Healthcare Quality Received by Insured Patients in Two Indonesian Regional Public Hospitals.

Background: Hospitals are required to improve the quality of health services provided to patients. Purpose: Evaluating and comparing the healthcare quality received by insured patients hospitalized in two Indonesian regional public hospitals. Methods: Secondary data analysis used the 2019 and 2020 Indonesian National Health Insurance e-claim databases of Hospital A and Hospital B. Descriptive and crosstabs analyses were used to determine INA-CBGs diagnoses that were categorized as high volume, high risk, and high cost. Results: The admissions that caused financial loss at the Hospital A were 21.1% in 2019 and 19.8% in 2020, while 30.3% in 2019 and 27.5% at the Hospital B. More than 60% of these admissions were placed in the 3rd class of inpatient wards of the two hospitals. Of these admissions, < 5% at the Hospital A and >5% at the Hospital B were readmitted within 30 days, although more than 90% were previously discharged based on physicians' approval. Conclusions: Inadequate healthcare quality received by insured patients. Hence, an integrated clinical pathways based professional nursing practice model is highly recommended to increase patient outcomes and decrease 30 days hospital readmission rates.

Midwives' perspectives on person-centred maternity care in public hospitals in South-east Nigeria: A mixed-method study.

BACKGROUND: Person-centred maternity care (PCMC) is acknowledged as essential for achieving improved quality of care during labour and childbirth. Yet, evidence of healthcare providers' perspectives of person-centred maternity care is scarce in Nigeria. This study, therefore, examined the perceptions of midwives on person-centred maternity care (PCMC) in Enugu State, South-east Nigeria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was conducted in seven public hospitals in Enugu metropolis, Enugu State, South-east Nigeria. A mixed-methods design, involving a cross-sectional survey and focus group discussions (FGDs) was used. All midwives (n = 201) working in the maternity sections of the selected hospitals were sampled. Data were collected from February to May 2019 using a self-administered, validated PCMC questionnaire. A sub-set of midwives (n = 56), purposively selected using maximum variation sampling, participated in the FGDs (n = 7). Quantitative data were entered, cleaned, and analysed with SPSS version 20 using descriptive and bivariate statistics and multivariate regression. Statistical significance was set at alpha 0.05 level. Qualitative data were analysed thematically. RESULTS: The mean age of midwives was 41.8 years ±9.6 years. About 53% of midwives have worked for ≥10 years, while 60% are junior midwives. Overall, the prevalence of low, medium, and high PCMC among midwives were 26%, 49% and 25%. The mean PCMC score was 54.06 (10.99). High perception of PCMC subscales ranged from 6.5% (dignity and respect) to 19% (supportive care). Midwives' perceived PCMC was not significantly related to any socio-demographic characteristics. Respectful care, empathetic caregiving, prompt initiation of care, paying attention to women, psychosocial support, trust, and altruism enhanced PCMC. In contrast, verbal and physical abuses were common but normalised. Midwives' weakest components of autonomy and communication were low involvement of women in decision about their care and choice of birthing position. Supportive care was constrained by restrictive policy on birth companion, poor working conditions, and cost of childbirth care. CONCLUSION: PCMC is inadequate in public hospitals as seen from midwives' perspectives. Demographic characteristics of midwives do not seem to play a significant role in midwives' delivery of PCMC. The study identified areas where midwives must build competencies to deliver PCMC.

