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Showing results for tags 'Patient'.
Found 1,298 results
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Content ArticleDiagnostic error is one of the most important safety problems in health care today, and inflicts the most harm. Major diagnostic errors are found in 10% to 20% of autopsies, suggesting that 40,000 to 80,000 patients die annually in the United States from diagnostic errors. Patient surveys confirm that at least one person in three has firsthand experience with a diagnostic error, and researchers have found that diagnostic errors—not surgical mistakes, or medication overdoses—account for the largest fraction of malpractice claims, the most severe patient harm, and the highest total of penalty payouts.
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Content ArticleThis survey looks at the experiences of people who stayed at least one night in hospital as an inpatient. People were eligible to take part in the survey if they stayed in hospital for at least one night during November 2021 and were aged 16 years or over at the time of their stay.
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Content Article
Restrictive Practice Guide
Claire Cox posted an article in Mental health
Restrictive interventions are deliberate acts on the part of other person(s) that restrict a patient’s movement, liberty and/or freedom to act independently in order to: 'Take immediate control of a dangerous situation where there is a real possibility of harm to the person or others if no action is undertaken, and end or reduce significantly the danger to the patient or others.' This guide, from the Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA) has been developed to provide a brief overview of restrictive practice and the legislation that underpins it and outline ways to reduce its use during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. -
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Transforming the cycle of cancer care (December 2017)
Claire Cox posted an article in Keeping patients safe
With cancer prevalence in the UK increasing, the Patients Association led a panel of experts in a discussion to address the negative cycle of cancer care that can sometimes exist. -
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Children with Cancer: A day in the life Laraib
Claire Cox posted an article in By patients and public
Children with Cancer UK is a charity whose mission is to improve survival rates and the quality of survival in young cancer patients, and to find ways to prevent cancer in the future. They fund groundbreaking research to help children with cancer. They,raise awareness to inspire others to help, and they support families with our welfare projects. In these videos, follow Laraib, an inspiring child diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), through a 24-hour window into her life. Understand what it means to be a child living with cancer and learn about the vast support network that’s needed to care for those affected by the disease. -
Content ArticleThe Professioan Records Standards Body are a unique collaboration of groups representing those who receive and provide health and social care across the UK, as well as those providing the IT systems that support care. Emma Robertson is the patient lead on the Professional Records Standards Body (PRSB), work to accredit apps and digital health technologies. She speaks to PRSB about why she got involved with the work and the benefits and challenges of using apps to support health and care.
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Improving safety for oncology healthcare workers and patients
Claire Cox posted an article in Cancers
Philippa Jones, past head of acute oncology, speaks to ecancer at UKONS 2019 in Telford about safety with regards to not only patients, carers and families but also healthcare workers. She explains that measures include appropriate training, qualifications and understanding of treatments so that they can give good advice and support to patients. Philippa highlights some training resources, guidelines and development opportunities for nurses and other healthcare workers. -
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Improvements in patient safety: Encouraging patient-reporting of symptoms
Claire Cox posted an article in Cancers
Dr Catherine Oakley speaks to ecancer at the 2019 UKONS meeting in Telford about the recognition of patient symptoms during treatment. She explains some of the issues that patients face during treatment and why they may be hesitant in reporting their symptoms. Dr Oakley states that the Cancer Research UK patient treatment guide, which has been based on the UKONS triage tool can be used to help patients manage their treatments. -
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Chemotherapy safety - precautions for the public
Claire Cox posted an article in Cancers
Chemotherapy is strong medicine, so it is safest for people without cancer to avoid direct contact with the drugs. That’s why oncology nurses and doctors wear gloves, goggles, gowns and, sometimes, masks. When the treatment session is over, these items are disposed of in special bags or bins. After each chemotherapy session, the drugs may remain in your body for up to a week. This depends on the type of drugs used. The drugs are then released into urine, faeces and vomit. They could also be passed to other body fluids such as saliva, sweat, semen or vaginal discharge, and breast milk. Some people having chemotherapy worry about the safety of family and friends. There is little risk to visitors, including children, babies and pregnant women, because they aren’t likely to come into contact with any chemotherapy drugs or body fluids. -
Content ArticleWorld Cancer Day every 4 February is the global uniting initiative led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). By raising worldwide awareness, improving education and catalysing personal, collective and government action, people are working together to reimagine a world where millions of preventable cancer deaths are saved and access to life-saving cancer treatment and care is equal for all – no matter who you are or where you live. Created in 2000, World Cancer Day has grown into a positive movement for everyone, everywhere to unite under one voice to face one of our greatest challenges in history. Each year, hundreds of activities and events take place around the world, gathering communities, organisations and individuals in schools, businesses, hospitals, marketplaces, parks, community halls, places of worship – in the streets and online – acting as a powerful reminder that we all have a role to play in reducing the global impact of cancer. This year's World Cancer Day's theme, 'I Am and I Will', is all about you and your commitment to act. Through positive actions, together we can reach the target of reducing the number of premature deaths from cancer and noncommunicable diseases by one third by 2030.
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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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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 ArticleIn this Editorial in the BMJ, Albert Wu introduced the phrase ‘second victim’ in an attempt to highlight the emotional effects for staff involved in a medical error and the need for emotional support to help their recovery.
