Search

Abstract Health information management is a vital and constructive component of the health system, refers to the process of producing and collecting, organising and storing, analysing, disseminating and using information. The aim of this study was to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the information management system in epidemic infectious diseases in Iran, specifically focusing on the registration, reporting, quality, confidentiality, and security of infectious disease data. This assessment was conducted from the perspective of policymakers and experts responsible for data registration and reporting. After examining the processes of registering and reporting infectious disease data and interviewing experts, a researcher-designed questionnaire was prepared to evaluate the infectious disease information management system. To assess the content validity of the Content Validity Index and Content Validity Ratio Index, a questionnaire was utilized. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha. By employing purposeful sampling and adhering to the inclusion criteria, 150 participants were included in the study. Questionnaires were distributed via email, WhatsApp, or Telegram to employees at various levels of Iran's health and treatment systems who were responsible for registering and reporting infectious disease data. The study encompassed 100 participants who successfully concluded the research. The results highlight that the key strength of healthcare data registration lies in its ability to "depict the epidemic curve during outbreaks of infectious diseases." Conversely, a notable weakness was the "insufficient collaboration from non-academic sectors (e.g., clinics, private laboratories) in registering and reporting infectious diseases. The present study's findings suggest that the issue lies not in the framework itself, but rather in the execution and functionality of the strategies. We can cultivate a repository of reliable and beneficial data by incorporating initiatives like training programs, enforcing regulations with consequences for inadequate data documentation, offering both material and motivational rewards, and streamlining all data collection and reporting systems.

Health information management is a vital and constructive component of the health system, refers to the process of producing and collecting, organising and storing, analysing, disseminating and using information. The aim of this study was to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the information management system in epidemic infectious diseases in Iran, specifically focusing on the registration, reporting, quality, confidentiality, and security of infectious disease data. This assessment was conducted from the perspective of policymakers and experts responsible for data registration and reporting. After examining the processes of registering and reporting infectious disease data and interviewing experts, a researcher-designed questionnaire was prepared to evaluate the infectious disease information management system. To assess the content validity of the Content Validity Index and Content Validity Ratio Index, a questionnaire was utilized. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha. By employing purposeful sampling and adhering to the inclusion criteria, 150 participants were included in the study. Questionnaires were distributed via email, WhatsApp, or Telegram to employees at various levels of Iran's health and treatment systems who were responsible for registering and reporting infectious disease data. The study encompassed 100 participants who successfully concluded the research. The results highlight that the key strength of healthcare data registration lies in its ability to "depict the epidemic curve during outbreaks of infectious diseases." Conversely, a notable weakness was the "insufficient collaboration from non-academic sectors (e.g., clinics, private laboratories) in registering and reporting infectious diseases. The present study's findings suggest that the issue lies not in the framework itself, but rather in the execution and functionality of the strategies. We can cultivate a repository of reliable and beneficial data by incorporating initiatives like training programs, enforcing regulations with consequences for inadequate data documentation, offering both material and motivational rewards, and streamlining all data collection and reporting systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background An increasing number of countries are using or planning to use quality indicators (QIs) in residential long-term care. Knowledge regarding the current state of evidence on usage and methodological soundness of publicly reported clinical indicators of quality in nursing homes is needed. The study aimed to answer the questions: 1) Which health-related QIs for residents in long-term care are currently publicly reported internationally? and 2) What is the methodological quality of these indicators? Methods A systematic search was conducted in the electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL and Embase in October 2019 and last updated on August 31st, 2022. Grey literature was also searched. We used the Appraisal of Indicators through Research and Evaluation (AIRE) instrument for the methodological quality assessment of the identified QIs. Results Of 23′344 identified records, 22 articles and one report describing 21 studies met the inclusion criteria. Additionally, we found 17 websites publishing information on QIs. We identified eight countries publicly reporting a total of 99 health-related QIs covering 31 themes. Each country used between six and 31 QIs. The most frequently reported indicators were pressure ulcers, falls, physical restraints, and weight loss. For most QI sets, we found basic information regarding e.g., purpose, definition of the indicators, risk-adjustment, and stakeholders’ involvement in QIs’ selection. Little up to date information was found regarding validity, reliability and discriminative power of the QIs. Only the Australian indicator set reached high methodological quality, defined as scores of 50% or higher in all four AIRE instrument domains. Conclusions Little information is available to the public and researchers for the evaluation of a large number of publicly reported QIs in the residential long-term care sector. Better reporting is needed on the methodological quality of QIs in this setting, whether they are meant for internal quality improvement or provider comparison.