Preventable medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Healthcare leaders must consistently promote the delivery of quality and safe care of patients to reduce unnecessary errors and prevent harm. The purpose of this case study was to explore human resource strategies for improving organizational performance to reduce medical errors. The study included face-to-face interviews with 5 healthcare clinical managers who work within a multifaceted health system in the Midwestern region of the United States. Complex adaptive systems theory was used to frame this study. Interview notes, publicly available documents, and audio recordings were transcribed and analyzed to identify themes regarding strategies used by managers to find effective ways for improvement. Four themes emerged: addressing seminal/never events, ongoing training programs, communication/collaboration, and promoting a culture of safety and quality. Results may directly benefit healthcare managers by facilitating successful strategies to reduce preventable medical errors through education, feedback, innovation, and leadership. Implications for social change for healthcare managers include continued training, building a culture of safety, and using collaborative and communicative efforts while making contributions to the best practices within healthcare organizations to reduce the likelihood of medical errors.

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-07-21T23:30:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 69c.pdf: 808730 bytes, checksum: 0b75ef037842e0369cd10f11d2db1a0d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-21T23:30:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 69c.pdf: 808730 bytes, checksum: 0b75ef037842e0369cd10f11d2db1a0d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-14 / Nenhuma / As organizações de saúde são ambientes que abrigam setores, atividades e processos, cuja complexidade favorece a ocorrência de eventos adversos (EA). Como forma de evita-los, a incorporação de modificações substanciais e adequadas, surge como necessidade básica para melhorar a segurança do paciente. OBJETIVO: Rastrear a ocorrência dos eventos adversos encontrados no Centro de Terapia Intensiva, através da abordagem proposta pelo Institute for Healthcare Improvement, utilizando a ferramenta de rastreamento global. MATERIAL E MÉTODO: Estudo transversal e analítico realizado no CTI adulto de um hospital privado e filantrópico de grande porte do município de Porto Alegre/RS. Foram analisados 128 prontuários por estratificação, proporcional e aleatório, de pacientes que tiveram alta do CTI adulto de abril a outubro de 2012. Foram incluídos os pacientes, maiores de 18 anos, que permaneceram no mínimo 24 horas internados no CTI, independente do desfecho de alta e excluídos pacientes em reabilitação e internação psiquiátrica. Os dados foram coletados por dois enfermeiros e um médico intensivista, que realizou a autenticação dos dados coletados, definiu o evento adverso e o dano. O protocolo de verificação de cada prontuário ocorreu no tempo preconizado de 20 minutos. Os dados foram classificados nos módulos terapia intensiva e cuidado: (a) C1: transfusão sanguínea ou uso de hemocomponentes; (b) C2: parada cardiorrespiratória; (c) C5: RX ou ecografia com doppler para estudo de êmbolos ou trombose venosa profunda (TVP); (d) I3: procedimento; (e) I4: intubação/reintubação; (f) outros. Os danos foram classificados seguindo as categorias de exclusão e inclusão. As variáveis qualitativas foram descritas por frequências absolutas e relativas e as quantitativas por média e desvio padrão. A fim de testar as associações entre as variáveis qualitativas, foi utilizado o teste quiquadrado. Para comparação de médias entre os grupos foi utilizado o teste t. Para todas as análises, considerou-se um nível de significância de 5%. O projeto foi aprovado pelos Comitês de Ética em Pesquisa das instituições. RESULTADO: Em 39,8% dos prontuários foram identificados algum EA, com uma média de 0,8 eventos por prontuário. O principal motivo de internação no CTI foi pós-operatório. Os pacientes que sofreram EA tiveram maior tempo de permanência no CTI (p <0,001). Foram identificados 51 pacientes com EA. Destes, 40 EA foram rastreados nos módulos de cuidado e terapia intensiva, identificados por 241 gatilhos, e 60 EA foram identificados por outros rastreadores propostos pela ferramenta do IHI. Em 56% dos casos, os EA foram classificados como dano temporário e houve necessidade de uma intervenção no paciente. Cerca de 15% tiveram dano que levou a necessidade de intervenção para manutenção da vida ou morreram. Os EA evitáveis ocorreram em 77% dos casos. CONCLUSÃO: O conhecimento de EA pode contribuir e direcionar estratégias de melhoria e busca de resultados, sendo que três alternativas foram elencadas para implantação de curto a médio prazo na terapia intensiva. São elas: (1) lista de verificação (Checklist); (2) criação de um programa de educação continuada e certificação para os profissionais de enfermagem da terapia intensiva; (3) implantar um método de avaliação sistemática de prontuários de pacientes que internaram no CTI Adulto. / Health organizations are the settings that host sectors, activities and processes whose complexity favors the occurrences of adverse events (AE). As a way to avoid them, the incorporation of substantial and adequate modifications arises as a basic need to improve patient’s safety. OBJECTIVE: To track the occurrences of adverse events on the Intensive Care Center, applying the suggested approach by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Transversal study and analytical performed at the Intensive Care Center in a big private philanthropic hospital in the city of Porto Alegre/RS. 128 medical records from patients who were discharged from the hospital between april and