International journal of health care quality assurance
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2011
Comparison of medication error rates and clinical effects in three medication prescription-dispensation systems.
Medication errors (MEs) are important in terms of their magnitude and severity, and there are numerous systems in place to reduce their occurrence. However, the ideal system has not yet been identified. The authors' institution uses three different medication prescription-dispensation systems which operate simultaneously. ME rates were compared, overall and by phase (prescription, transcription and administration) and their overall and specific clinical impact. ⋯ It is possible that automated medication dispensation systems reduce error rates and the severity of their effects.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2010
Developing severity adjusted quality measures for intensive care units.
Intensive care unit performance evaluation is usually affected by variations in the severity of inpatients' health status. This paper aims, therefore, to standardize two performance measures: intensive care unit survival and length of stay using the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) severity of illness score. ⋯ The paper underlines the need to implement a standardized measurement system to evaluate intensive care patient outcomes.
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This paper aims to explore how surveying benefits accreditation surveyors and the organisations in which they are regularly employed. The purpose is to examine from the perspective of senior executives who pursue this form of secondary professional activity, what they seek from being surveyors and what they believe they gain from the experience. ⋯ The paucity of existing literature on the role of the surveyor-both pre and post accreditation-makes this topic timely and significant. This study is important because almost all accreditation programs world wide rely on external surveyors, and yet we know little about them.
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Healthcare risk epidemiology identifies medication error as the commonest cause of adverse effects on patients. Medication error can occur at any phase of the complex medication process so prevalence rates need to be estimated at each drug treatment phase: prescription, transcription and administration along with their clinical repercussions. This paper aims to investigate this issue. ⋯ The paper highlights ways to reduce errors in the medication process.