Challenges for Joint Commission International accreditation: performance of orthopedic surgeons based on International Patient Safety Goals.

The Joint Commission International (JCI) is a US-based organization that accredits and certifies hospitals worldwide. Among the requirements for accreditation, the JCI emphasizes continuous quality improvement (CQI) with regard to international patient safety goals (IPSGs). Our university hospital treats about 26,000 hospitalized patients and 600,000 outpatients annually, and our goal is patient safety in compliance with IPSGs. The purpose of this study is to examine the activities of orthopedic surgeons in preparation for JCI accreditation, including clear identification of patients, preoperative timeout and marking to ensure correct surgery, timely approval of CT/MRI reports, care with pain management, prevention of infection, setting of quality indicators and daily monitoring, and teamwork. Examiners from the JCI visited our hospital to review medical records and documents, and to interview patients, nurses and doctors. There were 1270 evaluation items covering 16 fields, including reviews of IPSGs, patient evaluation and care, infection prevention and control, and governance and leadership. Most importantly, the efforts of all the medical staff in our hospital in obtaining the first JCI accreditation among national university hospitals in Japan have promoted the safety and quality of medical care from the perspective of the patient.

Safety practices and opportunities for improvement in brachytherapy: A patient safety practices survey of the American Brachytherapy Society membership.

PURPOSE: Safe delivery of brachytherapy and establishing a safety culture are critical in high-quality brachytherapy. The American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) Quality and Safety Committee surveyed members regarding brachytherapy services offered, safety practices during treatment, quality assurance procedures, and needs to develop safety and training materials. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A 22-item survey was sent to ABS membership in early 2019 to physicians, physicists, therapists, nurses, and administrators. Participation was voluntary. Responses were summarized with descriptive statistics and relative frequency distributions. RESULTS: There were 103 unique responses. Approximately one in three was attending physicians and one in three attending physicists. Most were in practice >10 years. A total of 94% and 50% performed gynecologic and prostate brachytherapy, respectively. Ninety-one percent performed two-identification patient verification before treatment. Eighty-six percent performed a time-out. Ninety-five percent had an incident reporting or learning system, but only 71% regularly reviewed incidents. Half reviewed safety practices within the last year. Twenty percent reported they were somewhat or not satisfied with department safety culture, but 92% of respondents were interested in improving safety culture. Most reported time, communication, and staffing as barriers to improving safety. Most respondents desired safety-oriented webinars, self-assessment modules, learning modules, or checklists endorsed by the ABS to improve safety practice. CONCLUSIONS: Most but not all practices use standards and quality assurance procedures in line with society recommendations. There is a need to heighten safety culture at many departments and to shift resources (e.g., time or staffing) to improve safety practice. There is a desire for society guidance to improve brachytherapy safety practices. This is the first survey to assess safety practice patterns among a national sample of radiation oncologists with expertise in brachytherapy.

[Evaluation of effectiveness of corrective measures arising from incident notifications in a paediatric emergency department]. / Evaluación de la efectividad de acciones correctivas derivadas de la notificación de incidentes en urgencias pediátricas.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the effectiveness of corrective measures arising from the analysis of safety incident notifications in the Paediatric Emergency Unit. METHODS: A quasi-experimental, prospective, and single-centre study was carried out between 2015 and 2018. In the first phase, incidents notified throughout one year were analysed. Corrective measures were then implemented for 5 specific kinds of incidents. These incidents were finally compared to those notified within 12 months after the implementation of those measures. Results were expressed as relative risk and relative risk reduction. RESULTS: A total of 1587 safety incidents were notified (0.9% of patients treated) between January 2015 and December 2017. After implementation of corrective measures, there was a decrease in all kinds of incidents notifications analysed. The incidents related to patient identification were reduced by 60.9% (RR 0.39, 95% CI; 0.25-0.60), and those regarding communication between professionals were reduced by 74.5% (RR 0.25, 95% CI; 0.12-0.55). Incidents related to sedation and analgesic procedures totally disappeared. No significant reduction was found in incidents concerning the triage system, or in those related to rapid intravenous rehydration procedures. CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of improvement actions arising from the analysis of voluntary notification of incidents is an effective strategy to improve patient effective strategy to improve.

Adhesion to patient safety protocols in emergency care units / Adhesión a los protocolos de seguridad del paciente en unidades de pronta atención / Adesão aos protocolos de segurança do paciente em unidades de pronto atendimento

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate compliance of national patient safety protocols in Emergency Care Units (UPA) of the Paraná State. Method: From April until September 2016, the exploratory stage of the action research was conducted on stratified sampling with 377 patients of eight units, with use of verification instrument of basic safety actions. Results: The absence of systematic identification of patients, fall risk assessment and signaling and development of pressure injuries were evidenced. We observed that 52.8% of parenteral solutions in use were not identified and that, in only 29.4% of the cases, the allergic condition was investigated. In 80.6% of the emergency units there was availability of alcoholic solution to hand hygiene. Conclusion: We concluded that the non-compliance of basic actions concerning patient safety exposes users to preventable adverse events and demands systematized actions to comply with government guidelines and promote quality of health assistance.