october in the year 2012 were randomly analyzed by stratification and proportion. It was also included patients who were more than 18 years old and that had been at least 24 hours in the Intense Care Unit, independently from the outcome of discharged and excluded patients who were under rehabilitation and psychiatric hospitalization. The data was collected by two nurses and an intensivist doctor, who authenticated the collected data, defined the adverse events and the damage. The checking protocol of each medical record happened in the recommended time of 20 minutes. The data was classified in the patterns of Intensive Therapy and Care: (a) C1: blood transfusion or the use of hemocomponents; (b) C2: cardiorespiratory arrest; (c) C5: XR or ultrasound with Doppler to study emboli or deep venous thrombosis (TVP); (d) I3 procedure: (e) I4: intubation / reintubation; (f) others. The damages were classified according to the inclusion and exclusion categories. The variable was described by absolute and relative frequencies. The qualitative variables were describe by absolute and relative frequencies and the quantitative by mean and standard deviation. Chi-square test was used in order to test the associations between the qualitative variables. The ttest was employed to compare means between the groups. For all analyses, the significance level was 5%. The project was approved research ethics committee by the institutions. RESULTS: 39,8 of the medical records were identified with some AE within an average of 0,8 events per medical record. The main reason to hospitalization in Intensive Care was the postoperative. The patients who suffered AE had longer time remaining at the ICU (p<0,001). 51 patients were identified with AE whose 40 AE were tracked in the care module and in the intensive therapy, identified by 241 triggers, and 60 AE were identified by other trackers suggested as tools from the IHI. In 56% of the cases, the AE were classified as temporary damage and there was a need of an intervention in the patient. Around 15% of the cases had damage that there was a need of an intervention to keep them alive or they died. The preventable AE happened in 77% of the cases. CONCLUSION: The AE acknowledgment may contribute and direct improvement strategies and search of results, considering that three alternatives were listed to the implementation of short to medium term in the intensive care. They are: (1) checklist; (2) creation of a continued education program and certification to the nursery professionals in the intensive care; (3) Implementation of a method to evaluate systematically the medical records from patients who are hospitalized in the adult IC.

"October 2004" / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-337) / x, 337 leaves : ill. (col.), maps (col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Public Health, 2004

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Health Information Technology (HIT) has become an integral component of healthcare today. The HITECH Act (2009) and Meaningful Use objectives stand to bring wide-sweeping adoption and implementations of HIT in small, medium and large sized healthcare organizations across the country. Though recent literature has provided evidence for the benefits of HIT in the profession, there have also been a growing number of reports exploring the adverse effects of HIT. There has not, however, yet been a systematic account of the adverse effects of HIT in the healthcare system. The current push for HIT coupled with a lack of critical appraisal of the potential risks of implementation and deployment within the medical literature has led to a general unquestioning and unregulated acceptance of the implementation of technology in medicine and healthcare as a positive addition with little or no risk. While the benefits of HIT are clear, a review of the existing studies in the literature would provide a holistic vision of the adverse effects of HIT as well as the types and impact within the nation’s health care system to inform future HIT development and implementation. The development of a general understanding of these adverse effects can serve as a review and summary for the use of informatics professionals and clinicians implementing HIT as well as providing future direction for the industry in HIT implementations. Additionally, this study has value for moving forward in informatics to develop frameworks for implementation and guidelines and standards for development and regulation of HIT at a federal level. This study involves the use of an integrative literature review to identify and classify the adverse effects of HIT as reported in the literature. The purpose of this study is to perform an integrative review of the literature to 1) identify and classify the adverse effects of HIT; 2) determine the impact and prevalence of these effects; 3) identify the recommended actions and best practices to address the negative effects of HIT. This study analyzed 18 articles for HIT-induced error and adverse consequences. In the process, 228 errors and/or adverse consequences were identified, classified and represented in an operational taxonomic schema. The taxonomic representation consisted of 8 master categories and 30 subcategories. Additionally, the prevalence and impact of these errors were evaluated as well as recommendations and best practices in future systems design. This study builds on previous work in the medical literature pertaining to HIT-induced errors and adverse consequences and offers a unique perspective in analyzing existing studies in the literature using the integrative review model of research. It is the first work in combining studies across healthcare technologies and analyzing the adverse consequences across 18 studies to form a cohesive classification of these events in healthcare technology.