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the trends and characteristics of infection-related patient safety incident reporting before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Korea, and to provide basic data for preventing infection-related patient safety incidents and improving their management. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of secondary national data (Patient Safety Reporting Data) was conducted. In total, 517 infection-related patient safety incidents reported from 2018 to 2021 were analyzed. Changes in the number of reports before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and differences in variables related to infection-related patient safety incidents were analyzed using the chi-square test and independent t-test in SPSS 29.0. Results: This study found that infection-related patient safety incidents decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic. Furthermore, incident-related characteristics, such as the type of healthcare organization, severity of harm, and post-incident actions, changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: The many changes in the infection control system and practices during the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to a decrease in the reporting of infection-related patient safety incidents. It is hoped that longitudinal studies on patient safety incidents related to the pandemic and analytical studies on factors influencing patient safety incidents will continue to be conducted to prevent and improve patient safety incidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Lokomat therapy for gait rehabilitation has become increasingly popular. Most evidence suggests that Lokomat therapy is equally effective as but not superior to standard therapy approaches. One reason might be that the Lokomat parameters to personalize therapy, such as gait speed, body weight support and Guidance Force, are not optimally used. However, there is little evidence available about the influence of Lokomat parameters on the effectiveness of the therapy. Nevertheless, an appropriate reporting of the applied therapy parameters is key to the successful clinical transfer of study results. The aim of this scoping review was therefore to evaluate how the currently available clinical studies report Lokomat parameter settings and map the current literature on Lokomat therapy parameters. Methods and results A systematic literature search was performed in three databases: Pubmed, Scopus and Embase. All primary research articles performing therapy with the Lokomat in neurologic populations in English or German were included. The quality of reporting of all clinical studies was assessed with a framework developed for this particular purpose. We identified 208 studies investigating Lokomat therapy in patients with neurologic diseases. The reporting quality was generally poor. Less than a third of the studies indicate which parameter settings have been applied. The usability of the reporting for a clinical transfer of promising results is therefore limited. Conclusion Although the currently available evidence on Lokomat parameters suggests that therapy parameters might have an influence on the effectiveness, there is currently not enough evidence available to provide detailed recommendations. Nevertheless, clinicians should pay close attention to the reported therapy parameters when translating research findings to their own clinical practice. To this end, we propose that the quality of reporting should be improved and we provide a reporting framework for authors as a quality control before submitting a Lokomat-related article.

Introduction: Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide. In Brazil, regional disparities in incidences of intermediate and high-risk in late-diagnosed PC cases are expected. Objective: To investigate the clinical and demographic profiles of patients treated with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) in Brazil, using real-world data from public databases. Method: Prostate cancer data from the Brazilian cancer registries were filtered from Brazilian public databases from 2008 to 2018. The number of health institutions and registries at a cancer public database were used to separate the Brazilian Federative Units into two comparison groups. mCRPC patients were estimated by using a combination of filters of staging and treatment (Tx, Nx and M1 + chemotherapy). The patients’ median age and the number and type of treatments were evaluated. Results: A total of 325,987 patients with prostate cancer and 5,367 patients with mCRPC were identified. The median age of the mCRPC patients was 63 years. The percentage of patients who underwent one, two or three treatments was 21.0%, 43.2% and 28.1%, respectively. In addition, management differences were noticed depending on the group analyzed. Conclusion: The results revealed regional discrepancies in the distribution of registered mCRPC patients in the Brazilian territory and in their treatment. This information can be used to strengthen the recently updated treatment and improve the palliative care offered. This work presents suggestions to improve specific prostate cancer databases.

