Preventing Risks of Infections and Medication Errors in IV therapy (PRIME): a patient safety initiative.

BACKGROUND: Two major avoidable reasons for adverse events in hospital are medication errors and intravenous therapy-induced infections or complications. Training for clinical staff and compliance to patient safety principles could address these. METHODS: Joint Commission International (JCI) consultants created a standardised, 6-month training programme for clinical staff in hospitals. Twenty-one tertiary care hospitals from across south-east Asia took part. JCI trained the clinical consultants, who trained hospital safety champions, who trained nursing staff. Compliance and knowledge were assessed, and monthly audits were conducted. RESULTS: There was an overall increase of 29% in compliance with parameters around medication preparation and vascular access device management. CONCLUSION: The programme improved safe practice around preparing medications management and managing vascular access devices. The approach could be employed as a continuous quality improvement initiative for the prevention of medication errors and infusion-associated complications.

Study of mosquito fauna in rice ecosystems around Hanoi, northern Vietnam.

Species of the Culex vishnui subgroup, Cx. fuscocephala and Cx. gelidus, which are known Japanese encephalitis (JE) vectors, are distributed in rice agroecosystems in Asian countries. Hence, although ecological studies of rice agroecosystems in northern Vietnam are necessary, very few integrated studies of breeding habitats of mosquitoes, including JE vectors, have been conducted. We carried out a field study and investigated the mosquito fauna in six rice production areas in northern Vietnam during the rainy and dry seasons of 2009. Mosquitoes and potential mosquito predators were collected from aquatic habitats by using larval dippers. We collected 1780 Culex individuals (including 254 Cx. tritaeniorhynchus; 113 Cx. vishnui, 58 Cx. vishnui complex, consisting of Cx. vishnui and Cx. pseudovishnui; 12 Cx. gelidus; 1 Cx. bitaeniorhynchus; and 1 Cx. fuscocephala), 148 Anopheles individuals (including 5 An. vagus), 1 Mansonia annulifera, and 1 Mimomyia chamberlaini during the rainy season. During the dry season, we collected 176 Culex individuals (including 33 Cx. vishnui, 24 Cx. tritaeniorhynchus, 8 Cx. vishnui complex, and 1 Cx. gelidus) and 186 Anopheles individuals (including 9 An. tessellatus, 2 An. kochi, and 2 An. barbumbrosus). We found mosquitoes in all aquatic habitats, namely, rice fields, ditches, ponds, wetlands, irrigation canals, and rice nurseries, and Cx. tritaeniorhynchus and Cx. vishnui complex were found in all the above six areas. Heteroptera such as Micronecta, Veliidae, and Pleidae were abundant and widely distributed in both the seasons. The abundance of mosquito larvae was higher in the rice fields, ditches, and ponds during the rainy season than during the dry season. Cx. tritaeniorhynchus, Cx. vishnui complex, Cx. fuscocephala, and Cx. gelidus were abundant in rice agroecosystems (rice fields, ditches, ponds, and wetlands) in northern Vietnam, and their abundance was high during the rainy season. These findings deepen our understanding of mosquito ecology and strengthen mosquito control strategies to be applied in rice ecosystems Vietnam in the future.