Introdução: Por se tratar de uma falha médica com potencial implicação jurídica, a retenção inadvertida de corpos estranhos continua sendo subnotificada, o que dificulta o seu estudo e a sua compreensão. Como resultado, ainda se enfrenta um problema recorrente. Este estudo explorou a experiência de cirurgiões brasileiros em relação à retenção de corpos estranhos, analisando as suas características e consequências. Métodos: Foi enviado um questionário de preenchimento voluntário, confidencial e anônimo, por correio eletrônico, aos cirurgiões membros de nove sociedades brasileiras, durante um período de três meses. As questões analisaram a vivência dos entrevistados com os corpos estranhos, seus tipos, manifestações clínicas, diagnóstico, fatores de risco ou de proteção e implicações jurídicas. Resultados: Das 2872 submissões elegíveis, 43% dos médicos teriam deixado e 73% retirado corpos estranhos em uma ou mais ocasiões. Destes, 90% eram têxteis, 78% foram descobertos no primeiro ano e 14% eram assintomáticos. A maioria das retenções ocorreu no início da carreira profissional, em procedimentos eletivos (54%) e rotineiros (85%), porém complexos (57%). Emergência, ausência de contagem, pacientes obesos, fadiga do cirurgião e problemas relacionados às equipes cirúrgicas e aos processos foram tidos como os principais facilitadores. Os pacientes foram alertados sobre a retenção em 46% das vezes e, destes, 26% processaram os médicos ou a instituição. Conclusões: A maioria das retenções inadvertidas ocorreu nos primeiros anos de atividade profissional, em intervenções eletivas e rotineiras. Os corpos estranhos foram diagnosticados nos primeiros meses de pósoperatório, tendo sido os têxteis os mais frequentes. Os fatores de risco referidos pelos entrevistados são comuns em seus locais de trabalho, como emergências e equipes cirúrgicas incompletas, por exemplo. Menos de metade dos operados ficou ciente do evento adverso, sendo que a minoria acabou processando as instituições e/ou cirurgiões envolvidos / Background: Although there is an international mobilization to deal with unintentionally retained foreign bodies (RFB), since it is medical malpractice with potential legal implications, the cases are underreported, hindering the understanding and study of the problem. As a result, we face a recurrent and poorly understood event. This study explored the experience of brazilian surgeons on RFB and analyzed their characteristics and consequences. Study Design: In a three-month period, questionnaire was sent to surgeons members of nine brazilian societies, by electronic mail. Answering the questionnaire was volunteer. Answers were kept confidential and anonymous. The questions explored their experience with foreign bodies, FB types, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, risk and protection factors, and legal implications. Results: In 2872 eligible questionnaires, 43% of the doctors said they had already left FB and 73% had removed FB, in one or more occasions. Of these foreign bodies, 90% were textiles, 78% were discovered in the first year after the surgery and 14% remained asymptomatic. The occurrence of RFBs is more frequent in early professional career, in elective (54%) and routine (85%), but complex (57%) procedures. The main causes were emergency, lack of counting, inadequate work conditions, change of plans during the procedure and obese patients. Patients were alerted about the retention in 46% of the cases, and of these, 26% sued the doctors or the institution. Conclusion: The majority of unintentionally retained foreign bodies occurred at the beginning of the professional career, during routine surgical procedures. In general, foreign bodies caused symptoms and were diagnosed in the first year of the post-operative period. Textiles predominated. Inadequate work conditions were listed as RFB risk factors, as well as emergency surgery, for example. Less than half of the patients were aware of the adverse event and 26% sued the surgeons or the institutions involved in the procedure

Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-04T12:42:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010 / Organismos nacionais e internacionais evidenciam a necessidade do desenvolvimento de dispositivos e estratégias para a redução do dano desnecessário associado ao cuidado em saúde a um mínimo aceitável. Inúmeras ações e pesquisas vêm sendo realizadas de forma crescente na última década. Além das tecnologias e conhecimentos técnicos produzidos nesse período, aspectos comportamentais passarama ser levados em consideração em função da complexidade e especificidade envolvidas na assistência à saúde.Os procedimentos de higienização de mãos e os paradoxos que envolvem a adesão dos profissionais de saúde a esses procedimentos foi o fenômeno utilizado para empreender um estudo que possibilitasse a compreensão do comportamento de violação, etapa do processo de consecução do erro, responsável em parte pela alta incidência de eventos adversos evitáveis. Alguns modelos explicativos foram utilizados para visualizar