The Present Legal Status Regarding the Utilization of Mechanical or Pharmacological Restraints in Psychiatric and Social-Health Settings.

No abstract present.

Clinical Safety Recommendations for Testicular Torsion: Analysis of 101 Claims Settled with Compensation in Spain and France.

INTRODUCTION: The study aimed to analyze testicular torsion (TT) claims settled with compensation to have data available as the basis for making recommendations to decrease clinical risk and prevent claims. TT is a urological emergency with a high rate of orchiectomy, representing one of the main reasons for urological claims. METHODS: Data were analyzed from personal majority policy and from the public sector of Catalonia (Spain), as well as data from the main medical civil liability insurance firm at healthcare centers in France in the period from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2018. RESULTS: Fifty Spanish and 51 French cases were analyzed. Statistical differences were logged in the two settings analyzed in performing ultrasounds, in the area where primary care was provided and with regard to settlement amounts. Diagnosis was late in 76.2% of cases. DISCUSSION: The medical action time from the onset of symptoms and Doppler testicular ultrasound in cases of questionable differential diagnoses is key to prognoses to save the testicles. Properly filling out the emergency report and the rest of medical records are essential for receiving correct medical care and defending possible claims.

Psychological impact of quarantine on healthcare workers.

OBJECTIVES: Exposure to infection is an inherent occupational risk for healthcare workers and may lead them to undergo quarantine during disease outbreaks. Both front-line battle and quarantine are stressful experiences that may make psychological support for healthcare workers necessary. Psychological support measures based on the best available evidence should be included in emergency plans worldwide. We summarise the research evidence on the psychological impact of quarantine on healthcare workers. METHODS: We retrieved 470 articles on the psychological impact of quarantine on healthcare workers from the Web of Science and included in this review all 12 articles that met our inclusion criteria. RESULTS: The reviewed studies reported acute stress during quarantine and long-lasting depressive, post-traumatic stress and alcohol dependency and abuse symptoms. Healthcare workers fear infection for themselves, but more so for their loved ones, and are also concerned about the stigma that may affect their families, most especially their children. CONCLUSIONS: The safety of healthcare workers and their families during disease outbreaks needs to be ensured. Suitable alternative accommodation and personalised monitoring during quarantine are useful intervention measures to prevent adverse effects in healthcare workers. Clear public health communication will help reduce uncertainty, guilt and stigma. Financial aid should be considered for the more severely affected workers. Finally, mental healthcare for healthcare workers should be a priority, as quarantines can be a mental distress trigger. The development of efficient referral paths and the provision of counselling or psychotherapy during the confinement period are an opportunity for early mental health interventions.

Acute oesophageal necrosis (black oesophagus).

A 54-year-old man was admitted to hospital after being found unconscious in his home. He had a history of alcoholism, multiple drug addictions, and type I diabetes mellitus. At admission, he had hyperglycaemia (550 mg/dL) with glucosuria and ketone bodies in the urine, along with septic shock refractory to bilateral alveolar infiltrates and severe respiratory failure. The patient died 24 hours post admission due to multiple organ failure, with diabetic ketoacidosis decompensated by possible respiratory infection in a patient with polytoxicomania. The autopsy confirmed the presence of acute bilateral bronchopneumonia, chronic pancreatitis, severe hepatic steatosis, and generalized congestive changes. At the oesophagus, acute oesophageal necrosis was evident.

Medical Professional Liability in Psychiatry.

INTRODUCTION: The safety of patients and the risk of malpractice claims are overriding concerns in medicine and psychiatry. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Claims for alleged malpractice in psychiatry managed by the Council of Colleges of Physicians of Catalonia between 1986 and 2009 were analyzed to evaluate their clinical and legal characteristics. RESULTS: Ninety-four malpractice claims were found in a 23-year period, mainly claims related to diagnosis (63.83%, including assessment of suicide risk) and the legal figure of serious professional negligence resulting in death (46.8%). Most claims were for hospital (62.77%), emergency (52.5%), and team (53.75%) care. The possible affected party was male (51.58%) with a mean age of 36.6 years. In one-half of the cases, the harm claimed was death. The cases involved 139 specialists, predominantly male (69.57%), with a mean age of 41 years, and of Spanish nationality (91.4%). The time between the medical act and the respective claim was 1.28 years and the time to resolution was 2.68 years. Most of the cases (77.66%) were processed through the courts. The outcome of the cases was filing or dismissal in 91 (95.77%), conviction in 2 (2.81%), and settlement in 1 (1.41%). CONCLUSIONS: The cumulative incidence of 0.013 claims (1.35%) in 23 years suggests that there is a very low risk of lawsuits in psychiatry, with a similarly low rate of sentences of professional liability and awards for financial compensation. Specific actions could improve clinical safety, particularly in suicide risk assessment.

