognitively or physically reduced. To prevent adverse events, knowledge of patient s...

Authors: Kathrine Cappelen, Anette Harris and Karina Aase

Potential drug-to-drug interactions: a cross-sectional study among older patients discharged from hospital to home care

There are major challenges in ensuring medication safety and preventing adverse drug events in older people. Older people are especially vulnerable to drug-to-drug interactions (DDIs). However, when older pati...

Authors: Rose Mari Olsen and Hege Sletvold

Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) Communication Tool for Handoff in Health Care – A Narrative Review

Continuity of patient care is achieved by the clear and concise transfer of patient clinical information from one health care provider to another during handoff. Effective communication is a vital factor in pr...

Authors: Shaneela Shahid and Sumesh Thomas

Observational study on the tolerability of cluster subcutaneous immunotherapy in patients with rhinoconjunctivitis with or without asthma sensitized to pollen: the SIMO study

The objective of this study was to determine whether a cluster scheme of allergic immunotherapy (AIT), starting administration of the therapeutic extract with the highest available concentration vial (vial B) ...

Authors: Francisco Javier Solá Martínez, Virginia de Luque Piñana, Eloina González-Mancebo, Inmaculada Sánchez-Guerrero Villajos, Fernando García-González, Cesárea Sánchez-Hernández, Begoña Soler-López and Nataly Cancelliere

Evaluation of the quality of care of oncologic patients with pain in palliative and pain units based on the Achievable Benchmarks of Care (ABC): project 25Q

Current guidelines on the management of cancer pain include information referred to integral patient management, in order to get an improvement in their quality of care. The assessment of compliance with the r...

Authors: Francisco Villegas-Estévez, Mª Dolores López-Alarcón, Antonio Javier Jiménez-López, Almudena Sanz-Yagüe and Begoña Soler-López

6th Grazer Risk Day: The Future of Yesterday in Healthcare

Authors:

A comparison of two methods of assessing the potential clinical importance of medication errors

A wide range of methods have been used to assess the potential clinical importance of medication errors, but it is neither clear which should be used, nor how they compare. In this paper, we compare two method...

Authors: Sandra Fahmy, Sara Garfield, Dominic Furniss, Ann Blandford and Bryony Dean Franklin

Personal support workers’ perception of safety in a changing world of work

Most studies on occupational health and safety in home and community care focus on the health and safety of professional health care workers such as nurses and therapists and very few address the occupational ...

Authors: Margaret Denton, Isik U. Zeytinoglu, Catherine Brookman, Sharon Davies and Patricia Boucher

Readiness and willingness to provide immunization services: a survey of community pharmacists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Immunization rates among the adult population in Saudi Arabia fall below desired targets, urging the need to expand this service in the community. Community pharmacists are recognized as highly accessible heal...

Authors: Bander Balkhi, Hisham Aljadhey, Mansour A. Mahmoud, Maha Alrasheed, Lisa G. Pont, Alemayehu B. Mekonnen and Tariq M. Alhawassi

Knowledge and practices of nurses regarding nosocomial infection control measures in private hospitals in Sana’a City, Yemen

In the Yemeni healthcare setting, basic infection control measures are necessary to reduce the rates of hospital-associated infections.

Authors: Gamil Alrubaiee, Anisah Baharom, Hayati Kadir Shahar, Shaffe Mohd Daud and Huda Omar Basaleem

Patient safety culture in Norwegian home health nursing: a cross-sectional study of healthcare provider’s perceptions of the teamwork and safety climates

The threefold aim of this study was to (1) describe attitudes to patient safety among healthcare providers in home health nursing (HHN), (2) investigate differences in attitudes due to age, education level, ye...

Authors: Rose Mari Olsen and Jorunn Bjerkan

Developing and testing quality indicators for the Thai Quality and Outcomes Framework

Primary care serves as an entry point in the Thai health care system. Whilst effective interventions are provided in the primary care setting, the quality of the services have not been measured or tracked. A n...

Authors: Roongnapa Khampang, Yot Teerawattananon, Sripen Tantivess, Francoise Cluzeau, Rachel Foskett-Tharby and Paramjit Gill

On safety ontology: a cross-section analysis of incident investigations in a public healthcare system

Due to new legislation in 2011 and 2013, the Swedish public healthcare system has undergone change as regards incident reporting and supervision. Focus has turned to learning from adverse events and sharing th...

Authors: Jonas Wrigstad, Johan Bergström and Pelle Gustafson

Dupuytren’s contracture: the status and impact of collagenase Clostridium histolyticum treatment in Austria

Over many decades, the treatment of Dupuytren’s disease, a fibroproliferative disease of the hand, is the centre of various studies and publications. Surgical intervention has always been the method of choice,...

Authors: Joseph Altziebler, Martin Hubmer, Daryousch Parvizi, Stephan Spendel, Matthias Rab and Lars-Peter Kamolz

Hospital survey on patient safety culture in Ethiopian public hospitals: a cross-sectional study

Internationally, patient safety is increasingly seen as a priority area, and improving patient safety highly depends on achieving a culture that supports and encourages health care staffs to report their error...