o fenômeno estudado por prismas diferentes. A pesquisa qualitativa realizada teve como base o desenvolvimento de uma teoria fundamentada que visou à compreensão do comportamento de violação ocorrida nas ações médicas frente às iniciativas de higienização de mãos. A análise empreendida assevera a importância da implantação das iniciativas de higienização de mãos e do avanço sistemático do processo implementação dessas iniciativas, no sentido de qualificar os profissionais de saúde para agir preventivamente em relação às infecções relacionadas à assistência à saúde. Quanto mais avançado for o estágio de implementação dessas normas e procedimentos maior a possibilidade de detecção e compreensão da dinâmica comportamental que envolve a baixa adesão e consequentemente a criação de estratégias que possam diminuir a distância entre o trabalho prescrito e o trabalho real. / National and international organizations insist on the need to develop mechanisms and strategies to reduce the unnecessary harm associated with healthcare to a minimum. In this sense, more and more actions and researches have been accomplished in the last decade. Besides technology and knowledge developed in the meantime, behavioral aspects have to also be taken into consideration in order to meet the complexity and specificity requirements of healthcare. Hand hygiene procedures and the paradoxes surrounding the healthcare workers compliance to these procedures, here understood as a phenomenon, are the subject of this research. It leads to the understanding of violation behavior – a stage of the error attainment process -, which is partly responsible for the high incidence of preventable and adverse events. Some explanatory models have been used to visualize that phenomenon, which has been studied from different standpoints. In this thesis, qualitative research is grounded on a theory that aims to understand the violation behavior that occurs throughout medical actions that require their compliance to hand hygiene initiatives. This analysis sustains the importance of the implementation of hand hygiene initiatives and the systematic advancement of such procedures in order to qualify healthcare workers to prevent cross-transmission of microorganisms. The more advanced is the implementation stage of the process, higher is the possibility of detection and understanding of the behavioral dynamic involving low compliance to it. Thus, the development of strategies might diminish the gap between prescribed work and real work.

Introdução: Por se tratar de uma falha médica com potencial implicação jurídica, a retenção inadvertida de corpos estranhos continua sendo subnotificada, o que dificulta o seu estudo e a sua compreensão. Como resultado, ainda se enfrenta um problema recorrente. Este estudo explorou a experiência de cirurgiões brasileiros em relação à retenção de corpos estranhos, analisando as suas características e consequências. Métodos: Foi enviado um questionário de preenchimento voluntário, confidencial e anônimo, por correio eletrônico, aos cirurgiões membros de nove sociedades brasileiras, durante um período de três meses. As questões analisaram a vivência dos entrevistados com os corpos estranhos, seus tipos, manifestações clínicas, diagnóstico, fatores de risco ou de proteção e implicações jurídicas. Resultados: Das 2872 submissões elegíveis, 43% dos médicos teriam deixado e 73% retirado corpos estranhos em uma ou mais ocasiões. Destes, 90% eram têxteis, 78% foram descobertos no primeiro ano e 14% eram assintomáticos. A maioria das retenções ocorreu no início da carreira profissional, em procedimentos eletivos (54%) e rotineiros (85%), porém complexos (57%). Emergência, ausência de contagem, pacientes obesos, fadiga do cirurgião e problemas relacionados às equipes cirúrgicas e aos processos foram tidos como os principais facilitadores. Os pacientes foram alertados sobre a retenção em 46% das vezes e, destes, 26% processaram os médicos ou a instituição. Conclusões: A maioria das retenções inadvertidas ocorreu nos primeiros anos de atividade profissional, em intervenções eletivas e rotineiras. Os corpos estranhos foram diagnosticados nos primeiros meses de pósoperatório, tendo sido os têxteis os mais frequentes. Os fatores de risco referidos pelos entrevistados são comuns em seus locais de trabalho, como emergências e equipes cirúrgicas incompletas, por exemplo. Menos de metade dos operados ficou ciente do evento adverso, sendo que a minoria acabou processando as instituições e/ou cirurgiões envolvidos / Background: Although there is an international mobilization to deal with unintentionally retained foreign bodies (RFB), since it is medical malpractice with potential legal implications, the cases are underreported, hindering the understanding and study of the problem. As a result, we face a recurrent and poorly understood event. This study explored the experience of brazilian surgeons on RFB and analyzed their characteristics and consequences. Study Design: In a three-month period, questionnaire was sent to surgeons members of nine brazilian