RESUMEN Objetivo: Investigar el cumplimiento de los protocolos nacionales de seguridad del paciente en Unidades de Pronta Atención paranaenses. Método: Entre abril y septiembre de 2016 fue realizada la etapa exploratoria de la investigación acción, en muestra estratificada de 377 pacientes de ocho unidades, utilizándose instrumento de certificación de acciones básicas de seguridad. Resultados: Se evidenció la ausencia de identificación sistematizada de los pacientes y de evaluación y señalización del riesgo para caída y desarrollo de lesión por presión. Se observó que el 52,8% de las soluciones parenterales en uso no estaban identificadas y que, en solamente el 29,4% de los casos, la condición alérgica fue investigada. En el 80,6% de los puntos de asistencia había disponibilidad de solución alcohólica para la higienización de las manos. Conclusión: Se concluye que el no cumplimiento de acciones básicas relativas a la seguridad del paciente expone a los usuarios a eventos adversos prevenibles y demanda acciones sistematizadas para la observancia de las directrices gubernamentales y la promoción de la cualidad de la asistencia en salud.

RESUMO Objetivo: Investigar o cumprimento dos protocolos nacionais de segurança do paciente em Unidades de Pronto Atendimento paranaenses. Método: Entre abril e setembro de 2016 foi realizada etapa exploratória de pesquisa ação, em amostra estratificada de 377 pacientes de oito unidades, utilizando-se instrumento de verificação de ações básicas de segurança. Resultados: Evidenciou-se ausência de identificação sistematizada dos pacientes e de avaliação e sinalização do risco para queda e desenvolvimento de lesão por pressão. Observou-se que 52,8% das soluções parenterais em uso não estavam identificadas e que, em apenas 29,4% dos casos, a condição alérgica foi investigada. Em 80,6% dos pontos de assistência havia a disponibilidade de solução alcoólica para a higienização das mãos. Conclusão: Conclui-se que o não cumprimento de ações básicas relativas à segurança do paciente expõe os usuários a eventos adversos preveníveis e demanda ações sistematizadas para observância das diretrizes governamentais e promoção da qualidade da assistência em saúde.

Enhancing a Blood Transfusion Platform with Clinic Decision Support Component to Better Assure Patient Safety.

Blood transfusion is an important but complex and high-risky clinical procedure. Any error could cause serious injuries to patients. To better assure the procedure safety, we enhancing our home-made blood transfusion platform with new clinic decision support components to assure patient's identity and to inform clinicians of any event in time. So far, our transfusion incidence case has been reduced to 0 from 9 before the system implemented.

How good is the coverage and how accurate are exposure data in the Swedish Biologics Register (ARTIS)?

OBJECTIVES: To assess the coverage of the Swedish Biologics Register (Anti-Rheumatic Therapy in Sweden, ARTIS) across indications, and the accuracy of the registered information on treatment with biologics. METHOD: Through cross-reference of ARTIS to almost complete national health registers on prescriptions (adalimumab and etanercept), outpatient visits, and death/residency during 2008-2010, we assessed: the treatment coverage of ARTIS for each treatment indication, the validity of the registered start and stop dates, ARTIS treatments with no corresponding drug dispensations, and the accuracy of the registered information on concomitant anti-rheumatic therapies. RESULTS: According to the national health registers, 3945 individuals with a spondyloarthropathy (SpA) and 8032 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) had filled at least one adalimumab or etanercept prescription during the study period. Of these, 86% of those with SpAs and 95% of patients with RA were also found in ARTIS with the corresponding treatment. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor prescriptions had been filled by 95% of patients between the ARTIS start and stop dates (allowing a 90-day window). More than 60 days before and more than 60 days after the registered start date in ARTIS, 5% and 4% respectively of patients had filled their first TNF inhibitor prescription. More than 90 days after the registered stop date in ARTIS, 8% of patients had filled one or more TNF inhibitor prescriptions. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a high coverage and accuracy of ARTIS data on biologics exposure, for both SpAs and RA. The combination of data from clinical registers such as ARTIS with data from national health registers offers a high quality measurement of actual treatment.

Patient access and 1-year outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention facilities with and without on-site cardiothoracic surgery: insights from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Clinical Assessment, Reporting, and Tracking (CART) program.