Length of stay to recover from severe acute malnutrition and associated factors among under-five years children admitted to public hospitals in Aksum, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Severe acute malnutrition is defined by <70% weight for length/height, by visible severe wasting, by the presence of pitting edema, and in children 6 to 59 months of age, mid upper arm circumference <110 mm. Severe acute malnutrition remains to be a worldwide problem, claiming lives of millions of children, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. Though the Ethiopian national guideline states the total length of stay in therapeutic feeding units should not be more than four weeks, there is huge difference, varying from 8 to 47 days of stay. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess length of stay to recover from severe acute malnutrition and associated factors among under five children hospitalized to the public hospitals in Aksum Town. METHODS: Sample size was calculated using STATA version 12.0. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using pretested questionnaire in the public hospitals in Aksum on children aged 0-59 months. Cleaned data was entered to Epi info version 7.1.4 and then exported into SPSS version 21 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable analyses were performed using Kaplan Meier and Cox regression models. During bivariable analysis, variables with p-value < 0.05 were selected for multivariable analysis to identify independent factors associated with length of stay. RESULTS: A total of 564 participants enrolled to the study. The rate of recovery was 56% with median length of stay of 15 days (95% CI: 14.1, 15.9). The independent predictors of length of stay to recovery were presence of diarrhea at admission (AHR = 0.573, 95% CI: 0.415-0.793), being HIV positive (AHR = 0.391, 95% CI: 0.194-0.788), palmar pallor (AHR = 0.575, 95% CI: 0.416-0.794), presence of other co-morbidities at admission (AHR = 0.415, 95% CI: 0.302-0.570) and not being treated with plumpy nut (AHR = 0.368, 95% CI: 0.262-0.518). CONCLUSIONS: Length of stay is in the acceptable range of the international and national set of standards. Nevertheless, the recovery rate was lower compared to the Sphere standard. Presence of diarrhea, palmar pallor, HIV other co-morbidities and not treated with plumpy nut were found independent protective factors for recovery from sever acute malnutrition.

Assessing perceived quality of primary care under hospital-township health centre integration: A cross-sectional study in China.

Since the new round of health care reform in 2009, the vertical integration of hospitals and primary health institutions has become widely implemented in China as an efficient method for improving quality of primary care. This study aimed to answer the following questions: (a) What is the perceived quality of township health centres (THCs) under integration? (B) What differences could be observed among the three typical integration models, namely, private hospital-THC integration, public hospital-THC integration, and loose collaboration? Two rounds of cross-sectional surveys were conducted from November 2016 to June 2018. The Chinese version of the Primary Care Assessment Tool was used to evaluate perceived quality of sample THCs, and 1118 adult patients were interviewed in total. Multiple linear regressions were employed to compare the quality scores between two survey rounds and among different integration models after controlling for potential confounders. The results revealed that the quality of care significantly improved under private hospital-THC integration as observed by comparing two survey rounds, while no change or slight changes were observed in the other two models. The difference observed among the three models was that the perceived quality of THCs integrated with private hospitals was worse than that of THCs integrated with public hospitals and THCs under loose collaboration, while no significant difference was observed between public hospital-THC integration and loose collaboration. Increased attention should be given to highlighting the tight integration between hospitals and THCs and the different roles played by private and public hospitals in the current reform.

A four-stage DEA-based efficiency evaluation of public hospitals in China after the implementation of new medical reforms.

This study applied the non-parametric four-stage data envelopment analysis method (Four-Stage DEA) to measure the relative efficiencies of Chinese public hospitals from 2010 to 2016, and to determine how efficiencies were affected by eight factors. A sample of public hospitals (n = 84) was selected from Chongqing, China, including general hospitals and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals graded level 2 or above. The Four-Stage-DEA method was chosen since it enables the control of the impact of environment factors on efficiency evaluation results. Data on the number of staff, government financial subsidies, the number of beds and fixed assets were used as input whereas the number of out-patients and emergency department patients and visits, the number of discharged patients, medical and health service income and hospital bed utilization rate were chosen as study outputs. As relevant environmental variables, we selected GDP per capita, permanent population, population density, number of hospitals and number of available sickbeds in local medical institutions. The relative efficiencies (i.e. technical, pure technical, scale) of sample hospitals were also calculated to analyze the change between the first stage and fourth stage every year. The study found that Four-Stage-DEA can effectively filter the impact of environmental factors on evaluation results, which sets it apart from other models commonly used in existing studies.

The impact of palliative care training for oncologists and integrative palliative service in a public-funded hospital cluster-a retrospective cohort study.