Professional liability claims in vascular surgery practice.

BACKGROUND: Patient safety is a major concern worldwide, but particularly high rates of adverse events are reported in the surgery setting. Angiology and vascular surgery is of special interest due to the complexity of the pathologies involved and the esthetic component of some of its procedures. In this study we identified the most frequent factors that apply to vascular surgery claims to determine areas of special risk in vascular surgery, with an aim to improve patient safety. METHODS: We performed a retrospective and descriptive study of the claims pertaining to vascular surgery from the database of the Service of Professional Liability (SRP) of the Official College of Physicians of Barcelona. The time frame of data collection was from 1986 to 2009. We analyzed both the clinical and legal characteristics of the cases. RESULTS: Of the total of 6952 registered claims during the 23-year period, 91 (1.3%) were related to the practice of vascular surgery. Of these, 53.8% were related to venous pathology and 46.1% to arterial pathology. Neurologic damage was the main motive for claims (15.3%), followed by thromboembolic disease (14.2%), burns as a result of cosmetic treatment (12%), and amputation (10.9%). The neurologic damage in relation to vein pathology registered the greatest proportion of cases with professional liability (30.8%), followed by burns (19.2%), forgotten gauze (11.5%), and amputations (11.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Angiology and vascular surgery does not seem to be a specialty with a high risk for claims, but complications, such as thromboembolic disease and neurologic damage after varicose vein intervention, do occur and deserve special attention so improvements can be made to patient safety.

Nonconsensual Condom-Use Deception: An Empirically Based Conceptualization of Stealthing.

In recent years, the act of stealthing, also termed nonconsensual condom removal (NCCR), has become an emerging important topic related to nonconsensual sexual experiences. We performed a rapid review by searches in Web of Science (245 articles), Medline (157 articles), and PsycINFO (72 articles). The studies, in English, French, Italian, or Spanish, that reported empirical data on stealthing were included, except for those focusing on the legal response to the phenomenon. The final sample of 16 articles of various design is analyzed. According to this review, more than 10% of women experience stealthing in their lifetime, and men having sex with men also experience stealthing. The article describes the empirical research literature in the field, explores terminological and conceptual challenges, and proposes a new and more comprehensive term (nonconsensual condom-use deception), and a revised definition and categorization of the behavior, according to the concrete manifestation of consent breach, the associated practices, or the underlying motivation. We argue that research, as well as policy and practice responses to this growing problem need to be guided by a conceptual framework that uses information gathered directly from those who experienced it.

Physical restraints in nursing homes: A qualitative study with multiple stakeholders.

AIM: This study aims to understand the perceptions regarding physical restraints of the elder-care professional's stakeholders. DESIGN: A qualitative methodology was employed. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenient sample of 19 participants, which included nursing homes' managers, nurses and physicians; law, ethics, quality or patient rights' protection experts in care and public servers with responsibilities in the field. The data were collected, recorded and verbatim transcribed. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Three main themes emerged: the use of restraints, organizational issues and regulation. Although professionals involved in nursing care agree that improvements have been made, they highlight the negative impact of restraints and the need for a change in culture about their use. Yet, they have concerns about the 'zero restraints' feasibility, with divergent views on the need for a stronger regulatory framework.

Professional Liability in Plastic Surgery: A Change of Scenario in Medical Professional Liability in Spain.