Abstract The delivery of clinical pharmacy services has been growing in Brazilian community pharmacies, and it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the topic. This scoping review aimed to provide an overview of Brazilian studies about clinical pharmacy services in community pharmacies. Original research articles, with no restriction of time, study design, or patient’s health condition, were included. Searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo, and Lilacs. Two reviewers conducted the screening, full-text reading, and data extraction independently. ROB and ROBINS-I were used for the assessment of quality. Charts and tables were built to summarise the data. Seventy-two articles were included. A diversity of study designs, number of participants, terms used, and outcomes was found. São Paulo and Sergipe States had the highest number of studies (n=10). Pharmacists’ interventions were not fully reported in 65% of studies, and most studies presented an unclear risk of bias. Studies were very diverse, impairing the comparisons between the results and hindering their reproducibility. This review suggests using guidelines and checklists for better structuration of pharmacists’ interventions as well as reporting results and measuring fidelity in future research.

Background: An increasing number of countries are using or planning to use quality indicators (QIs) in residential long-term care. Knowledge regarding the current state of evidence on usage and methodological soundness of publicly reported clinical indicators of quality in nursing homes is needed. The study aimed to answer the questions: 1) Which health-related QIs for residents in long-term care are currently publicly reported internationally? and 2) What is the methodological quality of these indicators?Methods: A systematic search was conducted in the electronic databases PubMed, CINAHL and Embase in October 2019 and last updated on August 31st, 2022. Grey literature was also searched. We used the Appraisal of Indicators through Research and Evaluation (AIRE) instrument for the methodological quality assessment of the identified QIs.Results: Of 23'344 identified records, 22 articles and one report describing 21 studies met the inclusion criteria. Additionally, we found 17 websites publishing information on QIs. We identified eight countries publicly reporting a total of 99 health-related QIs covering 31 themes. Each country used between six and 31 QIs. The most frequently reported indicators were pressure ulcers, falls, physical restraints, and weight loss. For most QI sets, we found basic information regarding e.g., purpose, definition of the indicators, risk-adjustment, and stakeholders' involvement in QIs' selection. Little up to date information was found regarding validity, reliability and discriminative power of the QIs. Only the Australian indicator set reached high methodological quality, defined as scores of 50% or higher in all four AIRE instrument domains.Conclusions: Little information is available to the public and researchers for the evaluation of a large number of publicly reported QIs in the residential long-term care sector. Better reporting is needed on the methodological quality of QIs in this setting, whether they are meant for internal quality improvement or provider comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Routine health information systems (RHISs) are crucial to informing decision-making at all levels of the health system. However, the use of RHIS data in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited due to concerns regarding quality, accuracy, timeliness, completeness and representativeness. Objective: This study systematically reviewed technical, behavioural and organisational/environmental challenges that hinder the use of RHIS data in LMICs and strategies implemented to overcome these challenges. Method: Four electronic databases were searched for studies describing challenges associated with the use of RHIS data and/or strategies implemented to circumvent these challenges in LMICs. Identified articles were screened against inclusion and exclusion criteria by two independent reviewers. Results: Sixty studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review, 55 of which described challenges in using RHIS data and 20 of which focused on strategies to address these challenges. Identified challenges and strategies were organised by their technical, behavioural and organisational/environmental determinants and by the core steps of the data process. Organisational/environmental challenges were the most commonly reported barriers to data use, while technical challenges were the most commonly addressed with strategies. Conclusion: Despite the known benefits of RHIS data for health system strengthening, numerous challenges continue to impede their use in practice. Implications: Additional research is needed to identify effective strategies for addressing the determinants of RHIS use, particularly given the disconnect identified between the type of challenge most commonly described in the