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Showing results for tags 'Patient'.
Found 1,293 results
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Content ArticleThe Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on patient safety, revealing a range of challenges across all healthcare systems, at all levels and in all settings. At the Health Plus Care conference on the 18 May 2022, Patient Safety Learning's CEO Helen Hughes, in a keynote speech, reflected on the impact of the pandemic on patient safety and work being undertaken by the World Health Organization to assess this. See attached her presentation slides.
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Content ArticleThis qualitative descriptive study in the journal BMC Nursing aimed to analyse the experiences of patients with type 2 diabetes during the stay-at-home order in place during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. It looked at the experiences of ten patients with type 2 diabetes living in Catalonia and identified the strategies and resources they used to manage their care. The study found that many people with type 2 diabetes reported effective self-care during confinement and were able to adapt well using the resources available, without face-to-face contact with primary care health staff.
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Content ArticleThe World Health Organization Global Patient Safety Challenge, Medication Without Harm, aims to reduce serious, avoidable medication-related harm by 50% in 5 years, globally. Three areas have been identified for early priority action. This technical report addresses Medication Safety in Transitions of Care; why it is a priority, what has been done to address it to date and what needs to be done.
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Content ArticleIn this article for The BMJ, Partha Kar, consultant in diabetes and endocrinology, looks at the importance of education and peer support in self-management for people with long-term conditions. He looks at how diabetes peer support and education programmes have adapted to the need for remote access during the pandemic, and suggests that increased access to these elements of diabetes care may have helped reduce diabetic ketoacidosis hospital admissions during the first wave of Covid-19.
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Content ArticleLisa Drake, an NHS ex General Practice Manager now working in a digital advisory role, shares some of the missed opportunities for digital ways of working she witnessed when she was a patient herself.
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Content ArticleThis video is based on research interviews with acute medical patients and examines how staff and patients in hospital can create safe care together. It includes quotes from real-life patient experiences and highlights the importance of listening to and reassuring patients, and involving them in their care.
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Content ArticleIn this BMJ article, Caitríona Cox and Zoë Fritz argue that outdated medical language that casts doubt, belittles, or blames patients jeopardises the therapeutic relationship and is overdue for change.
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Content ArticleThis guide is designed to support healthcare providers when talking to patients about the use of of oxytocin to start or advance labour.
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Content Article
Who killed patient safety? (5 May 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Research, data and insight
The medical communities commitment to patient safety has withered over the past 10-15 years after the original call for action in 2000 with the release of the IOM report. What was once a call for action, safety in hospitals and oversight by government has been deprioritised, defunded, and devalued, leaving patients like the authors of this article wondering: What happened to patient safety? -
Content ArticleIn this article for The Guardian, journalist Sirin Kale speaks to Janet Williams about the impact the epilepsy drug sodium valproate has had on her family. Janet took the medication to treat her epilepsy throughout her two pregnancies in 1989 and 1991, but had never been warned about the potential risks to her babies. Foetal valproate syndrome can cause spina bifida, congenital heart defects and developmental delays and is believed to have affected around 20,000 children in the UK. Both of Janet's sons were affected by the medication and require full time care as a result. Janet describes how being told about the risks would have enabled her to make an informed decision about whether to have children, and how her experience led her to help set up In-FACT (the Independent Fetal Anti Convulsant Trust) in 2012.
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Content ArticleThis infographic accompanies the TeamSTEPPS for diagnosis improvement course from the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
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Content ArticleIn 2015, the ruling of the UK Supreme Court in Scotland in the case of Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board fundamentally changed the practice of consent. According to the Judges in this case, doctors are no longer the sole arbiter of determining what risks are material to their patients. They should not make assumptions about the information a patient might want or need but they must take reasonable steps to ensure that patients are aware of all risks that are material to them. The Royal College of Surgeons has developed guidance on consent that sets out the principles for working with patients through a process of supported decision-making, and a series of podcasts that illustrate those principles in practice.
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Content ArticleThese tools and resources from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) accompany the NICE guidance on Hypothermia: prevention and management in adults having surgery. Resources available for download include: Audit and service improvement baseline assessment tool Implementation support advice document Education information Shared learning information Practical steps to improving the quality of care and services using NICE guidance
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Content ArticleThis article looks at the benefits and process of prewarming patients before surgery, in order to maintain normothermia (a normal, safe temperature) throughout the peri-operative process. Increasing the patient's core temperature helps prevent hypothermia later on in surgery, reducing the need to deal with temperature issues during and after surgery. The author highlights the link between warming and patient safety and describes different approaches that can be taken for different lengths and types of surgical procedure.
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Content Article70,000 people in the UK are living with pulmonary fibrosis. Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis has the information, support and stories to help you live a healthier life with pulmonary fibrosis.
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Content ArticleFor people who have been diagnosed with dementia, accessing post-diagnosis support can be challenging, particularly when the systems meant to provide support are confusing, limited or in some areas, non-existent. The World Alzheimer Report 2022 looks at the issues surrounding post-diagnosis support, a term that refers to the variety of official and informal services and information aimed at promoting the wellbeing of people with dementia and their carers. This report explores the aspects of living with dementia following diagnosis, through 119 essays written by researchers, healthcare professionals, informal carers and people living with dementia from around the world. These expert essays are accompanied by the results of a survey carried out in May 2022, with responses from 1,669 informal carers in 68 countries, 893 professional carers in 69 countries and 365 people with dementia from 41 countries.
