Articles: checklist.
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Patient Prefer Adher · Jan 2014
Effects on caregiver burden of a donepezil hydrochloride dosage increase to 10 mg/day in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
In this study, we evaluated changes in functioning and caregiver burden in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients after a dosage increase that was made based on pharmacists' evaluation of AD patients' behavior in daily life. ⋯ The dosage increase not only decreased caregiver burden, but also appeared to improve impaired swallowing function. Medication therapy management by pharmacists of AD patients, including the use of a checklist, contributed to the correct use of donepezil and improved quality of life for caregivers.
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Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf · Jan 2014
Sustainable, effective implementation of a surgical preprocedural checklist: an "attestation" format for all operating team members.
Adoption ofa preprocedural pause (PPP) associated with a checklist and a team briefing has been shown to improve teamwork function in operating rooms (ORs) and has resulted in improved outcomes. The format of the World Health Organization Safe Surgery Saves Lives checklist has been used as a template for a PPP. Performing a PPP, described as a "time-out," is one of the three principal components, along with a preprocedure verification process and marking the procedure site, of the Joint Commission's Universal Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Person Surgery. However, if the surgeon alone leads the pause, its effectiveness may be decreased by lack of input from other operating team members. ⋯ A preprocedural checklist format in which each member of the operating team provides a personal attestation can improve pause compliance and may contribute to improvements in the culture of teamwork within an OR. Successful online implementation of a PPP, which includes participation by all operating team members, requires little or no additional expense and only minimal formal coaching outside working situations.
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Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Jan 2014
Review Meta AnalysisThe effects of safety checklists in medicine: a systematic review.
Safety checklists have become an established safety tool in medicine. Despite studies showing decreased mortality and complications, the effects and feasibility of checklists have been questioned. This systematic review summarises the medical literature aiming to show the effects of safety checklists with a number of outcomes. ⋯ Safety checklists appear to be effective tools for improving patient safety in various clinical settings by strengthening compliance with guidelines, improving human factors, reducing the incidence of adverse events, and decreasing mortality and morbidity. None of the included studies reported negative effects on safety.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Sensitivity, specificity, and sex differences in symptoms reported on the 13-item acute coronary syndrome checklist.
Clinical symptoms are part of the risk stratification approaches used in the emergency department (ED) to evaluate patients with suspected acute coronary syndromes (ACS). The objective of this study was to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of 13 symptoms for a discharge diagnosis of ACS in women and men. ⋯ There were more similarities than differences in symptom predictors of ACS for women and men.
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Checklists have been used to improve quality in many industries, including healthcare. The use of checklists, however, has not been extensively evaluated in clinical ethics consultation. This article seeks to fill this gap by exploring the efficacy of using a checklist in ethics consultation, as tested by an empirical investigation of the use of the checklist at a large academic medical system (Cleveland Clinic). ⋯ Despite these limitations, to the authors' knowledge this is the first investigation of the use of a checklist systematically to improve quality in ethics consultation. Importantly, our findings shed light on ways this checklist can be used to improve ethics consultation, including its use as an educational tool. The authors hope to test the checklist with consultants in other healthcare systems to explore its usefulness in different healthcare environments.