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Showing results for tags 'Assessment'.
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Content ArticleDysphagia is the medical term for swallowing problems. There are different causes and types of dysphagia, and difficulties in any of the main stages of the eating, drinking and swallowing process can be called dysphagia. This guidance from Public Health England provides information on different aspects of making reasonable adjustments for people at risk of dysphagia including: Assessment of dysphagia Management of dysphagia Consent and capacity The attached PDF includes an easy-read summary of the guidance.
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News Article
Outstanding trust handed warning notice
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An ‘outstanding’ rated acute trust has been served with a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and told to make ‘significant and immediate improvements’ to its mental health and learning disabilities services. The CQC said staff at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust had not always carried out mental capacity assessments when people presented with mental health needs. And this included when decisions were made to restrain patients in the emergency department. A CQC warning notice, published alongside a report of an inspection between 30 November and 1 December last year, says the trust must make “significant and immediate improvements in the quality of care being provided” to people with mental health issues, learning disabilities or autism. The warning notice also says the trust must ensure people with a learning disability and autistic people “receive care which meets the full range of their needs”. The trust’s records “did not show evidence that staff had considered patients’ additional needs,” the regulator said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 February 2023 -
Content ArticleThe purpose of this assessment is to ensure that all Theatre Practitioners are fully compliant with current Trust Policy with regard to swabs, instruments, sharps and disposables items. All Theatre staff must be assessed and deemed competent.
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Content ArticleThe National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) defines psychosocial assessment following self-harm as ‘a comprehensive assessment including an evaluation of the person’s needs, safety considerations and vulnerabilities that is designed to identify those personal psychological and environmental (social) factors that might explain an act of self-harm’. NICE advises that all people who self-harm should be offered a psychosocial assessment at an early stage. Psychosocial assessment should include biological factors alongside psychological and socio-environmental aspects and is often termed ‘biopsychosocial assessment’. The aim of this document from the Centre for Suicide Research is to provide clinicians with guidance to help them conduct a comprehensive psychosocial assessment. To support this, associated signposting to supporting evidence and useful reading is included.
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Content ArticleThis is the first edition of the Patient safety assessment manual for primary care, which explains how to apply the Patient Safety Friendly Primary Care Framework. It comprises a set of standards that cover the different domains of patient safety. The Patient Safety Friendly Framework was developed by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean to assess patient safety at a system level. The framework provides a means to determine the level of patient safety for the purpose of initiating a patient safety or quality improvement programme. The evaluation is voluntary and is conducted through self-assessment and an external peer review survey. The standards in the Patient Safety Friendly Primary Care Framework are based on international research and evidenced-based practices in primary care. To ensure the standards remain current, revisions will be made every three to four years. In this edition, the total number of standards is 19, made up of 125 criteria. Standards have been developed with consideration for their alignment with all WHO initiatives to promote safer care.
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Content ArticleThis National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline covers the components of a good experience of service use. It aims to make sure that all adults using NHS mental health services have the best possible experience of care. It includes recommendations on: access to care assessment community care assessment and referral in crisis hospital care discharge and transfer of care assessment and treatment under the Mental Health Act
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News Article
Adult social care in England is in crisis, say Tory council leaders
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Adult social care in England is in serious crisis, Tory council leaders have warned the government, as it faces a £3.7bn funding gap and a growing staffing shortage that has brought many local care providers to the brink of collapse. The intervention by the County Councils Network, which represents 36 mainly Tory-run authorities, comes amid widespread local government concern over the increasing fragile state of social care. Care costs have accelerated recently, fuelled by unexpected wage and energy inflation. “We face the perfect storm of staffing shortages, fewer care beds, and higher costs – all of which will impact on individuals waiting for care and discharges from hospital,” said Martin Tett, the Tory leader of Buckinghamshire county council. Cathie Williams, the chief executive of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said: “Too many people are missing out on vital care and support – we estimate that over half a million people are waiting for assessments, care, or reviews. With over 165,000 staff vacancies, this is only set to get worse. ” A government spokesperson said: “The health and social care secretary is focused on delivering for patients and has set out her four priorities of A, B, C, D – reducing ambulance delays, busting the Covid backlogs, improving care, and increasing the number of doctors and dentists. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 September 2022 -
Content ArticleThe Quality Network for Inpatient Working Age Mental Health Services (QNWA) based within the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Centre for Quality Improvement are pleased to announce the publication of their 8th edition standards. Since the publication of the first edition standards in 2006, the Network has grown to include over 140 members from the NHS and private sector. This new edition of standards aims to reflect the changes in working practices and legislation over the last two years in addition to placing greater emphasis on equality, diversity and inclusion as well as sustainability in inpatient mental health services. The eighth edition standards have been drawn from key documents and expert consensus and have been subject to extensive consultation with professional groups involved in the provision of inpatient mental health services, and with people and carers who have used services in the past.
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Content ArticleNext Steps is a tool created by the Dementia Change Action Network to help patients find the right support, at the right time, while waiting for their memory assessment appointment. Some patients are facing longer waits as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it can be an uncertain time. Next Steps provides information about what to expect from the memory assessment process and about organisations who can help.
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Content ArticleThis long read by the Health Foundation examines the challenges of discharging people from hospital, and looks at 'discharge to assess' (D2A) an approach to reducing the incidence of delayed discharge. It outlines priorities for policymakers and the NHS and suggests next steps for managing hospital discharge.