PURPOSE: Oncological care of advanced cancer patients was provided by multiple departments in Hong Kong. One of these departments, the clinical oncology department (COD), introduced systematic palliative care training for its oncologists since 2002. The COD was recognized as a European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Designated Centre of Integrated Oncology and Palliative Care since 2009. This retrospective cohort study aims to review the impact of integrative training and service on palliative care coverage and outcome. METHODS: Clinical information, palliative service provision, and end-of-life outcomes of patients who passed away from lung, colorectal, liver, stomach, or breast cancer in the Hong Kong West public hospital network during July 2015 to December 2015 were collected. RESULTS: A total of 307 patients were analyzed. Around half (49.2%) were attended primarily by COD, and 68.9% received palliative service. There are significantly fewer patients referred to palliative care from other departments (p < 0.001), with only 19.9% of this patient group receiving palliative referral. COD patients had longer palliative coverage before death (median 65 days versus 24 days, p < 0.001), higher chance of receiving end-of-life care at hospice units (36.4 versus 21.2%, p = 0.003), lower ICU admission (0.66 versus 5.1%, p = 0.02), and higher percentage of receiving strong opioid in the last 30 days of life (51.0 versus 28.9%, p < 0.001) compared to other departments. In multivariable analysis, COD being the primary care team (odds ratio 12.2, p < 0.001) was associated with higher palliative care coverage. CONCLUSION: The study results suggested that systematic palliative care training of oncologists and integrative palliative service model was associated with higher palliative service coverage and improved palliative care outcomes.

Monitoring adverse events in Norwegian hospitals from 2010 to 2013.

OBJECTIVES: To describe how adverse event (AE) rates were monitored and estimated nationally across all Norwegian hospitals from 2010 to 2013, and how they developed during the monitoring period. Monitoring was based on medical record review with Global Trigger Tool (GTT). SETTING: All publicly and privately owned hospitals were mandated to review randomly selected medical records to monitor AE rates. The initiative was part of the Norwegian patient safety campaign, launched by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services. It started in January 2011 and lasted until December 2013. 2010 was the baseline for the review. One of the main aims of the campaign was to reduce patient harm. METHOD: To standardise the medical record reviews in all hospitals, GTT was chosen as a standard method. GTT teams from all hospitals reviewed 40,851 medical records randomly selected from 2,249,957 discharges from 2010 to 2013. Data were plotted in time series for local measurement and national AE rates were estimated, plotted and monitored. RESULTS: AE rates were estimated and published nationally from 2010 to 2013. Estimated AE rates in severity categories E-I decreased significantly from 16.1% in 2011 to 13.0% in 2013 (-3.1% (95% CI -5.2% to -1.1%)). CONCLUSIONS: Monitoring estimated AE rates emerges as a potential element in national systems for patient safety. Estimated AE rates in the category of least severity decreased significantly during the first 2 years of the monitoring.

Assessment of neonatal care in clinical training facilities in Kenya.

OBJECTIVE: An audit of neonatal care services provided by clinical training centres was undertaken to identify areas requiring improvement as part of wider efforts to improve newborn survival in Kenya. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using indicators based on prior work in Kenya. Statistical analyses were descriptive with adjustment for clustering of data. SETTING: Neonatal units of 22 public hospitals. PATIENTS: Neonates aged <7 days. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Quality of care was assessed in terms of availability of basic resources (principally equipment and drugs) and audit of case records for documentation of patient assessment and treatment at admission. RESULTS: All hospitals had oxygen, 19/22 had resuscitation and phototherapy equipment, but some key resources were missing­for example kangaroo care was available in 14/22. Out of 1249 records, 56.9% (95% CI 36.2% to 77.6%) had a standard neonatal admission form. A median score of 0 out of 3 for symptoms of severe illness (IQR 0-3) and a median score of 6 out of 8 for signs of severe illness (IQR 4-7) were documented. Maternal HIV status was documented in 674/1249 (54%, 95% CI 41.9% to 66.1%) cases. Drug doses exceeded recommendations by >20% in prescriptions for penicillin (11.6%, 95% CI 3.4% to 32.8%) and gentamicin (18.5%, 95% CI 13.4% to 25%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Basic resources are generally available, but there are deficiencies in key areas. Poor documentation limits the use of routine data for quality improvement. Significant opportunities exist for improvement in service delivery and adherence to guidelines in hospitals providing professional training.