societies, by electronic mail. Answering the questionnaire was volunteer. Answers were kept confidential and anonymous. The questions explored their experience with foreign bodies, FB types, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, risk and protection factors, and legal implications. Results: In 2872 eligible questionnaires, 43% of the doctors said they had already left FB and 73% had removed FB, in one or more occasions. Of these foreign bodies, 90% were textiles, 78% were discovered in the first year after the surgery and 14% remained asymptomatic. The occurrence of RFBs is more frequent in early professional career, in elective (54%) and routine (85%), but complex (57%) procedures. The main causes were emergency, lack of counting, inadequate work conditions, change of plans during the procedure and obese patients. Patients were alerted about the retention in 46% of the cases, and of these, 26% sued the doctors or the institution. Conclusion: The majority of unintentionally retained foreign bodies occurred at the beginning of the professional career, during routine surgical procedures. In general, foreign bodies caused symptoms and were diagnosed in the first year of the post-operative period. Textiles predominated. Inadequate work conditions were listed as RFB risk factors, as well as emergency surgery, for example. Less than half of the patients were aware of the adverse event and 26% sued the surgeons or the institutions involved in the procedure

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Nurse-physician collaboration has received much attention over the past decade in the USA. The release of three reports from the Institute of Medicine implicated poor communication and collaboration among nurses and physicians as a major contributing factor to the incidence of sentinel events and medical errors. Despite the growing awareness of the imperative related to collaboration between nurses and physicians to ensure patient safety, the problem of poor nurse-physician collaboration remains endemic throughout the country. Indian nurses, along with many other internationally educated nurses, comprise 12-15.2% of the nursing workforce in the USA. Little is known about how Indian nurses culture potentially influences their ability to effectively collaborate with physicians to ensure patient safety. The purpose of this study is to understand Indian nurses’ attitudes and perceptions about nurse-physician collaboration. Hermeneutic interpretive phenomenology as influenced by the work of Martin Heidegger guided this study through the use of interviews via Skype. The overall experience of the Indian nurses was of one experiencing a dramatic positive change in nurse-physician collaboration in the USA as compared to India. Four themes emerged describing this phenomenon: Respect/feeling heard, Being Trusted, Assurance of Accountability, and Finding Freedom. Indian nurses practicing in the USA find a freedom that empowers them to collaborate with physicians for patient safety. They, as all nurses may, benefit from continuing educational opportunities that demonstrate ways to collaborate more fully.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Reducing medical error remains in the forefront of healthcare reform. The use of health information technology, specifically the electronic health record (EHR) is one attempt to improve patient safety. The implementation of the EHR in the Emergency Department changes physician workflow, which can have negative, unintended consequences for patient safety. Inaccuracies in clinical documentation can contribute, for example, to medical error during transitions of care. In this quasi-experimental comparison study, we sought to determine whether there is a difference in document quality, error rate, error type, cognitive load and time when Emergency Medicine (EM) residents use paper charts versus the EHR to complete physician documentation of clinical encounters. Simulated patient encounters provided a unique and innovative environment to evaluate EM physician documentation. Analysis focused on examining documentation quality and real-time observation of the simulated encounter. Results demonstrate no change in document quality, no change in cognitive load, and no change in error rate between electronic and paper charts. There was a 46% increase in the time required to complete the charting task when using the EHR. Physician workflow changes from partial documentation during the patient encounter with paper charts to complete documentation after the encounter with electronic charts. Documentation quality overall was poor with an average of 36% of required elements missing which did not improve during residency training. The extra time required for the charting task using the EHR potentially increases patient waiting times as well as clinician dissatisfaction and burnout, yet it has little impact on the quality of physician documentation. Better strategies and support for documentation are needed as providers adopt and use EHR systems to change the practice of medicine.