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Background Patients admitted to hospital on weekends have a greater risk of mortality compared to patients admitted on weekdays. Junior medical officers (JMO) make up the majority of medical staff on weekends. No previous study has quantified JMO work patterns on weekends. Aim To describe and quantify JMO work patterns on weekends and compare them with patterns previously observed during the week. Methods Observational time and motion study of JMO working weekends using the Work Observation Method by Activity Timing (WOMBAT; Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia) software. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the proportion of total observed time spent in tasks. Results Weekend JMO predominately spent time in indirect care (32.0%), direct care (23.0%) and professional communication (22.1%). JMO spent 20.9% of time multitasking and were interrupted, on average, every 9 min. Weekend JMO spent significantly more time in direct care compared with weekdays (13.0%; P

The uptake of the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) has been slowly building momentum in Australia. The purpose of the PCEHR is to collect clinically important information from multiple healthcare providers to provide a secure electronic record to patients and their authorised healthcare providers that will ultimately enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery. Reasons for the slow uptake of the PCEHR and future directions to improve its usefulness is discussed later.

Background Previous work has examined the impact of technology on information sharing and communication between doctors and patients in general practice consultations, but very few studies have explored this in hospital settings. Aims To assess if, and how, senior clinicians use an iPad to share information (e.g. patient test results) with patients during ward rounds and to explore patients' and doctors' experiences of information sharing events. Methods Ten senior doctors were shadowed on ward rounds on general wards during interactions with 525 patients over 77.3 h, seven senior doctors were interviewed and 180 patients completed a short survey. Results Doctors reported that information sharing with patients is critical to the delivery of high-quality healthcare, but were not seen to use the iPad to share information with patients on ward rounds. Patients did not think the iPad had impacted on their engagement with doctors on rounds. Ward rounds were observed to follow set routines and patient interactions were brief. Conclusions Although the iPad potentially creates new opportunities for information sharing and patient engagement, the ward round may not present the most appropriate context for this to be done.

The personally controlled electronic health record (PCHER) was designed to bring important information together to facilitate effective communication between clinicians and so improve patient care. This national cross-sectional survey of 405 healthcare providers and consumers found that they had relatively low awareness and knowledge about the PCEHR; that 62% of respondents believed that healthcare providers with access to the PCEHR would be able to provide better quality of care but only 50% of respondents would sign up to have a PCEHR.

Background and objective This study investigates health professionals’ reactions to patients’ perceptions of health issues – a little-researched topic vital to the reform of the care of chronic illness. Methods Focus groups were undertaken with doctors, nurses, allied health staff and pharmacists (n = 88) in two Australian urban regions. The focus groups explored responses to patient experiences of chronic illness (COPD, Diabetes, CHF) obtained in an earlier qualitative study. Content analysis was undertaken of the transcripts assisted by NVivo7 software. Results Health professionals and patients agreed on general themes: that competing demands in self-management, financial pressure and co-morbidity were problems for people with chronic illness. However where patients and carers focused on their personal challenges, health professionals often saw the patient experience as a series of failures relating to compliance or service fragmentation. Some saw this as a result of individual shortcomings. Most identified structural and attitudinal issues. All saw the prime solution as additional resources for their own activities. Fee for service providers (mainly doctors) sought increased remuneration; salaried professionals (mainly nurses and allied health professionals) sought to increase capacity within their professional group. Conclusions Professionals focus on their own resources and the behaviour of other professionals to improve management of chronic illness. They did not factor information from patient experience into their views about systems improvement. This inability to identify solutions beyond their professional sphere highlights the limitations of an over-reliance on the perspectives of health professionals. The views of patients and carers must find a stronger voice in health policy.

Background Healthcare reforms are needed to meet the predicted increase in the chronic disease burden. A multidisciplinary team approach has been extensively evaluated and shown to improve health outcomes. There is also support for including pharmacists in these teams. Pharmacists have valuable insight, from a medication perspective, to improve the management of patients with chronic illness. Aim To explore the perceptions of community pharmacists regarding the incentives, barriers and solutions in managing the medication regimens of patients with chronic illness. Method Semi-structured group discussions and individual interviews were conducted in October and November 2008 with community pharmacists working in Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains. Results Community pharmacists struggle to provide optimal care for patients with chronic illness. Identified reasons include poor communication with patients and health professionals, lack of care coordination and continuity of care. Many patients were thought to struggle financially when managing a chronic illness, which negatively influenced their adherence to medication regimens and recommendations on lifestyle changes. Better teamwork and communication, possibly through co-locating health professionals under one roof were suggested by pharmacists as possible solutions. Conclusion Pharmacists have a good understanding of patients' social circumstances but lack relevant clinical data. Community pharmacists are willing to take a greater role in the management of patients with chronic illness.

Background Hospitalised patients with diabetes often have poor glycaemic control. To improve the management of hospitalised patients with diabetes, a new insulin chart incorporating documentation of blood glucose levels was developed and introduced at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. Aim To evaluate the impact of a new insulin chart on the management of hospitalised patients with diabetes. Method A retrospective study comparing the management of three groups of hospitalised diabetic patients. The use of insulin and management of hypoglycaemic events before and after the introduction of the new insulin chart were compared. Clinical data were collected from medical records from April 2004 to April 2005. Chi-square tests were performed to analyse the data for significant differences. Results Post-implementation of the new insulin chart, patients seen by the endocrine team were more frequently ordered regular insulin (p < 0.017) than patients not managed by the endocrinologists. The number of omitted doses of regular insulin remained unchanged. Poor cross-referencing of the insulin and standard medication charts may have been a contributing factor. Post-implementation, significantly more hypoglycaemic events were treated according to the hospital's protocol (p < 0.001). Staff satisfaction with the new insulin chart was high except for some doctors' dissatisfaction with the chart when ordering regular insulin. Conclusion Introduction of the new insulin chart had a positive impact on the management of hypoglycaemic events. Other aspects of diabetes management, such as the number of patients on regular insulin and insulin dose omissions were suboptimal.