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Showing results for tags 'Patient death'.
Found 1,491 results
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Content Article
Deaths in prison: A national scandal (INQUEST, January 2020)
Claire Cox posted an article in Prison setting
Every four days a person takes their life in prison, and rising numbers of ‘natural’ and unclassified deaths are too often found to relate to serious failures in healthcare. The lack of government action on official recommendations is leading to preventable deaths. Deaths in prison: A national scandal exposes dangerous, longstanding failures across the prison estate and historically high levels of deaths in custody, and offers unique insight and analysis into findings from 61 prison inquests in England and Wales in 2018 and 2019. The report details repeated safety failures, including mental and physical healthcare, communication systems, emergency responses, and drugs and medication. It also looks at the wider statistics and historic context, showing the repetitive and persistent nature of such failings. -
Content ArticleThe Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI) reports on mortality at trust level across the NHS in England using a standard and transparent methodology. It is produced and published monthly as a National Statistic by NHS Digital. The SHMI is the ratio between the actual number of patients who die following hospitalisation at the trust and the number that would be expected to die on the basis of average England figures, given the characteristics of the patients treated there.
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Content ArticleAt seven months pregnant, intensive care doctor Rana Awdish suffered a catastrophic medical event, haemorrhaging nearly all of her blood volume and losing her first child. She spent months fighting for her life in her own hospital, enduring a series of organ failures and multiple major surgeries. Every step of the way, Awdish was faced with something even more unexpected and shocking than her battle to survive: her fellow doctors’ inability to see and acknowledge the pain of loss and human suffering, the result of a self-protective barrier hard-wired in medical training. In Shock is her searing account of her extraordinary journey from doctor to patient, during which she sees for the first time the dysfunction of her profession’s disconnection from patients and the flaws in her own past practice as a doctor. Shatteringly personal yet wholly universal, it is both a brave roadmap for anyone navigating illness and a call to arms for doctors to see each patient not as a diagnosis but as a human being.
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Content Article
BMJ Editorial: Abandon the term "second victim"
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Second victim
Families of patients who died after medical errors argue that it’s time to abandon the term “second victim” to describe doctors who are involved in a medical error. In an editorial published by The BMJ, Melissa Clarkson at the University of Kentucky and colleagues say that by referring to themselves as victims, “healthcare providers subtly promote the belief that patient harm is random, caused by bad luck, and simply not preventable.” This mindset “is incompatible with the safety of patients and the accountability that patients and families expect from healthcare providers,” they argue. -
Content Article
The real second victims
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Second victim
In many professions, specific terms – both old and new – are often established and accepted unquestioningly, from the inside. In some cases, such terms may create and perpetuate inequity and injustice, even when introduced with good intentions. One example is the term ‘second victim’. The term ‘second victim’ was coined by Albert W Wu in his paper ‘Medical error: the second victim’. Wu wrote the following: “although patients are the first and obvious victims of medical mistakes, doctors are wounded by the same errors: they are the second victims”. In his blog, Stephen Shorrick discusses the term second victim, what patients and families think of this term, and proposes that healthcare professionals are perhaps the 'third victims'. -
Content ArticleThe human element can give us kindness and compassion; it can also give us what we don't want — mistakes and failure. Leilani Schweitzer's son died after a series of medical mistakes. In her talk she discusses the importance and possibilities of transparency in medicine, especially after preventable errors. And how truth and compassion are essential for healing.
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Content ArticleSam Morrish, a three-year-old boy, died from sepsis on 23 December 2010. An investigation, undertaken by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsmen (PSHO) in 2014, found that had Sam received appropriate care and treatment, he would have survived. Yet, previous NHS investigations failed to uncover that his death was avoidable. So the family asked PSHO to undertake a second investigation to find out why the NHS was unable to give them the answers they deserved after the tragic death of their son.
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Content ArticleHelen Marie Bousquet tragically passed away after what has been described by her son as 'a basic routine procedure' for knee surgery. He argues that her tragic and avoidable death highlights the need for better assessment of patients for sleep apnea and for better treatment and monitoring of these patients before, during and after surgery. The recent jury finding that a hospital nurse was negligent in the care of Helen Marie Bousquet raises the question whether negligence can result in safer patient care. In his blog, Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety), looks at this case and the lessons that can be learned.