Widespread non-adherence to evidence-based maternity care guidelines: a population-based cluster randomised household survey.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the quality of maternity care in an Indian metropolitan city. STUDY DESIGN: Three-stage cluster randomised cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Sixty selected colonies of Delhi. POPULATION: One thousand eight hundred and one subjects (of 2286 eligible) were enrolled from 118 446 houses. Women who had delivered a live viable birth in the past 6 months were selected for the study. METHODS: In stage 1, 20 wards (of 150) were selected using a probability-proportionate-to-size systematic method. In stage 2, one colony from each income stratum (high, middle and low) was selected from each ward by simple random sampling. In stage 3, a house-to-house survey was conducted to recruit 30 women for administering a peer-reviewed and pilot-trialled questionnaire. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Caesarean section rate, induction rate and episiotomy rate. RESULTS: National health targets such as iron supplementation advice (>96%), tetanus vaccination (>81%), and ≥3 antenatal visits (>90%) were largely achieved across health care facilities but not in home deliveries. Interventions were lower in public than private hospitals: caesarean section [23.7% (20.2-27.7) versus 53.8% (49.3-58.3)], induction [20.6% (17.5-24.25) versus 30.8% (26.8-33.2)] and episiotomy [57.8% (52.3-63.1) versus 79.4% (71.0-85.9)]. Private hospitals achieved better labour support rates [1.1% (0.5-2.2) versus 14.6% (8.5-24.1)] and pain relief [0.9% (0.4-2.0) versus 9.9 (6.5-14.8)]. Pubic hair shaving [16.2% (11.5-22.5) versus 36.4% (29.9-43.4)], enema [20.2% (15.5-26.0) versus 57.3% (49.5-64.8)], and IV fluids during labour [44.0% (36.2-52.2) versus 38.7% (29.3-49.1)] were widely prevalent in public and private hospitals. CONCLUSION: Present practices fall short of evidence-based guidelines, with relative overuse of interventions in private hospitals and deficiency of patient-centred practices such as labour support in public hospitals.

Improving the public health sector in South Africa: eliciting public preferences using a discrete choice experiment.

BACKGROUND: The introduction of national health insurance (NHI), aimed at achieving universal coverage, is the most important issue currently on the South African health policy agenda. Improvement in public sector health-care provision is crucial for the successful implementation of NHI as, regardless of whether health-care services become more affordable and available, if the quality of the services provided is not acceptable, people will not use the services. Although there has been criticism of the quality of public sector health services, limited research is available to identify what communities regard as the greatest problems with the services. METHODS: A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was undertaken to elicit public preferences on key dimensions of quality of care when selecting public health facilities in South Africa. Qualitative methods were applied to establish attributes and levels for the DCE. To elicit preferences, interviews with community members were held in two South African provinces: 491 in Western Cape and 499 in Eastern Cape. RESULTS: The availability of necessary medicine at health facilities has the greatest impact on the probability of attending public health facilities. Other clinical quality attributes (i.e. provision of expert advice and provision of a thorough examination) are more valued than non-clinical quality of care attributes (i.e. staff attitude, treatment by doctors or nurses, and waiting time). Treatment by a doctor was less valued than all other attributes. CONCLUSION: Communities are prepared to tolerate public sector health service characteristics such as a long waiting time, poor staff attitudes and lack of direct access to doctors if they receive the medicine they need, a thorough examination and a clear explanation of the diagnosis and prescribed treatment from health professionals. These findings prioritize issues that the South African government must address in order to meet their commitment to improve public sector health-care service provision.

