International journal of health care quality assurance
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Increasingly, healthcare providers are implementing lean practices to achieve quality results. Implementing lean healthcare practices is unique compared to manufacturing and other service industries. The purpose of this paper is to present a model that identifies and defines the lean implementation key success factors in healthcare organisations. ⋯ Healthcare managers are adopting business practices that improve efficiency and productivity while ensuring their healthcare mission and guaranteeing that customer values are achieved. Shared understanding about complex goals (e.g. reducing waste and enhancing customer value) at the front-end is crucial for implementing successful lean practices. In particular, this study shows that nursing practices, which are both labour intensive and technology enabled, are good candidates for lean practice.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2014
Improving process quality for pediatric emergency department.
Overcrowding in emergency departments (EDs) leads to longer waiting times and results in higher number of patients leaving the ED without being seen by a physician. EDs need to improve quality for patients' waiting time and length of stay (LoS) from the perspective of process and flow control management. The paper aims to discuss these issues. ⋯ A process and flow control management scheme based on patient group characteristics may improve service quality and lead to a better patient satisfaction in ED.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2014
Multicenter StudySaudi Arabian ICU safety culture and nurses' attitudes.
The purpose of this paper is to examine nurses' attitudes towards safety culture in six Saudi Arabian intensive care units (ICUs). ⋯ To the knowledge, this is the first study to use SAQ to examine nurses' safety culture attitudes in Saudi Arabian ICUs. The present findings provide a baseline and further details about Saudi Arabian ICU safety. Study participants represented nine nationalities, indicating the nursing workforce's diversity, which is expected to continue in the future. Such a nursing cultural heterogeneity calls for further studies to examine and evaluate attitudes and values to improve ICU safety culture.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2014
Improving operating room productivity via parallel anesthesia processing.
Parallel processing of regional anesthesia may improve operating room (OR) efficiency in patients undergoes upper extremity surgical procedures. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether performing regional anesthesia outside the OR in parallel increases total cases per day, improve efficiency and productivity. ⋯ Simulation modeling can be an effective tool to show practice change effects at a system-wide level.
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Managing severe sepsis early has several benefits. Correct early management includes delivering an appropriate fluid challenge. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether junior doctors prescribe adequate fluid challenges to severely septic patients. ⋯ This, the first case-based survey the authors could find, highlights an issue requiring significant improvement. The implications are likely to be relevant to clinicians in all UK hospitals.