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Abstract Background Impaired self-awareness (i.e., a lack of insight) is experienced by most individuals who have sustained a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). During the early recovery period post-injury, these individuals may not be able to recognize their abilities and limitations, hence, negatively impacting their daily life and function. Although there are assessments and interventions to improve self-awareness after TBI, little is known about how clinicians assess and address this impairment in an inpatient rehabilitation setting. Objective To examine how clinicians assess, report, and provide interventions for impaired self-awareness after TBI. Methods A retrospective chart review was conducted on interdisciplinary rehabilitation clinician entries for individuals with TBI (n = 67) who received inpatient rehabilitation within a five-year period (2014–2019). A reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify themes pertaining to self-awareness. Results Three themes were generated to explore clinician responses to their clients’ impaired self-awareness: 1) ‘recalling and understanding’ described clinician observations of client behaviors and expressions of self-awareness, 2) ‘applying and analyzing’ identified clinicians providing relevant tasks and advice to clients, and 3) ‘evaluating and creating’ described clinicians actively interacting with clients by providing feedback, guided prompts, and a follow-up plan. Conclusion Clinicians produced varied responses to clients’ impaired self-awareness after TBI. Findings may help to develop research priorities and integrated knowledge translation initiatives to increase evidence-based practice for impaired self-awareness after TBI.

Background: Impaired self-awareness (i.e., a lack of insight) is experienced by most individuals who have sustained a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). During the early recovery period post-injury, these individuals may not be able to recognize their abilities and limitations, hence, negatively impacting their daily life and function. Although there are assessments and interventions to improve self-awareness after TBI, little is known about how clinicians assess and address this impairment in an inpatient rehabilitation setting.Objective: To examine how clinicians assess, report, and provide interventions for impaired self-awareness after TBI.Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted on interdisciplinary rehabilitation clinician entries for individuals with TBI (n = 67) who received inpatient rehabilitation within a five-year period (2014-2019). A reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify themes pertaining to self-awareness.Results: Three themes were generated to explore clinician responses to their clients' impaired self-awareness: 1) 'recalling and understanding' described clinician observations of client behaviors and expressions of self-awareness, 2) 'applying and analyzing' identified clinicians providing relevant tasks and advice to clients, and 3) 'evaluating and creating' described clinicians actively interacting with clients by providing feedback, guided prompts, and a follow-up plan.Conclusion: Clinicians produced varied responses to clients' impaired self-awareness after TBI. Findings may help to develop research priorities and integrated knowledge translation initiatives to increase evidence-based practice for impaired self-awareness after TBI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A complete, correct and timely discharge letter can communicate important information from the hospital to the general practitioner. The adequacy of the letter may vary with the patient and admission characteristics of the patient. Insight in the association between these characteristics and the presence and quality of the discharge letter will give rise to improvement activities for a better continuity of care after discharge. The objective was to determine the presence, correctness and timeliness of admission information in discharge letters and to determine the association between patient and admission characteristics, including unplanned readmissions and the quality of the discharge letter.Methods: A post-hoc analysis of a two-staged retrospective patient record review study was performed in 4048 patient records in a random sample of 20 hospitals.Results: Nearly ten percent of the discharge letters are lacking in patient records in Dutch hospitals. In 59.1% of the discharge letters, one or more relevant components are missing. Important laboratory results, relevant information about consultations, answers to the questions of the referrer, changes in medication and follow up are often lacking. Discharge letters are more likely to be missing in elective patient admissions to a hospital, with a shorter length of stay, less comorbidity, and in readmissions. There was a significant variation in missing discharge letters between hospitals and between hospital departments.Conclusions: The quality of discharge letters varies with patient and admission characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The multidisciplinary approach in the management of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) has been shown to provide superior care to devolved care, with better survival, improved quality of care, and quality of life. Access to expert multidisciplinary management should be a standard for patients with ALS. This analysis explores the patient journey from symptom onset and first engagement with health services, to the initial visit to a specialist ALS Multidisciplinary Clinic (MDC) in Dublin, Ireland.Methods: A retrospective exploratory multi-method study details the patient journey to the MDC. Data from medical interviews and systematic chart review identifies interactions with the health services and key timelines for thirty five new patients presenting with a diagnosis of ALS during a 6 month period in 2013.Results: The time from first symptom to diagnosis was a mean of 16 months (median 13 months), with a mean interval of 19 months (median 14.6) from first symptoms to arrival at the MDC. The majority of patients were seen by a general practitioner, and subsequently by neurology services. There was an average of four contacts with health services and 4.8 investigations/tests, prior to their first Clinic visit. On the first visit to the MDC patients are linked into an integrated 'system' that can provide specialist care and link with voluntary, palliative and community services as required.Conclusions: Engagement with a multidisciplinary team has implications for service utilization and quality of life of patients and their families. We have demonstrated that barriers exist that delay referral to specialist services. Comprehensive data recording and collection, using multiple data sources can reconstruct the timelines of the patient journey, which can in turn be used to identify pathways that can expedite early referral to specialist services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension (CTEPH) results from incomplete resolution of a pulmonary embolus, leading to pulmonary hypertension and progressive right heart failure and death. We aimed to describe the demographics, treatment patterns, health resource utilization and related costs of patients with CTEPH. Methods In specialized PH centres across six European countries, medical charts of CTEPH patients on PH medication were retrospectively extracted (chart review between 2006 and 2009). Resource utilization was valued using country-specific unit costs. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed. Results Twenty-one hospitals documented 119 consecutive CTEPH patients over an average of 25.4 months. Patients were inoperable (83.9%) or persistent after surgery (16.0%) with mean age 67.5 ± 12.3 years, 61% were female. The average 6-minute walking distance was 298 ± 120 meters, and NYHA class II/III/IV was 27/59/14%. At baseline, 59.7% patients received endothelin receptor antagonist, 34.4% phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, and 5.8% prostacyclin. Adding a second PAH medication was the most common regimen change. CTEPH patients experienced 1.8 ± 2.2 hospitalizations per year accounting for 14.8 ± 26.1 days in hospital. Patients paid on average 2.8 office visits per year to their general practitioner and 1.3 visits to a specialist. Unadjusted annual mortality rate was 6.0%. Annual cost of PH specific medication was the predominant economic factor averaging € 36,68 per year. Costs for hospitalizations (€ 4,496) and concomitant mediations (€ 2,510) were sbstantially lower Other health care resource items only accounted for marginal additional costs. Conclusion CTEPH patients are characterised by substantial morbidity and mortality. Health care utilisation, predominantly due to off-label use of PH drugs, is significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]