Assistência ao parto sob a ótica das mulheres atendidas em um hospital público / Asistencia al parto desde el punto de vista de las mujeres atendidas en un hospital público / Delivery service under the perspective of women attended in a public hospital

Introdução: nas últimas décadas, notadamente a partir dos anos 1970, com o ressurgimento do movimento feminista, tem lugar as críticas à ideologia da maternidade, tendo como focos a desapropriação do próprio corpo pelas mulheres e o exercício da reprodução como um direito que inclui necessariamente, o acesso a serviços de saúde de qualidade. Objetivos: analisar a assistência ao parto sob a ótica das mulheres atendidas em um hospital público de ensino da cidade do Recife-Pernambuco, Brasil. Caracteriza-se como descritivo, exploratório, com abordagem qualitativa. Métodos: estudo descritivo, exploratório com abordagem qualitativa. Os dados foram coletados por meio de uma entrevista semiestruturada a vinte mulheres em um hospital público da cidade do Recife-Pernambuco, Brasil, no ano de 2011 e posteriormente analisados pela técnica do Discurso do Sujeito Coletivo. Resultados: mostram o desejo dessas mulheres em serem bem atendidas, enfatizaram os cuidados ofertados no parto por enfermeiras que rompem com a fragmentação e medicalização anteriores, favorecendo a compreensão do parto como um evento fisiológico. As mulheres mostraram sua indignação com a imposição de condutas, verticalização de ações, e a falta de respeito à autonomia no processo decisório. Conclusões: no cenário de uma assistência ao parto marcada por diferentes modelos de atenção, coexistem profissionais que prestam o cuidado de forma integral e outros que reafirmam opressão e poder sobre o corpo da mulher, institucionalizado pelo modelo biomédico(AU)

Introducción: en las últimas décadas, notablemente a partir de los años 70, con el resurgimento del movimento feminista han tenido lugar críticas a la ideología de la maternidad, cuyo foco ha sido la desapropriación del derecho de las mujeres en el ejercicio de la reproducción como un derecho que incluye necesariamente el acceso a servicios de salud de calidad. Objetivo: analizar la asistencia al parto desde el punto de vista de mujeres atendidas en un hospital público de enseñanza de la ciudad de Recife-Pernambuco, Brasil. Métodos: estudio descriptivo, exploratorio y con abordaje cualitativo. Datos recolectados mediante entrevista semiestructurada a veinte mujeres de la ciudad de Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil, en el año de 2011, y analizados mediante la técnica del Discurso del Sujeto Colectivo. Resultados: las mujeres del estudio mostraron el deseo de ser bien atendidas, hicieron hincapié en la atención ofrecida por las enfermeras en el parto, que rompe la fragmentación de la misma y medicalización, fomentando la comprensión del parto como un evento fisiológico. Las mujeres mostraron su indignación por la imposición de enfoques, acciones verticales y la falta de respeto a la autonomía en la toma de decisiones. Conclusiones: en una asistencia al parto marcada por diferentes modelos de atención, coexisten profesionales que prestan el cuidado de forma integral y otros que manifiestan opresión y poder sobre la mujer, institucionalizada por el modelo biomédico(AU)

Objective: analyze the delivery care from the perspective of women attended in a public teaching hospital. Method: It is characterized as descriptive, exploratory study with a qualitative approach. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview of twenty women, in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, in 2011 and subsequently analyzed using the Collective Subject Discourse. Results: show the desire of these women to be well met, emphasized the care offered by nurses at delivery that breaks the previous fragmentation of these and medicalization, fostering understanding of childbirth as a physiological event. The women showed their outrage at the imposition of approaches, vertical actions, and lack of respect for autonomy in decision making. Conclusions: in scenario of assistance to delivery marked by different care model, professionals who provide care holistically and others reaffirming oppression and power over women's bodies institutionalized by the biomedical model coexist(AU)

Structure in Brazilian maternity hospitals: key characteristics for quality of obstetric and neonatal care.