Authors: Alemayehu B. Mekonnen, Andrew J. McLachlan, Jo-anne E. Brien, Desalew Mekonnen and Zenahebezu Abay

Assessing the patient safety culture and ward error reporting in public sector hospitals of Pakistan

Very little research and practical efforts have been undertaken in public sector hospitals of Pakistan to promote error reporting and patient safety culture. Nurses in the country are key informants about the ...

Authors: Sara Rizvi Jafree, Rubeena Zakar, Muhammad Zakria Zakar and Florian Fischer

Critical Incident Reporting System (CIRS): a fundamental component of risk management in health care systems to enhance patient safety

The complexity of health care systems, the development of clinical approaches, and both scientific and technological advancements give rise to new requirements in clinical risk management. An expedient risk ma...

Authors: Walter Petschnig and Elisabeth Haslinger-Baumann

Cost of introducing group prenatal care (GPC) in Bangladesh: a supply-side perspective

Progress towards Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 5 is uneven across different countries. Maternal and neonatal deaths occur mainly in developing countries especially in rural areas and among the poor commun...

Authors: Marufa Sultana, Rashidul Alam Mahumud, Nausad Ali, Sayem Ahmed, Ziaul Islam, Jahangir A. M. Khan and Abdur Razzaque Sarker

Why adopt ISO 9001 certification in hospitals? A case study of external triggers and sensemaking in an emergency department in Norway

Certification and accreditation are widely used to achieve quality and safety in health care but are also questioned regarding their assumed effects. This is a challenge for policymakers and managers, since ad...

Authors: Dag Tomas Sagen Johannesen and Siri Wiig

High 5s initiative: implementation of medication reconciliation in France a 5 years experimentation

The International High 5s Project was developed by the World Health Organisation to address major concerns about patient safety. The Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) for ensuring medication accuracy during tr...

Authors: É. Dufay, S. Doerper, B. Michel, C. Roux Marson, A. Grain, A. M. Liebbe, K. Long, N. Tournade, B. Allenet, D. Breilh, I. Alquier and May L. Michelangeli

Medical device transformation without delay

The medical device industry is a significant and major contributor to global health, yet innovation and research remains suboptimal. Current data focuses on devices, recalls and economics without genuine refle...

Authors: Julie Babyar

The regulation, assessment, and management of medical devices in Mexico: How do they shape the quality of delivered healthcare?

Policies for health technologies such as medical devices are essential and contribute to improved quality of healthcare. The regulation, assessment, and management represent important functions of medical devi...

Authors: Myriam Lingg, Anahi Dreser Mansilla, Luis Durán-Arenas and Kaspar Wyss

Strategy and practise of external inspection in healthcare services – a Norwegian comparative case study

We could say that external inspections support improvement of healthcare services, but we know little about how. The aim of this study was to increase knowledge about how county governors, as external inspecto...

Authors: Charlotta Schaefer and Siri Wiig

Obligation of home care education for tracheostomy

Patient education facilitates imparting information to the patients and their caregivers by the health professionals and others that alter the patients’ health behaviors, improve their health status and uprigh...

Authors: Rabiul Alam, Mahbuba Rehana and Abdullah Raied

Trends of diabetes mellitus and hypertension at Nigist Eleni Mohammed General Hospital, Hossana, Ethiopia (December 2010-January 2014): a five year longitudinal study

The burden of chronic diseases is rapidly increasing worldwide. In 2005, at least 35 million people of all ages, nationalities, and socioeconomic levels died from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, respiratory d...

Authors: Degefa Helamo, Romedan Delil and Temesgen Dileba

Complexity and medical education

As a major quality management issue, in health care we have to deal with limitless complexity, be it at the level of the individual patient or at the level of the health system. Today complexity is characteriz...

Authors: Josef Smolle

Drug-related problems and their clinical interventions in a Ghanaian teaching hospital

Errors occur frequently in the use of medicines. Pharmacists play a key role in error identification and make appropriate interventions as they work with other healthcare professionals. These error recovery ro...

Authors: Franklin Acheampong, Florence Amah Nkansah and Berko Panyin Anto

Emergency Department presentation of frail older people and interventions for management: Geriatric Emergency Department Intervention

As population’s age and people live longer, the burden on acute health care services associated with the frail aged increases. Recognising the needs of this cohort as well as designing and evaluating intervent...

Authors: Alison Craswell, Elizabeth Marsden, Andrea Taylor and Marianne Wallis

Organizational solutions to improve timeliness and effectiveness of the stroke care

Saving time means saving neurons in stroke care process. Managerial and organizational solutions that lean the processes should be considered in order to overcome the effects of stroke, which is the second wor...

Authors: Maria Crema, Chiara Verbano, Jacopo Guercini, Caterina Bianciardi and Vincenzo Mezzatesta

Utilisation of research evidence in clinical practice to improve health care delivery- practices, attitudes and challenges faced by physiotherapists in Zimbabwe: a descriptive cross sectional study

Decision-making in health care delivery should be based on the best available current, valid and relevant evidence. Healthcare professionals should therefore be well versed with the skills required to make evi...