literature and the type of challenge most commonly targeted for interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Quality improvement (QI) initiatives such as accreditation, public reporting, inspection and pay-for-performance are increasingly being implemented globally. In Flanders, Belgium, a government policy for acute-care hospitals incorporates aforementioned initiatives. Currently, questions are raised on the sustainability of the present policy. Objective First, to summarise the various initiatives hospitals have adopted under government encouragement between 2008 and 2019. Second, to study the perspectives of healthcare stakeholders on current government policy. Methods In this multi-method study, we collected data on QI initiative implementation from governmental and institutional sources and through an online survey among hospital quality managers. We compiled an overview of QI initiative implementation for all Flemish acute-care hospitals between 2008 (n = 62) and 2019 (n = 53 after hospital mergers). Stakeholder perspectives were assessed via a second survey available to all healthcare employees and a focus group with healthcare policy experts was consulted. Variation between professions was assessed. Results QI initiatives have been increasingly implemented, especially from 2016 onwards, with the majority (87%) of hospitals having obtained a first accreditation label and all hospitals publicly reporting performance indicators, receiving regular inspections and having entered the pay-for-performance initiative. On the topic of external international accreditation, overall attitudes within the survey were predominantly neutral (36.2%), while 34.5% expressed positive and 29.3% negative views towards accreditation. In examining specific professional groups in-depth, we learned 58% of doctors regarded accreditation negatively, while doctors were judged to be the largest contributors to quality according to the majority of respondents. Conclusions Hospitals have demonstrated increased efforts into QI, especially since 2016, while perceptions on currently implemented QI initiatives among healthcare stakeholders are heterogeneous. To assure quality of care remains a top-priority for acute-care hospitals, we recommend a revision of the current multicomponent quality policy where the adoption of all initiatives is streamlined and co-created bottom-up.

Copyright of JBES: Brazilian Journal of Health Economics / Jornal Brasileiro de Economia da Saúde is the property of JBES: Brazilian Journal of Health Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: Assess the effectiveness of providing Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC®)-to-In Vitro Diagnostic (LIVD) coding specification, required by the United States Department of Health and Human Services for SARS-CoV-2 reporting, in medical center laboratories and utilize findings to inform future United States Food and Drug Administration policy on the use of real-world evidence in regulatory decisions.Materials and Methods: We compared gaps and similarities between diagnostic test manufacturers' recommended LOINC® codes and the LOINC® codes used in medical center laboratories for the same tests.Results: Five medical centers and three test manufacturers extracted data from laboratory information systems (LIS) for prioritized tests of interest. The data submission ranged from 74 to 532 LOINC® codes per site. Three test manufacturers submitted 15 LIVD catalogs representing 26 distinct devices, 6956 tests, and 686 LOINC® codes. We identified mismatches in how medical centers use LOINC® to encode laboratory tests compared to how test manufacturers encode the same laboratory tests. Of 331 tests available in the LIVD files, 136 (41%) were represented by a mismatched LOINC® code by the medical centers (chi-square 45.0, 4 df, P < .0001).Discussion: The five medical centers and three test manufacturers vary in how they organize, categorize, and store LIS catalog information. This variation impacts data quality and interoperability.Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that providing the LIVD mappings was not sufficient to support laboratory data interoperability. National implementation of LIVD and further efforts to promote laboratory interoperability will require a more comprehensive effort and continuing evaluation and quality control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lokomat therapy for gait rehabilitation has become increasingly popular. Most evidence suggests that Lokomat therapy is equally effective as but not superior to standard therapy approaches. One reason might be that the Lokomat parameters to personalize therapy, such as gait speed, body weight support and Guidance Force, are not optimally used. However, there is little evidence available about the influence of Lokomat parameters on the effectiveness of the therapy. Nevertheless, an appropriate reporting of the applied therapy parameters is key to the successful clinical transfer of study results. The aim of this scoping review was therefore to evaluate how the currently