International journal of health care quality assurance
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2013
Randomized Controlled TrialWhat constitutes a good hand offs in the emergency department: a patient's perspective.
The aim is to determine, from the patient's perspective, what constitutes a good hand-off procedure in the emergency department (ED). The secondary purpose is to evaluate what impact a formalized hand-off had on patient knowledge, throughput and customer service ⋯ The researchers evaluated an ED physician specific hand-off process and illustrate the value and impact of involving patients in the hand-off process.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2013
The distress thermometer: a rapid and effective tool for the oncology social worker.
The psycho-oncology and social work services recognised that a cancer diagnosis and treatment can result in considerable emotional consequences for patients, yet the referral rate to both services was extremely low. Only very visibly distressed patients were being referred to the service. The "Distress Thermometer" (DT), a distress screening tool, was introduced as a pilot project with day care and inpatient oncology patients of St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, in an effort to improve the identification, management and treatment of psychological distress in oncology patients. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of this new intervention. ⋯ This was the first time that this internationally recognised tool was used to such an extent and to positive effect in an Irish context.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2013
Clinical quality improvement: eliminating unplanned extubation in the CCU.
This article aims to explore coronary care unit (CCU) extubation structures, processes and outcomes. There were 13 unplanned-extubation cases (UE) among 251 intubated patients (5.2 per cent) in a cardiologist-led CCU in 2008. Seven did not require re-intubation, implying possible earlier extubation. A quality improvement project was undertaken with a goal to eliminate CCU UE within 12 months. ⋯ There is little published data on improving intubated patient care in cardiologist-led CCUs. Previous studies centered on intensive care units managed by critical care specialists.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2013
Simulation team training for improved teamwork in an intensive care unit.
This study aims to describe implementation of simulator-based medical team training and the effect of this programme on inter-professional working in an intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ The present results broaden our understanding of how to create and sustain an organizational system that supports medical team training.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2013
Increasing operating room productivity by duration categories and a newsvendor model.
Previous studies approach surgery scheduling mainly from the mathematical modeling perspective which is often hard to apply in a practical environment. The aim of this study is to develop a practical scheduling system that considers the advantages of both surgery categorization and newsvendor model to surgery scheduling. ⋯ The study increases the understanding of practical scheduling methods used to improve efficiency in surgical services.