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Content ArticleSurgery is lifesaving or life-enhancing for millions of patients every year. However, the operation is not in itself an isolated ‘event’: it is part of a process which includes preparation and recovery. Ensuring the quality of the entire perioperative pathway is important to achieving the best possible outcome for every patient. This guidance is intended to be used by primary care, surgeons, anaesthetists, perioperative teams and preoperative assessment (POA) services. It applies to all patients who are being considered for surgery, or are on a waiting list for surgery in the non-emergency setting, irrespective of the magnitude of procedure or the type of anaesthesia contemplated. Its recommendations will support the care of individual patients, the recovery of elective services, and achieving key goals of the NHS Long Term Plan including reducing health inequalities and preventing serious health deterioration.
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Content Article
ECRI's Risk Assessment
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Improving systems of care
Keeping patients and staff safe is a top priority for every healthcare organisation. Leaders must be vigilant in continually monitoring, measuring, and improving risk, as well as identifying processes, environments, cultures and other factors affecting patient safety and organisational performance. ECRI’s Risk Assessments provide an efficient web-based solution for conducting such evaluations. These assessments collect multidisciplinary safety perspectives—from front-line workers to the executive suite—with reporting and analysis dashboards to help identify opportunities for improvement. -
Content ArticlePatient safety standards are critical for the establishment and assessment of patient safety programmes within hospitals. This third edition of the Patient safety assessment manual provides an updated set of standards and assessment criteria that reflect current best practice and WHO guidance. The manual will support the implementation of patient safety assessments and improvement programmes within hospitals as part of the Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Framework to ensure that patient safety is prioritised and facilities and staff implement best practices. The manual is a key tool for use by professional associations regulatory accrediting or oversight bodies and ministries of health to improve patient safety.
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Content ArticleThis guidance has been designed to support providers of care homes, premises based support services, school care accommodation, secure care and premises based offender accommodation to ensure they are appropriately assessing and providing staffing levels to meet the needs of people in their care, following the removal of staffing schedules. Inspectors may also refer to this guidance on inspection, for instance where intelligence may lead us to believe that staffing levels are not being appropriately assessed. Examples of this may be evidence of poor outcomes for people, an increase in incidents, number of complaints, staff absence, or a complaint investigation.
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Content ArticleIn this study, Mansab et al. examine the COVID-19 community triage pathways used by Singapore, Japan, USA and UK, specifically comparing the safety and efficacy of national online ‘symptom checkers’ used within the triage pathway.Their results suggest that whilst ‘symptom checkers’ may be of use to the healthcare COVID-19 response, there is the potential for such patient-led assessment tools to worsen outcomes by delaying appropriate clinical assessment. The key features of the well-performing symptom checkers are discussed in the paper.
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Content ArticleThis article, published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, discusses the role of teamwork in the professional education of physicians. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has recommended that organisations establish interdisciplinary team training programs that incorporate proven methods for team management. Teamwork can be assessed during physician medical education, board certification, licensure and continuing practice. Team members must possess specific knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs), such as the ability to exchange information, which enable individual team members to coordinate.
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Content Article
Report on Long COVID (27 January 2021)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Patient recovery
Independent SAGE is a group of scientists who are working together to provide independent scientific advice to the UK government and public on how to minimise deaths and support Britain’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.This report seeks to answer some of the more common questions that they are asked about Long COVID and sets out key recommendations. -
Content ArticleWomen receiving treatment for epilepsy are being urged to discuss with a healthcare professional the right treatment for them if they anticipate becoming pregnant even sometime in the future, following a Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) safety review. Lamotrigine (Lamictal) and levetiracetam (Keppra) have been found to be safer than other antiepileptic drugs in pregnancy. The MHRA advises patients not to stop taking their current medicines without first discussing it with a healthcare professional.
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Content ArticleIn this letter to the British Medical Journal, a group of clinicians call for thorough assessment and investigation for patients with Long COVID, highlighting that many were initially advised to 'stay at home' and were unable to access usual care. The authors note: "Pathological consequences such as myocarditis or a thromboembolic episode may explain symptoms, and these have been noted to occur months after onset in long covid support groups. The medical profession needs to evolve rapid transformative pathways to deal with the long term sequelae of covid-19 that include full investigation of patients." To read the letter in full, follow the link below.
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Content ArticleThe minutes from the most recent Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) National Steering Group make for interesting reading for all those in the care home sector. We learn from these that the Government has decided that “now is not the right time” to introduce the care home manager role in England that was previously envisioned under LPS. It had recently been confirmed that the public consultation on the draft regulations and Code of Practice for LPS will be taking place in Spring 2021 and implementation of the LPS is some way off, anticipated to be in April 2022. In the meantime Bevan Brittan provide an update for care home providers that gives the sector some clarity at this earlier stage.
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Content ArticleRisk assessments are a central component of mental health care. Few national studies have been done in the UK on risk assessment tools used in mental health services. In this study, Graney et al. aimed to examine which suicide risk assessment tools are in use in the UK; establish the views of clinicians, carers, and service users on the use of these tools; and identify how risk assessment tools have been used with mental health patients before suicide.
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Content ArticleNHS Commissioning guidance to assist local healthcare systems to establish post-COVID assessment clinics for patients experiencing long-term health effects following COVID-19 infection.
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Content ArticleGuy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust share their Quality Impact Assessment (QIA) policy. The QIA policy has been developed to ensure that the Trust has the appropriate steps in place to safeguard quality whilst delivering changes to service delivery. This process is used to assess the impact that the Cost Improvement Plan (CIP) may have on the quality of care provided to patients at Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
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Content ArticleStewart Munro, Managing Director of Pentland Medical Ltd, highlights some of the current procurement problems within the NHS and explains why this needs to change if we want to improve patient and staff safety.
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Content ArticleThis report, from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), provides insight into a current safety risk that was identified on a referral. The referral was about difficulties in identifying clinical deterioration in patients with COVID-19 on general wards. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) highlighted the issue of rapid deterioration in oxygenation in patients with COVID-19 and how this might relate to the use of early warning scores.