BACKGROUND: The safety of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at medical facilities without on-site cardiothoracic (CT) surgery has been established in clinical trials. However, the comparative effectiveness of this strategy in real-world practice, including impact on patient access and outcomes, is uncertain. The Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system has used this strategy, with strict quality oversight, since 2005, and can provide insight into this question. METHODS AND RESULTS: Among 24,387 patients receiving PCI at VA facilities between October 2007 and September 2010, 6616 (27.1%) patients underwent PCI at facilities (n=18) without on-site CT surgery. Patient drive time (as a proxy for access), procedural complications, 1-year mortality, myocardial infarction, and rates of subsequent revascularization procedures were compared by facility. Results were stratified by procedural indication (ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction versus non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction/unstable angina versus elective) and PCI volume. With the inclusion of PCI facilities without on-site CT surgery, median drive time for patients treated at those facilities decreased by 90.8 minutes (P<0.001). Procedural need for emergent coronary artery bypass graft and mortality rates were low and similar between facilities. Adjusted 1-year mortality and myocardial infarction rates were similar between facilities (hazard ratio in PCI facilities without relative to those with on-site CT surgery, 1.02; 95% confidence interval, 0.87-1.2), and not modified by either PCI indication or PCI volume. Subsequent revascularization rates were higher at sites without on-site CT surgery facilities (hazard ratio, 1.21; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.42). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that providing PCI facilities without on-site CT surgery in an integrated health care system with quality oversight improves patient access without compromising procedural or 1-year outcomes.

Delayed family reunification of pediatric disaster survivors increases mortality and inpatient hospital costs: a simulation study.

BACKGROUND: Disasters occur randomly and can severely tax the health care delivery system of affected and surrounding regions. A significant proportion of disaster survivors are children, who have unique medical, psychosocial, and logistical needs after a mass casualty event. Children are often transported to specialty centers after disasters for a higher level of pediatric care, but this can also lead to separation of these survivors from their families. In a recent theoretical article, we showed that the availability of a pediatric trauma center after a mass casualty event would decrease the time needed to definitively treat the pediatric survivor cohort and decrease pediatric mortality. However, we also found that if the pediatric center was too slow in admitting and discharging patients, these benefits were at risk of being lost as children became "trapped" in the slow center. We hypothesized that this effect could result in further increased mortality and greater costs. METHODS: Here, we expand on these ideas to test this hypothesis via mathematical simulation. We examine how a delay in discharge of part of the pediatric cohort is predicted to affect mortality and the cost of inpatient care in the setting of our model. RESULTS: We find that mortality would increase slightly (from 14.2%-16.1%), and the cost of inpatient care increases dramatically (by a factor of 21) if children are discharged at rates consistent with reported delays to reunification after a disaster from the literature. CONCLUSIONS: Our results argue for the ongoing improvement of identification technology and logistics for rapid reunification of pediatric survivors with their families after mass casualty events.

[Linkage of secondary data with cancer registry data on the basis of encrypted personal identifiers - results from a pilot study in North Rhine-Westphalia]. / Abgleich von Sekundärdaten mit einem epidemiologischen Krebsregister auf der Basis verschlüsselter Personendaten - Ergebnisse einer Pilotstudie in Nordrhein-Westfalen.

BACKGROUND: The Cancer Registry of North-Rhine-Westphalia stores exclusively encrypted personal identifiers of registered cancer patients. Therefore, comparisons with secondary data sets can only be performed by record linkage procedures that are based on encrypted personal identifiers. We report on a pilot study which linked encrypted personal data from the disease management program for patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (DMP-DM2) with the database of the EKR NRW in order to test the feasibility and efficiency of these record linkage procedures. METHODS: Personal identifying variables of the DMP records were encrypted in a 2-stage process before being sent electronically to the EKR NRW where they were subsequently submitted to a probabilistic record linkage with the registry data. The study included 27 450 participants who were insured at the AOK NordWest, residents of the district Münster and who were aged 40-79 years at the time of first enrolment to the DMP-DM2 between June 2003-July 2008. RESULTS: The electronic processing time of the semi-automatic record linkage procedure took about 24 h. Approximately 2% of the records had to be reviewed manually. After exclusion of prevalent cancer cases, multiple primaries and inadequate data, 26 742 participants (47.3% men; 52.7% women) remained in the data set. About 1 364 cohort members (759 men, 605 women) were diagnosed with cancer after submission to the disease management program. DISCUSSION: The DMP-DM2 records were encrypted and linked to cancer registry data with a moderate personnel and financial input and high efficiency. Linked records were instantly usable for epidemiological analyses. Experiences of the pilot study suggest that future linkage studies can further advance the level of data protection, without losses in efficiency, by moderately complex software modifications and amendments of the data flow.

Mapping the limits of safety reporting systems in health care--what lessons can we actually learn?