This study aimed to evaluate key characteristics of structure in a sample of maternity hospitals in Brazil. Structure was evaluated according to Ministry of Health criteria and included: geographic location, obstetric volume, presence of ICU, teaching activities, staff qualifications, and availability of equipment and medicines. The results showed differences in staff qualifications and availability of equipment in obstetric and neonatal care according to type of financing, region of the country, and degree of complexity. The North/Northeast and Central-West regions presented the most serious problems with structure. The public and mixed hospitals were better structured in the South/Southeast, reaching satisfactory levels on various items, similar or superior to the private hospitals. The current study contributes to the debate on quality of structure in Brazil's hospital services and emphasizes the need to develop analytical studies considering process and results of obstetric and neonatal care.

Estrutura das maternidades: aspectos relevantes para a qualidade da atenção ao parto e nascimento / Estructura de los hospitales de maternidad: aspectos relevantes para la calidad de la atención durante el parto y el nacimiento / Structure in Brazilian maternity hospitals: key characteristics for quality of obstetric and neonatal care

Avaliar aspectos da estrutura de uma amostra de maternidades do Brasil. A estrutura foi avaliada tendo como referências as normas do Ministério da Saúde e englobou: localização geográfica, volume de partos, existência de UTI, atividade de ensino, qualificação de recursos humanos, disponibilidade de equipamentos e medicamentos. Os resultados evidenciam diferenças na qualificação e na disponibilidade de equipamentos e insumos dos serviços de atenção ao parto e nascimento segundo o tipo de financiamento, regiões do país e grau de complexidade. As regiões Norte/Nordeste e Centro-oeste apresentaram os maiores problemas. No Sul/Sudeste, os hospitais estavam melhores estruturados, atingindo proporções satisfatórias em vários dos aspectos estudados, próximas ou mesmo superiores ao patamar da rede privada. O presente estudo traz para o debate a qualidade da estrutura dos serviços hospitalares ofertados no país, e sublinha a necessidade de desenvolvimento de estudos analíticos que considerem o processo e os resultados da assistência.

El presente estudio evalúa aspectos en cuanto a la estructura de una muestra de hospitales de maternidad en Brasil. El marco ha sido evaluado en función de patrones de referencia del Ministerio de Salud y abarca: ubicación geográfica, volumen de nacimientos, presencia de IU, actividades de aprendizaje, formación de recursos humanos, disponibilidad de equipos y medicamentos. Los resultados muestran diferencias en la cualificación y disponibilidad de equipos y servicios de suministros para el parto, según regiones, y su grado de complejidad. El Norte/Nordeste y Centro-oeste mostraron los mayores problemas. En el Sur/Sudeste, los hospitales estaban mejor estructurados, alcanzando proporciones satisfactorias en diversos aspectos del estudio, cercanos o justo por encima del nivel de la red privada. Este estudio aporta al debate la cuestión la calidad estructural de los servicios hospitalarios que se ofrecen en el país, y hace hincapié en la necesidad de desarrollo de estudios de análisis que tengan en cuenta los procesos y resultados de la atención.

This study aimed to evaluate key characteristics of structure in a sample of maternity hospitals in Brazil. Structure was evaluated according to Ministry of Health criteria and included: geographic location, obstetric volume, presence of ICU, teaching activities, staff qualifications, and availability of equipment and medicines. The results showed differences in staff qualifications and availability of equipment in obstetric and neonatal care according to type of financing, region of the country, and degree of complexity. The North/Northeast and Central-West regions presented the most serious problems with structure. The public and mixed hospitals were better structured in the South/Southeast, reaching satisfactory levels on various items, similar or superior to the private hospitals. The current study contributes to the debate on quality of structure in Brazil’s hospital services and emphasizes the need to develop analytical studies considering process and results of obstetric and neonatal care.

Efficiency, effectiveness, equity (E3). Evaluating hospital performance in three dimensions.