The epidemic of complaints and/or litigation, both in and out of court, for cases of alleged malpractice has increased dramatically. In Spain, claims related to plastic surgery are gaining more and more interest. Methods: The Council of Medical Associations of Catalonia database was used to analyze claims related to plastic surgery from 1986 to 2021. Results: 1039 claims (9.8% over 10,567 total claims) were studied. Both the total number of claims (P = 0.016; R2=0.16) and the number of claims for plastic surgery (P < 0.0005; R2=0.732) showed an upward trend during the period of study. In the period from 2000 to 2021, the behavior was different; while the number of total claims stabilized (P = 0.352; R2 = 0.043), plastic surgery claims continued to show a time-related tendency to increase (P < 0.0005; R2=0.484). The distribution was 50.12% out of court. Ten unique procedures accounted for 84.5% of the total number of claims. Liability was observed in 21.46% of the closed claims, with differences between civil (20.34%), criminal (6.89%), and out-of-court (25.53%) procedures. Regarding compensation amounts, out-of-court cases had an average of 33,169.44 euros paid; civil cases, 29,153.37 euros; and criminal cases, 37,186.88 euros. Conclusions: The increase in the number of cases can only be related to an increase in the activity carried out by plastic surgeons. There has been a change in Spain in terms of the most sought-after medical specialty, with plastic surgery having displaced the perennially most sought-after specialty, orthopedic surgery and traumatology.

Clinical and epidemiological aspects of suicide in patients with schizophrenia.

Suicide is a major cause of death among patients with schizophrenia. Suicide phenomenon's characterization is the best available approach for improved prediction and prevention of suicide. Patients at high risk for suicide need a more intensive monitoring and intervention. The aim of this review is to characterize, from a clinical-epidemiological point of view, the phenomenon of completed suicide in schizophrenia. We performed a systematic review to identify the most relevant studies published between 1994 and 2009, by searching on the international database Medline and among previous reviews references. Patients with schizophrenia experience higher mortality rates than the general population, especially due to the suicide. Most patients with schizophrenia who commit suicide are likely to be young and males, with a higher risk around illness onset and hospitalization periods. Previous suicide attempts are an important risk factor for completed suicide. Suicide risk is associated to psychotic positive symptoms, affective symptoms, depression and substance abuse. Treatment adherence is as protective factor. Patients with schizophrenia are likely to commit suicide by violent means. Suicide prevention should focus on treating affective symptoms and syndromes, improving treatment compliance and providing intensive monitoring to those patients at high risk of suicide, specially around hospitalization periods. Further studies are needed to clarify differential characteristics between suicide behaviour and completed suicide.

On-call-related sleep deprivation and hypomania in healthcare workers.

OBJECTIVE: Acute sleep deprivation can induce antidepressant effects. We hypothesized that overnight calls can trigger symptoms of hypomania during the post-on-call period. METHODS: Online anonymous cross-sectional survey among Spanish-speaking healthcare professionals, including the Hypomania Symptom Checklist-32 (HCL-32). RESULTS: 2099 respondents. Most of them reported that they usually feel worse on their post-on-call period (91,3%), but the 51,6% acknowledged having felt better at least once and 33,4% reported it happened in at least at 50% of their calls. Up to 4,9% reached the cut-off at HCL-32. Males, younger professionals, those with less years of practice and residents were more likely to full fit hypomania criteria. Participants and their environment correctly identified the symptoms and their negative consequences. CONCLUSIONS: On-calls with sleep deprivation may trigger hypomanic symptoms with reported negative consequences among healthcare professionals, showing how working conditions' impact in professionals' wellbeing and raising concerns about decision-making performance after long-lasting working shifts.

The Impact of Malpractice Claims on Physicians' Well-Being and Practice.

OBJECTIVES: Malpractice litigation causes extreme stress. We examine the psychological impact of malpractice claims on physicians' well-being and the consequences on patient care. METHODS: A confidential telephone survey, administered to physicians with both open and closed claims from the previous year, explored symptoms, well-being changes, needs, impairments, and practice changes. RESULTS: Of the 282 respondents, more than half (56.38%) reported a notable psychological reaction to the malpractice claim, with no differences between the open and closed claims (P = 0.2477) or between closed claims with and without a payout (P = 1). Physicians facing criminal proceedings were more likely to experience a notable psychological impact (P = 0.0206). Almost half of the respondents (45.39%) acknowledged practice changes: viewing patients as potential plaintiffs (45.39%), paying more attention to recordkeeping (42.19%), obtaining medicolegal training (37.94%), ordering more tests (36.17%), and avoiding specific kinds of patients (21.63%) or procedures (19.85%). Acknowledging a psychological impact was positively and significantly associated with professional practice changes (P < 0.0001), and the mean number of symptoms was significantly higher among those who acknowledged practice changes (P = 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm the psychological impact of a malpractice claim and that impacted physicians are more likely to change their care practices, involving defensive medicine practices. Therefore, care for physicians facing malpractice claims needs to be considered under the umbrella of health care quality. Timely mental health referral paths could help mitigate the psychological impact and avoid the pernicious effects of negative practice changes.

