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Showing results for tags 'Surgery - General'.
Found 491 results
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Content ArticleAccording to the National Institutes of Health (January 2019), more than 130 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids every day. Among these deaths are patients in the hospital setting, recovering from surgical procedures or undergoing sedation, who are often prescribed opioids such as morphine and oxycodone to manage pain – a necessity for healthy and comfortable recovery. But at certain doses, these drugs can also cause respiratory failure, and, because each patient is different, there is no one dose that is 'right' or 'wrong'. Hospitals must take action to ensure their staff are aware of these risks, and put protocols in place to prevent patient deaths. The authors of this US article, published by Medium, offer recommendations for improving patient safety in this area.
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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 ArticleThis document sets out Barts Health Local Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures (LocSSIPs) based on the National National Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures (NatSSIPs). It includes eight sequential steps that are reinforced with clear organisational standards. These standards are a minimum, based on national best practice, to improve safety. They apply to all staff and all services that perform invasive procedures at Barts Health NHS Trust.
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Content ArticleThe Guideline for Disinfection and Sterilization in Healthcare Facilities, 2008, presents evidence-based recommendations on the preferred methods for cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation of patient-care medical devices and for cleaning and disinfecting the healthcare environment. This is an American guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Content ArticleThe American based ECRI Institute Patient Safety Organization (PSO), identified 234 events in its database pertaining to dirty surgical instruments. This report contains several recommendations based on the findings.
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Content ArticleThis is a Health Technical Memorandum (HTM) published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) called Management and decontamination of surgical instruments (medical devices) used in acute care. Part A: Management and provision. The purpose of this HTM is to help health organisations to develop policies regarding the management, use and decontamination of reusable medical devices at controlled costs using risk control, which will enable them to comply with Regulations 12(2)(h) and 15 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 . It is designed to reflect the need to continuously improve outcomes in terms of: patient safety clinical effectiveness patient experience.
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HSJ. Roundtable: Infection prevention and control
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Surgery
A Health Service Journal (HSJ) and Mölnlycke roundtable discusses how the NHS can improve infection control and prevention in the operating theatre – and the benefits of greater focus on this area -
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My experience in a coroner’s court – a nurse perspective
Anonymous posted an article in Florence in the Machine
This is the story of a nurse's experience when attending a coroner's court and how the Trust supported them through this difficult time.- Posted
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Below Ten Thousand video
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Processes
Below Ten Thousand is a language-based safety tool for any clinical arena where 'noise and distraction' is a problem, and where high performance teams need to quickly gain 'situational awareness' and ‘directed focus’ in order to successfully navigate the perils of acute healthcare whilst providing first class interventions. -
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10,000 feet - Patient Safety in the operating theatre
Claire Cox posted an article in Process improvement
This video by theatre staff from East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust explains how the 10,000 feet initiative promotes patient safety within the operating theatre. -
Content ArticleToolkit to promote safe surgery helps peri-operative and surgical units in US hospitals identify opportunities to improve care and safety practices and implement evidence-based interventions to prevent surgical site infections. The toolkit has evidence-based, practical resources that reflect the real-world experiences of the frontline clinicians and subject matter experts who participated in a national implementation project.
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PSNet: Systems Approach
Claire Cox posted an article in In health care
The Patient Safety Network (PSNet) discuss a case of a 65 year old who went in for one operation, but ended up having a completely different operation. -
Content ArticleThe WHO surgical safety checklist is an essential aide to patient safety. This video demonstrates how the checklist is used at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
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Content ArticleThe report from The Leapfrog Group analyses eight high-risk procedures to determine which hospitals and surgeons perform enough of them to minimise the risk of patient harm or death, and whether hospitals actively monitor to assure that each surgery is necessary. The report finds that the vast majority of participating hospitals do not meet The Leapfrog Group’s minimum hospital or surgeon volume standards for safety nor do they have adequate policies in place to monitor for appropriateness. Rural hospitals are particularly challenged in meeting the standards. Leapfrog advises "given the variation in patient outcomes between higher-volume and lower-volume hospitals, the importance of patients using Leapfrog results to select a hospital for these high-risk procedures cannot be overstated."
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Content Article
Surgical Grand Rounds Lectures
Claire Cox posted an article in Doctors
The Surgical Grand Rounds, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, are the key educational meetings for consultants, juniors and medical students. Presentations revolve around clinical cases and are followed by lively, educational discussion. These podcasts are brought to you by the Oxford University Medical Education Fellows. -
Content ArticleRichard Greenwood is Trust Decontamination Lead & Head of Sterile Services at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay (UHMB) NHS Foundation Trust. As with many NHS Trusts, UHMB were faced with problem of managing surgical instrument stocks, migration of the instruments from sets, and tracking and tracing single instruments through the decontamination process back to the patient. This case study shows how they solved this problem.