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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 ArticlePatients have different concerns from clinicians when asked about problems with their care, and may identify preventable safety issues. When trained volunteers surveyed 2,471 patients from three NHS Trusts in England, 23% of patients identified concerns about their care. The biggest category of concerns related to communication, with staffing issues and ward environment the next most common and safety issues. Although the majority of safety issues were categorised as negligible or minor, they were also seen as definitely or probably preventable. Patient-reported concerns identified new areas which may not have been picked up by staff, such as fear of other patients or delays in procedures. This is one of the largest studies to look at patient safety concerns from the patient perspective. This study suggests that inpatient surveys can identify patient safety issues and that collecting this data could help trusts identify areas where patient experience could be improved. However, for the data to be useful, it needs to be routinely collected, reviewed and acted upon, which may be difficult to implement.
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Content ArticleBoth staff and patients want feedback from patients about the care to be heard and acted upon and the NHS has clear policies to encourage this. Doing this in practice is, however, complex and challenging. This report, by the National Institute for Health Research, features nine new research studies about using patient experience data in the NHS. These show what organisations are doing now and what could be done better. Evidence ranges from hospital wards to general practice to mental health settings. There are also insights into new ways of mining and analysing big data, using online feedback and approaches to involving patients in making sense of feedback and driving improvements.
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Content ArticleIn the worst moment of your life, what would you need? In 2017, Jen Gilroy-Cheetham’s life changed forever. Just six months after having her second child, she was diagnosed with a rare neuroendocrine tumour and was advised that she would need to undergo open surgery to have half of her stomach removed. Complications led to one of the darkest and scariest times of Jen’s life, as she was put into a hospital ward feeling unwell, vulnerable and unsafe. Now recovered, Jen shares her experiences as a patient from a hospital bed - or audience member - watching all of the healthcare staff around her - actors on a stage - doing everything they could to make her feel safe. In reliving her journey to recovery, Jen highlights what’s needed within a healthcare setting to make patients feel safe. Jen feels that highlighting what’s worked well to help her to feel safe and what needs to change is valuable and may help others in the future.
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Content ArticleBoth staff and patients want feedback from patients about the care to be heard and acted upon and the NHS has clear policies to encourage this. However, doing this in practice is complex and challenging. This report from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) features nine new research studies about using patient experience data in the NHS. These show what organisations are doing now and what could be done better. Evidence ranges from hospital wards to general practice to mental health settings. The report found that although a lot of resource and energy goes into collecting feedback data, less goes into analysing it in ways that can lead to change or into sharing the feedback with staff who see patients on a day-to-day basis. Patients’ intentions in giving feedback are sometimes misunderstood. Many want to give praise and support staff and to have two-way conversations about care, but the focus of healthcare providers can be on complaints and concerns, meaning they unwittingly disregard useful feedback. The report provides insights into new ways of mining and analyzing big data, using online feedback and approaches to involving patients in making sense of feedback and driving improvements.
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Content ArticleBabies and young children (under five years) can suffer serious injury if they ingest coin/button batteries or poke them into their nostrils or ears. While the larger lithium batteries have the greatest potential to cause harm, including death, the smaller zinc–air batteries, used in hearing aids, cochlear implants, bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHA) and similar equipment, still present a significant risk. This National Patient Safety Alert requires all organisations supplying NHS-funded hearing aids to ensure those issued to babies and children under five years of age have secure battery compartments. Where hearing aids are issued to older children and adults, organisations are required to consider the need for a secure battery compartment for anyone living with young children and babies, or with a person with additional risk factors, such as those with a significant learning disability, dementia or other cognitive or sensory impairment.
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Content ArticleIn this research paper published in the Nature journal Eye, Foot and MacEwen determine the frequency of patients suffering harm due to delay in ophthalmic care in the UK over a 12-month period. They found that patients were suffering preventable harm due to health service initiated delay leading to permanently reduced vision. This was occurring in patients of all ages, but most consistently in those with chronic conditions. Delayed follow-up or review is the cause in the majority of cases indicating a lack of capacity within the hospital eye service.
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Content ArticleA candid account from a healthcare professional on how it feels to have to tell a patient in intensive care that their treatment is to be delayed. Part of the Guardian newspaper's Blood, sweat and tears series.
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Content Article
Walk on by...
Anonymous posted an article in Florence in the Machine
This anonymous blog is about a patient with learning disabilities, his treatment and outcome while coming in for a 'routine' procedure. This blog highlights the need for adequate training for all staff around caring for patients with learning disabilities to prevent harm and protracted length of stay.- Posted
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Content ArticleAction against Medical Accidents (AvMA) provides a list of patients/family members with lived experience of patient safety issues who can speak at events, help with training, or provide consultancy.
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Content ArticleSouth Australia Health's patient-centred involves engaging with the consumer and the consumer to make sure they are responsive to their needs, values and preferences. One way South Australia Health gathers feedback is to survey people who have spent time in a country or metropolitan public hospital. In 2017, 2228 people were interviewed and their responses were analysed. This report summarises the results of the survey.