Can routine Primary Care Records Help in Detecting Suicide Risk? A Population-Based Case-Control Study in Barcelona.

OBJECTIVES: To characterize people who died by suicide after having previous contacts with public health system using the data available in a primary care setting. METHOD: A retrospective, population-based case-control study identified through autopsy reports subjects who died from suicide between 2010 and 2015 in Barcelona province. Those who had previous interaction with primary healthcare services were selected, and 20 controls per case with similar age, sex and residence area were randomly sampled from a primary healthcare medical database; the available medical data derived from routine primary care records were anonymised and retrieved for analysis in all subjects. RESULTS: Of 2109 people deceased by suicide, 971 had previous primary healthcare interactions; 33.8% aged over 65 and 74% men. Of those with previous contact, 33% died during the week after and 58.5% within one month. A multivariable analysis identified several significant risk factors in the database, including previous suicide attempts, psychiatric diagnosis, number of primary healthcare visits, referrals to mental health, number of drugs prescribed, recent psychoactive drug prescriptions, and being on sick leave due to mental conditions in the previous year. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly half of suicide subjects contacted primary healthcare before dying but remained either undetected or not effectively managed for prevention. In cases who interacted, available data on risk factors included high frequentation and being on sick leave due to mental health disorders, in addition to other well-known factors. Routine electronic medical records represent an opportunity to provide clinical-decision support tools that could be implemented through automatized risk calculation.HIGHLIGHTSMost of suicide patients had a recent interaction with the healthcare systemWell known risk factors were available in the routine electronic medical recordsAdditional alerting tools could be implemented through automatized risk calculation.

[Medico-legal aspects and professional liability of telemedicine in urology.] / Aspectos médico-legales y responsabilidad profesional médica de la telemedicina en urología.

Recientemente, Carrión et al. (1) publicaban un acertado análisis sobre el uso de la telemedicina (TM) en urología en el contexto de la pandemia por COVID-19. El escenario de emergencia durante la pandemia debida al SARS-CoV-2 ha propiciado un uso exponencial de la TM que ha permitido mantener el acceso y la continuidad de la atención a los pacientes y apoyar a los profesionales de primera línea, optimizando los servicios presenciales y minimizando las infecciones por transmisión del COVID-19 (2).

Recientemente, Carrión et al. (1) publicaban un acertado análisis sobre el uso de la telemedicina (TM) en urología en el contexto de la pandemia por COVID-19. El escenario de emergencia durante la pandemia debida al SARS-CoV-2 ha propiciado un uso exponencial de la TM que ha permitido mantener el acceso y la continuidad de la atención a los pacientes y apoyar a los profesionales de primera línea, optimizando los servicios presenciales y minimizando las infecciones por transmisión del COVID-19 (2).

Intellectual disability rates among male prison inmates.

While only a small percentage of people with intellectual disabilities are responsible for criminal behaviors, the literature points to their overrepresentation in prisons, although not enough attention has been paid to intellectual disability data for inmates. We retrieved studies - in English, Spanish, Italian or French and indexed in Medline between 2000 and 2018 - that provided intellectual disability data for prisons collected by the administration of validated tests to male inmates. Identified were 13 studies involving more than 15,000 inmates referring to intellectual disability and borderline intellectual disability. The general findings of our review corroborate the overrepresentation of people with ID in prisons, although prevalence rates range widely, from as low as 1% to as high as 69.9% (p<0.000001), reflecting to differences in methodology, in local, social and cultural factors and in judicial procedures. Published studies clearly underline the overrepresentation of people with intellectual disabilities in prisons, differences between countries, the vulnerabilities of persons with intellectual disabilities and the need for proper assessment and management policies in prisons worldwide.