Jump to content
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,216

  • Joined

  • Last visited

PatientSafetyLearning Team

PSL Moderators

 Content Type 

Everything posted by PatientSafetyLearning Team

  1. Content Article
    Below is a list of key websites for anyone looking to access up-to-date information and guidance on the coronavirus pandemic. 
  2. Content Article
    Single-use N95 respirators are critical to protect staff and patients from airborne infections, but shortages may occur during disease outbreaks and other crisis situations. Wearing an N95 respirator for hours at a time (i.e. extended wear) or reusing a respirator several times (i.e., donning and doffing between uses) are practices used to ease shortages. The potential risks and benefits of these practices may vary greatly across locations and may evolve rapidly during a crisis. This report’s conclusions are not intended as a practice endorsement or call to action. Rather, this report is intended to provide practical guidance on the potential risks and benefits that clinical centers should consider during decision making about N95 respirator reuse or extended use. ECRI is a US-based organisation. 
  3. Content Article
    During the covid-19 pandemic trainees may be asked to work in unfamiliar environments. Abi Rimmer asks experts how doctors can deal with the change
  4. Community Post
    The following comment came from the Associate Director of Allied Health: Patient Safety and Quality at Wellington Hospital. I'm noticing a national trend here in NZ for hospital pharmacy departments to significantly reconfigure their services in response to COVID-19. There are several key changes I'm noticing: 1. Moving from a ‘normal business hours plus on-call after hours and short-day weekend service’ to ‘a seven day service’ but I think these will mostly still be business hours with on-call only for AH. 2. Splitting teams into 'hot' and 'cold' teams and alternating on and off site, generally along lines of four days on/off to enable covering the 7-day service but also to reduce the risk of COVID sharing. 3. Reductions in clinical service in order to maintain supply services across seven days. This is happening in a variety of ways. Some are still doing medicines reconciliation with full patient interviews as before but to fewer areas, some are stopping the interviews for COVID patients and aiming to do these by phone consult (for patients who are admitted and able to communicate), and some are only doing clinical services remotely so as to not be going to and from the ward to the main department. This latter option is a high level of restriction but somewhat justified due to the risk of having one team member exposed and the whole supply chain potentially forward-exposed and at risk. I thought I'd share this to note the planning we’re doing but also to see if others have any learnings around this topic. Hospital pharmacy teams are often in situations in NZ whereby they perform two key functions – medicines supply and clinical advice – the medicines supply is considered "core" and almost always prioritised over the clinical advice function; however, the clinical advice function has become so well ingrained that activities, such as medicines reconciliation now rely on the clinical pharmacists to do this activity well. They're also somewhat unique to other hospital teams in that the back-up to the main supply team is the clinical team and both teams generally share the same departmental space. This could be adjusted, but in order to have a robust system, with all well-trained in the supply function, we really need to see the clinical teams being pulled back and available to swap in/out with the supply teams. So over time, as the situation ramps up, it seems likely that the clinical function may become on request only or something along the highly restricted lines. This is also due to quite a limited capacity at the best of times for the clinical service in most areas. I’d be really interested to hear how other teams, pharmacy in particular, are managing this from a practical sense. Ngā mihi (best wishes) Dan Dr Daniel Bernal (BPharm, hons, PhD)
  5. Content Article Comment
    Medical staff risk spreading infections if they wash their uniforms at home This article may be of interest to those following this thread.
  6. Content Article
    This FAQ resource from the Royal College of General Practitioners, provides information about a number of topics relevant to general practice and how to keep patients and staff safe during the coronavirus pandemic.
  7. Content Article
    A list of guides that help to explain the coronavirus outbreak in an easy read format. Resources include those specifically designed for people with Downs Syndrome and learning disabilities. These guides and posters will help families, care providers and hospital staff communicate messages inclusively. 
  8. Content Article
    The findings of this study suggest that, among Chinese healthcare workers exposed to COVID-19, women, nurses, those in Wuhan, and front-line health care workers have a high risk of developing unfavourable mental health outcomes and may need psychological support or interventions. 
  9. Content Article
    The COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping across the length and breadth of the UK. As a result, NHS England has issued guidelines for effective triaging of urgent cancer 'two-week wait' referrals. The intention of this guideline is to minimise the disruption to cancer services. In order to fully understand the implications of this manual triage approach, this article, Data-Drive Triage Automation – YouDiagnose’s fight against COVID-19, will first explain the triage process during normal circumstances, and then highlight the additional impacts due to the coronavirus emergency. Finishing with a suggested solution (from YouDiagnose) to improve the efficiency of the triaging process and save lives during the pandemic. 
  10. Community Post
    Recommendations for Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) and Critical Care Outreach (CCO) services in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (23 March 2020)
  11. Community Post
    Over the past few weeks I have become increasingly anxious about the donning and doffing process. What we know from evidence is that fatigue and speed of doffing (specifically) can have an impact on staff safety and potential exposure. There is good evidence from the Ebola outbreak of healthcare staff contracting the disease because PPE donning and doffing was not completed in the correct order or with sufficient care. We have also had a lot of anxiety about PPE from staff who have never had to wear PPE. Inspired by the Breathing Apparatus Entry Control Officer role used in the Fire Service, I came up with the idea. We tested a few ideas amongst the infection control team - we also considered using 'doffing buddy' - but we wanted the role to be taken seriously, hence the 'PPE Safety Officer'. There are two types of functions. Heightened presence across the organisation so that colleagues feel safe. The PPE Safety Officer will be able to answer questions and give reassurance. It also gives confidence to colleagues that their safety is now the highest priority. In clinical settings (red zones) the PPE Safety Officer will support the donning and doffing procedure - going through a stepwise checklist (like the Fire Service). We started implementation on Friday last week, early indications are that it is welcomed by the team, it is giving a sense of reassurance and security at a very uncertain time. Steve Hams Director of Quality and Chief Nurse Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Gloucester Hospitals NHS Trust. Do you have something similar set up at your local hospital? Do you think it would help to have a PPE Safety Officer? Is staff protection being prioritised?