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Content ArticleIn her blog for the Professional Standards Authority, Sarah Seddon talks about her personal experience as a patient going through the fitness to practise process. She outlines her thoughts on the key considerations that she believes regulators should take into account to help 'humanise' the process. "I was known as ‘Woman A’. To me, this embodies the entire impersonal, inhumane world of fitness to practise. I wasn’t a person with needs, thoughts and feelings; I wasn’t a bereaved mum; I wasn’t a professional anymore but simply a piece of evidence."
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Content ArticleFollowing a reported death, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) commissioned the Health and Safety Executive to undertake fire hazard testing with white soft paraffin on a variety of bandages, dressings and clothing. The results showed the ability to reproduce the fire hazard in a controlled environment. This risk was not previously well recognised.
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Content ArticleHSIB has identified a significant safety risk posed by the communication and transfer of information between secondary care, primary care and community pharmacy relating to medicines at the time of hospital discharge. A reference event was identified that resulted in a patient inadvertently receiving two anticoagulant medications at the same time, possibly causing an episode of gastrointestinal (digestive tract) bleeding. Increasingly, healthcare facilities in primary and secondary care are introducing digital solutions (electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) systems) to improve medicines safety. However, analysis of the reference event identified how ePMA systems can create their own risks, risks that will need to be addressed as these systems become more widespread. Other risk factors relating to prescribing and the discharge of the patient, including medicines reconciliation, availability of pharmacy services and weekend working, were identified during the investigation.
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Content ArticleA recent report from the Healthcare Safety Investigations Branch, Investigation into electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems and safe discharge, highlighted the fact that poorly implemented ePMA (electronic prescribing and medicines administration) systems can result in potentially fatal medication errors. The report focused on the death of 75 year-old Mrs Ann Midson, following a medication error. In this podcast interview, Pharmacy in Practice speaks to Scott Hislop and Helen Jones, two of the investigators, to discuss the series of events that ultimately culminated in the sad passing of Mrs Ann Midson.
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Content Article
Baby’s death from heart defect was avoidable (August 2019)
Claire Cox posted an article in PHSO investigations
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) were set up by Parliament to provide an independent complaint handling service for complaints that have not been resolved by the NHS in England and UK government departments. They share findings from casework to help Parliament scrutinise public service providers. They also share their findings more widely to help drive improvements in public services and complaint handling. Miss K complained to the PSHO about the care and treatment that her son, Baby K, received at the Trust in November 2015. She said that the Trust failed to act following various checks on Baby K, and it failed to escalate his care in line with the seriousness of his condition and he died as a result. Miss K also complained about the Trust’s handling of her complaint. -
Content ArticleHospital Watchdog is a nonprofit patient advocacy organisation in the US that champions safe hospital care for patients. They are a diverse group that includes nurses, physicians, pharmacists, healthcare experts, attorneys and members of the public. Some of them have experienced or witnessed medical errors that led to an extremely serious or tragic outcome. They are committed to improving unsafe conditions in hospitals. In February 2019, Hospital Watchdog conducted an in-depth interview with Ms. Dena Royal, a former paramedic, and respiratory therapist. Dena’s mother, Martha Wright, bled to death following a colonoscopy and a series of tragic nursing mistakes at Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville Missouri.
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Content ArticleWhen Julie Bailey took her mother, Bella, into Mid Staffs Hospital in September 2007 she had no idea that her life was about to change forever. Over the next eight weeks she would witness such shocking neglect and abuse of elderly, vulnerable patients that the memories would haunt her for the rest of her life. And over the next five years she would uncover a culture of deceit and denial going right to the top of the NHS. From Ward to Whitehall is the story of Julie s fight for the truth to be uncovered about the deadly failings at Mid Staffs Hospital and her struggle to ensure that the tragedy would never be repeated.
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Content ArticleHarold Shipman was an English doctor who killed approximately 15 patients while working as a junior hospital doctor in the 1970s, and another 235 or so when working subsequently as a general practitioner. Is it possible to learn general lessons to improve patient safety from such extraordinary events? In this paper, published in the US Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, it is argued that it is not possible fully to understand how Shipman came to be such a successful and prolific serial killer, nor to learn how the safety of healthcare systems can be improved, unless his diabolical activities are studied using approaches developed to investigate patient safety.
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Content ArticleSince the emergence of the opioid epidemic in the United States at the beginning of the 21st century, more than 400,000 Americans have died as the result of an opioid overdose. As of 2018, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimates that more two million people have an opioid use disorder. With the rate of opioid-related inpatient stays and the number of opioid-related emergency department visits continuing to rise dramatically in the US, hospitals have the opportunity to make a major impact in reducing morbidity and mortality related to opioid use. This document, produced by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, provides system-level strategies that hospitals can implement immediately to address the challenges of preventing, identifying, and treating opioid use disorder.