available clinical studies report Lokomat parameter settings and map the current literature on Lokomat therapy parameters.Methods and Results: A systematic literature search was performed in three databases: Pubmed, Scopus and Embase. All primary research articles performing therapy with the Lokomat in neurologic populations in English or German were included. The quality of reporting of all clinical studies was assessed with a framework developed for this particular purpose. We identified 208 studies investigating Lokomat therapy in patients with neurologic diseases. The reporting quality was generally poor. Less than a third of the studies indicate which parameter settings have been applied. The usability of the reporting for a clinical transfer of promising results is therefore limited.Conclusion: Although the currently available evidence on Lokomat parameters suggests that therapy parameters might have an influence on the effectiveness, there is currently not enough evidence available to provide detailed recommendations. Nevertheless, clinicians should pay close attention to the reported therapy parameters when translating research findings to their own clinical practice. To this end, we propose that the quality of reporting should be improved and we provide a reporting framework for authors as a quality control before submitting a Lokomat-related article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Measuring behavioral health treatment accessibility requires timely, comprehensive and accurate data collection. Existing public sources of data have inconsistent metrics, delayed times to publication and do not measure all factors related to accessibility. This study seeks to capture this additional information and determine its importance for informing accessibility and care coordination. Methods The 2018 National Survey for Substance Abuse and Treatment Services (N-SSATS) data were used to identify behavioral health facilities in Indiana and gather baseline information. A telephone survey was administered to facilities with questions parallel to the N-SSATS and additional questions regarding capacity and patient intake. Quantitative analysis includes chi-square tests. A standard qualitative analysis was used for theming answers to open-ended questions. Results About 20% of behavioral health facilities responded to the study survey, and non-response bias was identified by geographic region. Among respondents, statistically significant differences were found in several questions asked in both the study survey and N-SSATS. Data gathered from the additional questions revealed many facilities to have wait times to intake longer than 2 weeks, inconsistency in intake assessment tools used, limited capacity for walk-ins and numerous requirements for engaging in treatment. Conclusion Despite the low response rate to this study survey, results demonstrate that multiple factors not currently captured in public data sources can influence coordination of care. The questions included in this study survey could serve as a framework for routinely gathering these data and can facilitate efforts for successful coordination of care and clinical decision-making.

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Since February 2020, data on the clinical features of patients infected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and their clinical evolution have been gathered and intensively discussed, especially in countries with dramatic dissemination of this disease. OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical features of Brazilian patients with SARS-CoV-2 and analyze its local epidemiological features. DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational retrospective study conducted using data from an official electronic platform for recording confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases. METHODS: We extracted data from patients based in the state of Pernambuco who were registered on the platform of the Center for Strategic Health Surveillance Information, between February 26 and May 25, 2020. Clinical signs/symptoms, case evolution over time, distribution of confirmed, recovered and fatal cases and relationship between age group and gender were assessed. RESULTS: We included 28,854 patients who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (56.13% females), of median age 44.18 years. SARS-CoV-2 infection was most frequent among adults aged 30-39 years. Among cases that progressed to death, the most frequent age range was 70-79 years. Overall, the mortality rate in the cohort was 8.06%; recovery rate, 30.7%; and hospital admission rate (up to the end of follow-up), 17.3%. The average length of time between symptom onset and death was 10.3 days. The most commonly reported symptoms were coughing (42.39%), fever (38.03%) and dyspnea/respiratory distress with oxygen saturation < 95% (30.98%). CONCLUSION: Coughing, fever and dyspnea/respiratory distress with oxygen saturation < 95% were the commonest symptoms. The case-fatality rate was 8.06% and the hospitalization rate, 17.3%.