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Content Article
WHO surgical safety checklist (1st edition, 2009)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in WHO
The World Health Organization's surgical safety checklist to be used in all hospitals in the UK. -
Content ArticleSome of the serious findings of external reviews of NHS services from recent years, previously unpublished, have been released to HSJ. An HSJ investigation has found the NHS has kept secret dozens of external reviews into care failings in local services including: A hospital where surgery may have “shortened life expectancy”. An alleged “cartel” of private patients said to be put on NHS lists. “Very high risk” consultant on-call arrangements. Problems with fetal heart monitoring in a maternity service. Potentially unnecessary operations being carried out. Rows among doctors putting patients at risk. Read their full report below.
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Content ArticleIn response to the pandemic earlier this year, the priority became freeing up as much bed and staffing capacity as possible within hospitals in anticipation of the incoming tide of COVID-19 patients. One way of doing this was postponing all non-urgent elective operations for a period of at least three months. It was estimated that this would free up 12,000-15,000 hospital beds in England alone. This approach was successful in the short-term, helping the NHS to meet the immediate demand created by the pandemic. However, it has produced a longer-term challenge as we transition back to ‘normal’ with a large backlog of cases. Decisions about how these are prioritised will have significant implications for the health and wellbeing of patients. In this blog, Patient Safety Learning look at the patient safety implications and highlight where we need to focus on to avoid patient harm. Read the full blog on the Patient Safety Learning website.
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Content ArticleThe UK NHS has risen to the challenge posed by COVID-19 through Herculean efforts to expand capacity. This has included doubling or trebling intensive care (ICU) capacity within hospitals, augmenting this with Nightingale Hospitals, cancelling all non-emergency surgery and redeploying staff and equipment to focus on a single disease. At the same time, government and population efforts have – through social distancing then lockdown – successfully flattened the epidemic curve and so reduced demand. Together, these actions have enabled treatment of all those needing hospital care for COVID-19 and avoided the unfettered increase in mortality that would have accompanied an overwhelmed healthcare service. However, this has been achieved ‘by the skin of our teeth’ and until very recently, the threat of insufficient ICU beds ventilators, and the need for triage were all anticipated: a few hospitals were overcome by the surge of critically ill patents. Now, political and social thoughts and actions are turning to loosening lockdown and determining what ‘post-pandemic normality’ will look like. In this Editorial, William Harrop‑Griffiths and Tim Cook discuss the prospects and challenges of ‘planned surgery’ – both time-critical and wholly elective procedures.
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Content ArticleCancer diagnostics and surgery have been disrupted by the response of healthcare services to the COVID-19 pandemic. Progression of cancers during delay will impact on patient long-term survival. Sud et al., in a paper published in Annals of Oncology, found: Lockdown and re-deployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic is causing significant disruption to cancer diagnosis and management. 3-month delay to surgery across all Stage 1-3 cancers is estimated to cause >4,700 attributable deaths per year in England. The impact on life years lost of 3-6 month to surgery for Stage 1-3 disease varies widely between tumour types. Strategic prioritisation of patients for diagnostics and surgery has potential to mitigate deaths attributable to delays. The resource-adjusted benefit in avoiding delay in cancer management compares favourably to admission for COVID-19 infection.
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Emotional Intelligence (and forgiveness after harm)
Claire Cox posted an article in By patients and public
Susannah is a healthcare professional and patient who had surgery which led to multiple complications. Emotional Intelligence is part of a series of blogs from Susannah, that illustrates her journey of self discovery, acceptance and provides an insight into the complex world of healthcare induced harm. -
Content ArticleEmergency abdominal surgery (EAS) refers to high-risk intra-abdominal surgical procedures undertaken for acute gastrointestinal pathology. The relationship between hospital or surgeon volume and mortality of patients undergoing EAS is poorly understood. This study, published in BMJ Open, examined this relationship at the national level.
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Content ArticleThe Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Ms Nadine Dorries, responds to the Paterson Inquiry in the House of Commons. It is followed by questions from MPs in the chamber and Ms Dorries' responses.
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Content ArticleThis article from Zarzaur et al., in JAMA Surgery, shares an administrative restructuring approach building on military and emergency management experiences to make adjustments in surgery workforce and expertise availability to address complex shifts in care processes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