OBJECTIVES: To assess the utility of Australian health care incident reporting systems and determine the depth of information available within a typical system. DESIGN AND SETTING: Incidents relating to patient misidentification occurring between 2004 and 2008 were selected from a sample extracted from a number of Australian health services' incident reporting systems using a manual search function. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incident type, aetiology (error type) and recovery (error-detection mechanism). Analyses were performed to determine category saturation. RESULTS: All 487 selected incidents could be classified according to incident type. The most prevalent incident type was medication being administered to the wrong patient (25.7%, 125), followed by incidents where a procedure was performed on the wrong patient (15.2%, 74) and incidents where an order for pathology or medical imaging was mislabelled (7.0%, 34). Category saturation was achieved quickly, with about half the total number of incident types identified in the first 13.5% of the incidents. All 43 incident types were classified within 76.2% of the dataset. Fifty-two incident reports (10.7%) included sufficient information to classify specific incident aetiology, and 288 reports (59.1%) had sufficient detailed information to classify a specific incident recovery mechanism. CONCLUSIONS: Incident reporting systems enable the classification of the surface features of an incident and identify common incident types. However, current systems provide little useful information on the underlying aetiology or incident recovery functions. Our study highlights several limitations of incident reporting systems, and provides guidance for improving the use of such systems in quality and safety improvement.

Current practice on preoperative correct site surgical marking.

Performing surgery at an incorrect site has devastating outcomes. The National Patient Safety agency and Royal College of Surgeons England have provided recommendations to promote correct site surgery with emphasis on surgical markings. There is little published data on surgical site marking practices amongst surgeons. A prospective audit on surgical site marking was performed on 500 surgical procedures: 204 inguinal hernias, 35 umbilical hernias, 48 varicose veins, 40 toenail removals, 123 excisions of skin lesions, 10 femoral artery procedures and 40 breast procedures. The results showed that 59% of markings were visible in theatre post sterile draping, 40.4% markings were not visible, and 0.6% (3/500) were not marked. Recommendations suggest the use of an arrow with an indelible marker pen. Our results show the use of an arrow in 64% of patients and this was the most common form of mark used. An appropriate marker pen was used on 88% of patients. There is no evident published data to compare our practice to that of other surgical units, however, to improve correct site surgery markings should be visible, recognisable and understood by all specialties and grades. A universal marking system to improve correct site surgery may be beneficial.

Automatic time-motion study of a multistep preoperative process.

BACKGROUND: Hospitals use time-motion studies to monitor process effectiveness and patient waiting. Manual tracking is labor-intensive and potentially influences system performance. New technology known as indoor positioning systems (IPS) may allow automatic monitoring of patient waiting and progress. The authors tested whether an IPS can track patients through a multistep preoperative process. METHODS: The authors used an IPS between October 14, 2005, and June 13, 2006, to track patients in a multistep ambulatory preoperative process: needle localization and excisional biopsy of a breast lesion. The process was distributed across the ambulatory surgery and radiology departments of a large academic hospital. Direct observation of the process was used to develop a workflow template. The authors then developed software to convert the IPS data into usable time-motion data suitable for monitoring process efficiency over time. RESULTS: The authors assigned tags to 306 patients during the study period. Eighty patients never underwent the procedure or never had their tag affixed. One hundred seventy-seven (78%) of the remaining 226 patients successfully matched the workflow template. Process time stamps were automatically extracted from the successful matches, measuring time before radiology (mean +/- SD, 77 +/- 35 min), time in radiology (105 +/- 35 min), and time between radiology and operating room (80 +/- 60 min), which summed to total preoperative time (261 +/- 67 min). CONCLUSIONS: The authors have demonstrated that it is possible to use a combination of IPS technology and sequence alignment pattern matching software to automate the time-motion study of patients in a multidepartment, multistep process with the only day-of-surgery intervention being the application of a tag when the patient arrives.

Patient identification: hybrids and doppelgängers.

Safe laboratory practice requires accurate patient identification. Adverse events may occur when a patient has identifiers similar or identical to those of another patient (a 'doppelgänger'), is doubly registered (a 'duplicate registration'), or when registration details are derived from two or more separate sources (a 'hybrid registration'). Distinguishing doppelgängers from duplicate registrations is not always easy. A search of the Harefield Hospital Patient Administration System (PAS) database revealed 39 registrations that shared a forename, surname and date of birth with at least one other registration. Thirty-seven of these cases involved a duplicate registration, one involved a hybrid registration, and one involved a doppelgänger. The National Strategic Tracing Service can help with resolution of difficult cases. Many serious patient identification errors involve what the Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) Report refers to as 'extraordinary' coincidences of patients with similar names. Such coincidences are, in fact, not extraordinary, but ordinary. A major challenge will be to establish how adverse events involving coincidence can be described in a way that does not create the impression of extraordinary bad luck.