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Content ArticlePicker, an international charity working across health and social care, have published the results of their National Cancer Patient Experience Survey. Almost 60,000 people responded to the survey, which was coordinated by Picker on behalf of NHS England and conducted between October 2021 and February 2022. The survey included people aged 16 years and over with a confirmed primary diagnosis of cancer and who had been treated in hospital between April and June 2021.
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Content ArticleAfter more than a decade and half of trying – unsuccessfully – to deal with her fibromyalgia through opioids, Louise finally decided that one way or another, she was going to have to manage her pain another way … In Louise’s words: “I got my life back – I’m living proof that there really is life after opioids!”
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Content ArticleClosed-loop communication—when every test result is sent, received, acknowledged and acted upon without failure—is essential to reduce diagnostic error. This requires multiple parties within the healthcare system working together to refer, carry out tests, interpret the results and communicate them in language the patient can understand. If abnormal test results are not communicated in a timely manner, it can lead to patient harm. This Quick Safety case study looks at the case of a 47-year-old school teacher who had a screening mammogram. The radiologist identified a suspicious area of calcifications, which required follow up. The patient’s GP was not on the same electronic medical record (EMR) as the imaging centre and, because of front office changes, missed the notification to follow up. The patient was told that the radiologist would contact her if the results were abnormal and therefore assumed she was okay. A year later when seeing her GP, the patient was told that she needed follow-up testing and that she had stage 3 cancer. Her lesion had grown significantly, and she now required surgery, chemotherapy and radiation for advanced breast cancer. The case study suggests safety actions that should be considered to prevent this error from happening again.
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Content ArticlePatients are becoming increasingly involved in their health through technology such as health apps, and regulators are already struggling to control the market without constraining innovation. Clinical Safety must therefore adapt to the ever-changing world of health apps, if it is to fulfil its purpose and ensure that only the safest technologies are used by patients. In this blog, GP Tom Micklewright looks at some of the safety issues relating to health apps. He highlights that unlike with other new systems, health apps are rarely deployed in a controlled environment, which can cause problems when trying to apply clinical safety standards to them. He looks at five of the issues health apps can cause for safety teams: Intended scope and use Updated health apps Clinical safety, health apps and AI Different places, different features Monitoring clinical safety He then offers some potential solutions to these problems: Continuous assessment of health apps Centralise clinical safety, don’t localise Differentiated approach to clinical safety Aggregated incident reporting
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Content ArticleLife expectancy for people with a mental illness diagnosis is 15–20 years less than those without, mainly because of poor physical health. This article in the Journal of Paramedic Practice highlights the fact that mental ill health affects a significant proportion of paramedics' patients, and argues that practitioners could assess and promote patients' physical health even though contact time is limited.
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Content ArticleA systematic review and meta-analysis from Hodkinson et al. examines the association of physician burnout with the career engagement and the quality of patient care globally. A joint team of British and Greek researchers analysed 170 previous observational studies of the links between burnout among doctors, their career engagement and quality of patient care. Those papers were based on the views and experience of 239,246 doctors in countries including the US, UK and others in Africa, Asia and elsewhere globally. This meta-analysis provides compelling evidence that physician burnout is associated with poor function and sustainability of healthcare organisations primarily by contributing to the career disengagement and turnover of physicians and secondarily by reducing the quality of patient care. Healthcare organisations should invest more time and effort in implementing evidence-based strategies to mitigate physician burnout across specialties, and particularly in emergency medicine and for physicians in training or residency. Read accompanying BMJ editorial here.
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Content Article
Symptoms of pancreatic cancer (Pancreatic Cancer UK)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Cancers
Pancreatic Cancer UK has produced this infographic on recognising the symptoms of pancreatic cancer. -
Content ArticleOn 25 March 2020, Hannah Davis was texting with two friends when she realized that she couldn’t understand one of their messages. In hindsight, that was the first sign that she had COVID-19. It was also her first experience with the phenomenon known as “brain fog,” and the moment when her old life contracted into her current one. She once worked in artificial intelligence and analysed complex systems without hesitation, but now “runs into a mental wall” when faced with tasks as simple as filling out forms. Her memory, once vivid, feels frayed and fleeting. Former mundanities—buying food, making meals, cleaning up—can be agonisingly difficult. For more than 900 days, while other long-COVID symptoms have waxed and waned, her brain fog has never really lifted.
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Content ArticleIn the UK, over 26% of adults take prescription medications and in the US the figure is around 66%. But up to 50% of patients fail to take their medications as prescribed. As healthcare steadily pivots towards digital health, Dr. Bertalan Meskó and Dr. Pranavsingh Dhunno ask how new technologies can improve medication management. In this article for The Medical Futurist, they look at the importance of empowering patients to reduce the risk of medication errors. They highlight five medication management technologies that could help patients improve their own medication safety: Smart pill dispensers which deliver audible and visual cues to remind patients to take medications at the right time Medication reminder apps which help manage medication regimens and can sync the data with a caregiver or doctor Digital therapeutics which support patients to make treatment decisions Digital pills which integrate tracking technology into pills themselves Telemedical platforms that allow patients to request advice or raise concerns with their doctors.