There are well-established frameworks for comparing the performance of health systems cross-nationally on multiple dimensions. A sub-set of such comprehensive schema is taken up by criteria specifically applied to health service delivery, including hospital performance. We focus on evaluating hospital performance, using the New Zealand public hospital sector over the period 2001-2009 as a pragmatic and illustrative case study for cross-national application. We apply a broad three-dimensional matrix--efficiency, effectiveness, equity--each based on two measures, and we undertake ranking comparisons of 35 hospitals. On the efficiency dimension--relative stay, day surgery--we find coefficients of variation of 10.8% and 8.5% respectively in the pooled data, and a slight trend towards a narrowing of inter-hospital variation over time. The correlation between these indicators is low (.20). For effectiveness--post-admission mortality, unplanned readmission--the coefficient of variation is generally higher (24.1% and 12.2%), and the trend is flat. The correlation is again low (.21). The equity dimension is assessed by quantifying the degree of ethnic and socio-economic variation for each hospital. The coefficient of variation is much higher--40.7-66.5% for ethnicity, 55.8-84.4% for socio-economic position--the trend over time is mixed, and the correlation is moderate (.41). On averaging the rank of hospitals across all measures it is evident that there is limited consistency across the three constituent dimensions. While it is possible to assess hospital performance across three dimensions using an illustrative set of standard measures derived from routine data, there appears to be little consistency in hospital rankings on these New Zealand data for the period 2001-2009. However, the methodology of using rankings derived from readily available data--possibly allied with multiple or composite indicator models--has potential for the cross-national comparison of hospital profiles, and assessments in three dimensions provide a more holistic and rounded account of performance.

Swings and roundabouts in the quality of care in acute hospitals.

John Tingle discusses a recent report on the quality of care in acute hospitals by the Royal College of Physicians, which warns that acute hospital care could be on the brink of collapse.

Addressing the workplace needs of Western Australian midwives: a Delphi study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the workplace needs of Western Australian midwives working in public metropolitan secondary hospitals. METHOD: Using a three-round Delphi approach, Round 1 incorporated focus groups and a questionnaire. Fifteen focus groups were conducted with midwives also having the option of contributing through an open-ended questionnaire. During Round 2, 38 items reflecting seven themes were prioritised with a final ranking performed in Round 3. In total, 114 midwives participated in Round 1, 72 in Round 2 and 89 in Round 3. RESULTS: During Round 1, workplace needs identified as being met included: working across all areas of midwifery; ability to work in areas of interest; opportunity to work with low to moderate risk women; supportive colleagues; accessible parking; hospital close to home and friendly work atmosphere. Round 2 items revealed the five top unmet needs as: adequate midwifery staff coverage; access to maintained equipment; competitive pay scales; patient safety issues and opportunities to implement midwifery models. The top ranked needs from Round 3 included: recognising the unpredictable nature of midwifery services; provision of competent medical coverage, and adequate midwifery staff coverage. CONCLUSIONS: Demand for maternity services is unpredictable; however, in order to maintain a sustainable maternity workforce, WA midwives' prioritised needs would suggest health management focus upon expanding the availability of midwifery models of care, fostering flexible working conditions and ensuring collaboration between maternity health professionals occurs within clinically safe staffing levels.

Implications for nurse managers arising from immigrant women's experience of midwifery care in a hospital.

AIM: This paper focuses on implications for nurse managers to support midwives in delivering nursing care to immigrant mothers in some government hospitals in Gauteng, South Africa. BACKGROUND: Immigration and poverty in Africa has led to midwives providing nursing care to immigrant mothers in a culturally sensitive environment. This necessitates an environment in which nurse managers should support midwives in caring for these mothers as unique individuals. METHOD: An exploratory, descriptive phenomenological design was followed. The target population included nine immigrant mothers living in the inner centre of Johannesburg who, for the first time, attended, had antenatal clinics, laboured and gave birth at a Government Hospital in the Gauteng province of South Africa. After purposive sampling, phenomenological interviews were conducted until data saturation occurred. RESULTS: The findings indicate that nurse managers should ensure that midwifery care of immigrant mothers comply with the ethical-legal context of the South African constitution. Actions should be taken in combating issues related to impaired maternal-midwife relationship, lack of cultural sensitivity and psychological distress. CONCLUSION: The delivery of maternity care to immigrant mothers is below the standard expected in the South African context. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The nurse manager should support midwives to ensure an environment to care for immigrant mothers in maternity wards.