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Content ArticleThis study from Dall'Ora et al., published in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, explores the association between the levels of temporary nurse staffing and patient mortality. They found that heavy reliance on temporary staff is associated with higher risk for patients dying. The risk of death increased by 12% for every day a patient experienced a high level of temporary staffing – defined as 1.5 hours of agency nursing a day per patient. For an average ward, this increased risk could apply when between a third and a half of the staff on each shift are temporary staff. However, there is no evidence of harm associated with modest use of temporary registered nurses so that required staffing levels can be maintained.
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Content Article
Connor Sparrowhawk: The tale of laughing boy (2015)
Claire Cox posted an article in Patient stories
Connor Sparrowhawk died in July 2013 while he was in the care of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. An independent report concluded that Connor’s death was preventable and that there were significant failings in his care and treatment. This moving film describes what Connor was like by his friends and family and highlights the failings that caused the avoidable death of Connor. -
Content ArticleIn January 2016, a high-profile local inquest examined the death of Jasmine Lapsley, a six year old child who sadly died after choking on a grape. One of Bangors post-ACCS Clinical Fellows (not involved with the case) attended the inquest with the intention of sharing any learning points at a CPD Day for Emergency Medical Service (EMS) colleagues we were due to hold six weeks later. Upon releasing the CPD Day programme, organisers realised some EMS colleagues were profoundly uncomfortable about this talk, stating concerns such as 'talking publicly about lessons learned might upset the bereaved family'. They decided to ask all delegates at the CPD day what they thought of the inclusion of this item on the conference programme before and after the talk. This poster shows the results.
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Content ArticleA blog from Dr Linda Dykes. "Bryn was my patient. He died. He may have stood a better chance of survival had I been aware of the risk of small bowel volvulus in an adult. I produced this reflective learning resource with some colleagues - and with Bryn's widow, whom we call Fiona. Please read it... it may help you save a life one day."
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Content ArticleGrowing evidence indicates that improved nurse staffing in acute hospitals is associated with lower hospital mortality. Current research is limited to studies using hospital level data or without proper adjustment for confounders which makes the translation to practice difficult. In this observational study published in BMC Health Services Research, Haegdorens et al. analysed retrospectively the control group of a stepped wedge randomised controlled trial of 14 medical and 14 surgical wards in seven Belgian hospitals. All patients admitted to these wards during the control period were included in this study. Pregnant patients or children below 17 years of age were excluded. The records showed that, on average, three out of every thousand patients in the hospital died ‘unexpectedly’. A death is considered as unexpected when a patient suddenly dies during active treatment, with no care plan for the end of their life having been started. Their results are in accordance with previous research and confirm the association between higher nurse staffing levels and lower patient mortality. Furthermore, they also found that a higher proportion of bachelor’s degree nurses is related to a reduction in patient mortality. They proposed a new method to estimate optimal staffing levels using ward level data.
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Content ArticleSuperabsorbent polymer gel granules are used to reduce spillage onto bedding and clothing when patients use urine bottles or vomit bowls, or when staff move fluid-filled containers (eg washbowls or bedpans). If the gel granules are put in the mouth, they expand on contact with saliva risking airway obstruction. This National Patient Safety Alert requires any organisation still using these products to protect patients by introducing strict restrictions on their use.
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Content ArticleLearning from deaths of people in their care can help providers improve the quality of the care they provide to patients and their families, and identify where they could do more. A CQC review in December 2016, 'Learning, candour and accountability: a review of the way trusts review and investigate the deaths of patients in England' found some providers were not giving learning from deaths sufficient priority and so were missing valuable opportunities to identify and make improvements in quality of care. This video from the NHS Improvement national patient safety team is a guide for NHS trusts in England on developing and implementing learning from deaths policies within their organisations.
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Content ArticleReducing the burden of harm and instilling better practice requires both systems thinking and committed local ownership. Comparisons of health systems across the world can help visualise best practice, opportunities for learning and potential for diffusion of innovations. Most importantly, depicting the global state of patient safety showcases exemplar safety systems and facilitates exploration of their characteristics and enablers. This report seeks to stimulate ambitious visions and bold action to significantly reduce harm and improve the lives of millions of patients and their families.
