International journal of health care quality assurance
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2015
National early warning score (NEWS) - evaluation in surgery.
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate staff opinion on the impact of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) system on surgical wards. In 2012, the NEWS system was introduced to Irish hospitals on a phased basis as part of a national clinical programme in acute care. ⋯ Appropriate audit of the impact of the NEWS system on patient outcome may be pertinent to obtain the support from senior doctors. Deficiencies with the system were also observed including the absence of a rapid response team as part of the escalation protocol and a lack of concordance of the NEWS in patients Day zero post-operatively. These issues should be addressed moving forward.
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The current trend in Big Data analytics and in particular health information technology is toward building sophisticated models, methods and tools for business, operational and clinical intelligence. However, the critical issue of data quality required for these models is not getting the attention it deserves. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the issues of data quality in the context of Big Data health care analytics. ⋯ Today, data quality issues are diagnosed and addressed in a piece-meal fashion. The authors recommend a data lifecycle approach and provide a road map, that is more appropriate with the dimensions of Big Data and fits different stages in the analytical workflow.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2015
Patient safety culture: finding meaning in patient experiences.
The purpose of this paper is to determine what patient and family stories can tell us about patient safety culture within health care organizations and how patients experience patient safety culture. ⋯ Greater acknowledgement of the patient and family experience provides organizations with an integral perspective to assist in defining and addressing deficiencies within their patient safety culture and to identify opportunities for improvement.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2015
Does electronic medication reconciliation at hospital discharge decrease prescription medication errors?
Medication errors are an important patient safety issue. Electronic medication reconciliation is a system designed to correct medication discrepancies at transitions in healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to measure types and prevalence of intravenous antibiotic errors at hospital discharge before and after the addition of an electronic discharge medication reconciliation tool (EDMRT). ⋯ To the authors' knowledge, no other study has examined the impact of reconciliation on types and prevalence of medication errors at hospital discharge. The focus on intravenous antibiotics as a class of high-stakes medications with serious risks to patient safety during error events highlights the clinical importance of the findings. Electronic medication reconciliation may be an important tool in efforts to improve patient safety.
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Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2015
Roadmap for developing a national quality indicator set for general practice.
The purpose of this paper is to describe a national, comprehensive quality indicator set to support delivering high-quality clinical care in Irish general practice. ⋯ The authors describe in detail a method to develop general practice quality indicators for a regional or national population from existing validated indicators using consensus, action research and an illuminative evaluation.