  12. Community Post
  13. Community Post
  14. Content Article
    This infographic designed by the team at Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS, Scotland, sets out what to look out for and the clinical evaluation and treatment of COVID-19.
  15. Community Post
    BACCN: Resources for nurses redeployed or returning to critical care during the COVID-19 crisis
  16. Content Article
    In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN) are providing some educational resources that support nurses who are working in critical care. This includes those who are being redeployed to critical care areas or are returning to critical care after a career break from the specialty.  
  17. Content Article
    Since April 2018, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has been responsible for initiating over 1000 independent safety investigations in NHS maternity services in England. This report summarises eight prominent themes that have emerged through analysis of completed maternity investigations, and how HSIB will explore these themes in more detail during the coming year. 
  18. Community Post
  19. Community Post
    The following comment was shared with us through the Global Patient Safety Network: From the ICU trenches as an intensivist, I send my regards to all of you. My 2 cents as it is busy and getting busier by the hour: This is the time when our challenge as patient safety experts, advocates and enthusiasts to go back to the bedside and gain our front-staff confidence that we help them do their mission rather than present them with one more bureaucratic barrier they need to overcome to take care of the patient. 1. Staff need PPE; aggressive PPE. If we lose our workforce, we lose it all. 2. Staff needs less training modules and emails of new policies, and more on the ground assistance (e.g. tips/protocols for proning patients, facilitation of direct knowledge exchange across borders between similar practitioners, and facilitation of off-label use of medications that are showing promise). Stay well. Haytham. Haytham Kaafarani, MD, MPH, FACS
  20. Community Post
    Do you usually access cancer-related services, treatment or care? Or perhaps you are waiting for tests or appointments that will help diagnose whether or not you have cancer? We want to know how cancer care is being impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. We’re asking for patients, carers, family members and friends to share their stories, highlight weaknesses or safety issues that need to be addressed and share solutions that are working. We will be identifying themes and reporting to healthcare leaders with your insights. We want to help close the gaps that might emerge as everyone focuses on the pandemic. Please share your stories in the comments below. You’ll need to sign up (for free) to join the conversation. Register here - it's quick and easy.
  21. Community Post
    Do you usually access services, receive treatment or take medication for mental health difficulties? How is this being impacted by the coronavirus outbreak? We’re asking for patients, carers, family members and friends to share their stories, highlight weaknesses or safety issues that need to be addressed and share solutions that are working. We will be identifying themes and reporting to healthcare leaders with your insights. We want to help close the gaps that might emerge as everyone focuses on the pandemic. Please share your stories in the comments below. You’ll need to sign up (for free) to join the conversation. Register here - it's quick and easy.
  22. Content Article
    In this letter, published by the International Society for Quality Health Care, Dr Francesco Venneri shares his experience of the response to COVID-19 in Italy from the perspective of his involvement as both a clinical risk manager and as an emergency front line worker.
  23. Content Article
    This is a specification of the minimally (and some preferred options) clinically acceptable ventilator to be used in UK hospitals during the current SARS-CoV2 outbreak. It sets out the clinical requirements based on the consensus of what is ‘minimally acceptable’ performance in the opinion of the anaesthesia and intensive care medicine professionals and medical device regulators.
  24. Content Article
    In this webinar, (filmed on 24 March for the International Society for Quality in Healthcare) Dr Francesco Venneri shares his experience of the response to COVID-19 in Italy from the perspective of his involvement as both a clinical risk manager and as an emergency front line worker. Dr Venneri speaks passionately of how the response was handled, the positive elements, the criticisms, and also how we can learn from COVID-19 by proposing measures that we can apply in the case of future outbreaks.
  25. Content Article
    The information contained in this evidence table is emerging and rapidly evolving because of ongoing research and is subject to the professional judgment and interpretation of the practitioner due to the uniqueness of each medical facility’s approach to the care of patients with COVID-19 and the needs of individual patients. It has been rpoduced by the US-based organisation, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). ASHP provides this evidence table to help practitioners better understand current approaches related to treatment and care. ASHP has made reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and appropriateness of the information presented. However, any reader of this information is advised ASHP is not responsible for the continued currency of the information, for any errors or omissions, and/or for any consequences arising from the use of the information in the evidence table in any and all practice settings. Any reader of this document is cautioned that ASHP makes no representation, guarantee, or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy and appropriateness of the information contained in this evidence table and will bear no responsibility or liability for the results or consequences of its use. Public access to AHFS Drug Information® (https://www.ahfscdi.com/login) is available for the next 60 days with the username "ahfs@ashp.org" and password "covid19." ASHP's patient medication information is available at http://www.safemedication.com/.
×
×
  • Create New...