Multiple component patient safety intervention in English hospitals: controlled evaluation of second phase.

OBJECTIVE: To independently evaluate the impact of the second phase of the Health Foundation's Safer Patients Initiative (SPI2) on a range of patient safety measures. Design A controlled before and after design. Five substudies: survey of staff attitudes; review of case notes from high risk (respiratory) patients in medical wards; review of case notes from surgical patients; indirect evaluation of hand hygiene by measuring hospital use of handwashing materials; measurement of outcomes (adverse events, mortality among high risk patients admitted to medical wards, patients' satisfaction, mortality in intensive care, rates of hospital acquired infection). Setting NHS hospitals in England. PARTICIPANTS: Nine hospitals participating in SPI2 and nine matched control hospitals. INTERVENTION: The SPI2 intervention was similar to the SPI1, with somewhat modified goals, a slightly longer intervention period, and a smaller budget per hospital. RESULTS: One of the scores (organisational climate) showed a significant (P = 0.009) difference in rate of change over time, which favoured the control hospitals, though the difference was only 0.07 points on a five point scale. Results of the explicit case note reviews of high risk medical patients showed that certain practices improved over time in both control and SPI2 hospitals (and none deteriorated), but there were no significant differences between control and SPI2 hospitals. Monitoring of vital signs improved across control and SPI2 sites. This temporal effect was significant for monitoring the respiratory rate at both the six hour (adjusted odds ratio 2.1, 99% confidence interval 1.0 to 4.3; P = 0.010) and 12 hour (2.4, 1.1 to 5.0; P = 0.002) periods after admission. There was no significant effect of SPI for any of the measures of vital signs. Use of a recommended system for scoring the severity of pneumonia improved from 1.9% (1/52) to 21.4% (12/56) of control and from 2.0% (1/50) to 41.7% (25/60) of SPI2 patients. This temporal change was significant (7.3, 1.4 to 37.7; P = 0.002), but the difference in difference was not significant (2.1, 0.4 to 11.1; P = 0.236). There were no notable or significant changes in the pattern of prescribing errors, either over time or between control and SPI2 hospitals. Two items of medical history taking (exercise tolerance and occupation) showed significant improvement over time, across both control and SPI2 hospitals, but no additional SPI2 effect. The holistic review showed no significant changes in error rates either over time or between control and SPI2 hospitals. The explicit case note review of perioperative care showed that adherence rates for two of the four perioperative standards targeted by SPI2 were already good at baseline, exceeding 94% for antibiotic prophylaxis and 98% for deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis. Intraoperative monitoring of temperature improved over time in both groups, but this was not significant (1.8, 0.4 to 7.6; P = 0.279), and there were no additional effects of SPI2. A dramatic rise in consumption of soap and alcohol hand rub was similar in control and SPI2 hospitals (P = 0.760 and P = 0.889, respectively), as was the corresponding decrease in rates of Clostridium difficile and meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection (P = 0.652 and P = 0.693, respectively). Mortality rates of medical patients included in the case note reviews in control hospitals increased from 17.3% (42/243) to 21.4% (24/112), while in SPI2 hospitals they fell from 10.3% (24/233) to 6.1% (7/114) (P = 0.043). Fewer than 8% of deaths were classed as avoidable; changes in proportions could not explain the divergence of overall death rates between control and SPI2 hospitals. There was no significant difference in the rate of change in mortality in intensive care. Patients' satisfaction improved in both control and SPI2 hospitals on all dimensions, but again there were no significant changes between the two groups of hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Many aspects of care are already good or improving across the NHS in England, suggesting considerable improvements in quality across the board. These improvements are probably due to contemporaneous policy activities relating to patient safety, including those with features similar to the SPI, and the emergence of professional consensus on some clinical processes. This phenomenon might have attenuated the incremental effect of the SPI, making it difficult to detect. Alternatively, the full impact of the SPI might be observable only in the longer term. The conclusion of this study could have been different if concurrent controls had not been used.