Authors: Cathrine Tadyanemhandu, Precious Chiedza Chiyangwa, Samson Chengetanai, Fidelis Chibhabha and Heleen van Aswegen

The effect of electronic prescribing and medication administration on nurses’ workflow and activities: an uncontrolled before and after study

Electronic prescribing and medication administration (ePMA) is purported to improve patient safety through a number of benefits including reducing medication errors and facilitating identification of prescribe...

Authors: Astrid Van Wilder, Helen Bell and Bryony Dean Franklin

Abstracts from the 4th Grazer Risk Day: Patient Safety in Routine

A1 Meet the needs: Important questions for ICU relatives

Authors: Magdalena M. Hoffmann, Anna K. Holl, Harald Burgsteiner, Thomas Pieber, Philipp Eller, Karin Amrein, Gerald Sendlhofer, Karina Leitgeb, Veronika Gombotz, Peter Tiefenbacher, Lars-Peter Kamolz, Gerald Sendlhofer, Karina Leitgeb, Magdalena Hoffmann, Sabine Papst, Susanne Gasteiner…

As a critical behavior to improve quality and patient safety in health care: speaking up!

Joint Commission predicted that 80 % of the serious safety events occur due to miscommunications among healthcare professionals. Speaking up is one of the critical behaviors of patient safety that displays an ...

Authors: Ahmet Nacioglu

Middle managers’ role in quality improvement project implementation, are we all on the same page? – A review of current literature

Middle managers within healthcare hold a unique position between senior leadership and frontline staff, and may hold a pivotal function in the implementation of quality improvement (QI) projects. This review a...

Authors: Karolina Zjadewicz, Deborah White, Shelley Raffin Bouchal and Sandra Reilly

Comparison of 640-slice Aquilon ONE CT scanner’s measured dosimetric parameters with ICRP dose reference levels for head, chest and abdominal CT examinations

Diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) are optimum range of values or diagnostic standard data for a particular procedure by which other imaging measurements must be compared for purposes of optimizing patient dos...

Authors: Samuel Anim-Sampong, William K. Antwi, Benard Ohene-Botwe and Rosemary S. Boateng

Surgical checklist use in Switzerland 2015 – where are we today?: a cross-sectional national survey study

Although surgical checklist use is not new in Switzerland, compliance and actual use fall short behind expectations taking scientific recommendation as standard. A national media campaign to raise awareness, i...

Authors: Anna C. Mascherek and David L. B. Schwappach

Burn prevention in the face of global wealth inequality

Burn injuries remain a consistent challenge for providers of medical care worldwide and thus the current focus of medical professionals is on improving treatments and reducing the incidence of burns altogether...

Authors: Gabriel Hundeshagen, Paul Wurzer, Abigail A. Forbes, Janos Cambiaso-Daniel, Omar Nunez-Lopez, Ludwik K. Branski and David N. Herndon

Working towards a definition for workplace violence actions in the health sector

Unlike the patient safety research network, no consensus document exists that outlines definitions and concepts that pertain to the workplace violence research environment in the health sector. There are no ag...

Authors: Malcolm J. Boyle and Jaime Wallis

Analysis of costs and benefits of a re-accreditation of a Swiss acute care hospital

Accreditation of hospitals and other institutions is a widely used instrument for the quality assurance in health care. However, relevant literature regarding the economic evaluation of hospital accreditation ...

Authors: Nicola Thurneysen, Tima Plank and Stefan Boes

The effect of an animation movie for inpatient fall prevention: a pilot study in an acute hospital

In this study, we developed an animated movie as a novel educational tool for fall prevention, and intended for patients and caregivers. We evaluated this new animation, comparing its effectiveness both before...

Authors: Etsuko Nakagami-Yamaguchi, Kumiko Fujinaga, Akiko Batard, Norio Baba, Kazunori Nakamura, Kyoko Miyazaki, Mayumi Mukai, Mikio Sugiura and Tatsuya Nakatani

Simulation in healthcare education: is it only about money?

Authors: T. Wegscheider

Low exposure levels of respirable particles during the preparation of NexoBrid® bromelain powder

Burns are common injuries that are usually covered with a layer of necrotic tissue called the eschar. Early removal of the eschar is the current standard of care, however, debridement using tangential excision...

Authors: Christian Smolle, Paul Wurzer, Alexandru Tuca, Yaron Shoham, Charles D. Voigt, Ludwik K. Branski, David Lumenta and Lars-Peter Kamolz

Attention guiding and hypnosis for acute pain management without medication

Authors: Margit Pichelmayer, Allan Krupka and Herbert Sponring

Allergy transcription before and after the implementation of an inpatient electronic prescribing system in a tertiary referral hospital: a case study in two oncology wards

Patients with allergies can be protected from potentially life threatening harm by recording their allergen and reaction correctly. Electronic prescribing is being widely implemented with a view to improving p...

Authors: Harriet Launders, Ann Jacklin and Bryony Dean Franklin

QUIPSinfant: Pain and possible side effects in postoperative children and adolescents

Authors: Claudia Weinmann, Marcus Komann, Antje Götterman, Alexander Avian and Winfried Meißner