Public reporting of hospitals' performance data is a growing trend. This transparency may improve patient choices, competition, and service quality. This study aims to provide recommendations to improve hospitals' transparency in Iran. A qualitative study designed with 18 semi-structured interviews. Recommendations were categorized into five main themes, including passing a comprehensive law on transparency to create political commitment, educating people and healthcare providers to create the culture, developing a simple and efficient structure to foster transparency, and monitoring and evaluating transparency. The most important issue is political commitment. If it exists, the rest of the obstacles can be solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the factors influencing the degree of harm caused by fall incidents in hospitals. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study used secondary data from the "Korean Patient Safety Incident Report 2019" and was based on the International Classification for Patient Safety conceptual framework. We analyzed a total of 4,176 fall incidents between January 1 and December 31, 2019, in Korea. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify the factors that influence the degree of harm from these incidents. Results: Among the fall incidents, 443 (10.6%) were sentinel events, 2,514 (60.2%) were adverse events, and 1,219 (29.2%) were near misses. The factors associated with sentinel events were old age (≥60 years), gender, patient diagnosis, medical department, early detection after falls, long-term care hospital, and reporters. Adverse events were significantly associated with diagnosis, medical department, nurses' night shift time, large bed size, location (i.e., operating room, recovery room, and intensive care unit), and reporters. Conclusion: Both patient and incident characteristics are significantly associated with the degree of harm in hospitals. Therefore, multiple factors should be considered to establish healthcare policies and thus prevent fall risks and minimize damage following falls in hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Quality improvement (QI) initiatives such as accreditation, public reporting, inspection and pay-for-performance are increasingly being implemented globally. In Flanders, Belgium, a government policy for acute-care hospitals incorporates aforementioned initiatives. Currently, questions are raised on the sustainability of the present policy.Objective: First, to summarise the various initiatives hospitals have adopted under government encouragement between 2008 and 2019. Second, to study the perspectives of healthcare stakeholders on current government policy.Methods: In this multi-method study, we collected data on QI initiative implementation from governmental and institutional sources and through an online survey among hospital quality managers. We compiled an overview of QI initiative implementation for all Flemish acute-care hospitals between 2008 (n = 62) and 2019 (n = 53 after hospital mergers). Stakeholder perspectives were assessed via a second survey available to all healthcare employees and a focus group with healthcare policy experts was consulted. Variation between professions was assessed.Results: QI initiatives have been increasingly implemented, especially from 2016 onwards, with the majority (87%) of hospitals having obtained a first accreditation label and all hospitals publicly reporting performance indicators, receiving regular inspections and having entered the pay-for-performance initiative. On the topic of external international accreditation, overall attitudes within the survey were predominantly neutral (36.2%), while 34.5% expressed positive and 29.3% negative views towards accreditation. In examining specific professional groups in-depth, we learned 58% of doctors regarded accreditation negatively, while doctors were judged to be the largest contributors to quality according to the majority of respondents.Conclusions: Hospitals have demonstrated increased efforts into QI, especially since 2016, while perceptions on currently implemented QI initiatives among healthcare stakeholders are heterogeneous. To assure quality of care remains a top-priority for acute-care hospitals, we recommend a revision of the current multicomponent quality policy where the adoption of all initiatives is streamlined and co-created bottom-up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the quality of life of Latin American orthopedic trauma surgeons during the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America.Methods: A total of 400 orthopedic trauma surgeons from 14 Latin American countries were invited to complete an electronic survey aiming to understand the general situation of COVID-19 in each country and how COVID-19 had impacted life's participant financially and psychosocially. The relationship between the occurrence of the disease and the existence of legal regulations on the medical activity in the respondent's country, protocols for tracking the disease among patients hospitalized in an emergency basis due to skeletal trauma, and personal protective equipment to deal with patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who need orthopedic trauma surgery was investigated, as well as the financial and psychosocial impact caused by the disease. Data was statistically analyzed with significance p < 0.05.Results: 220 respondents completed the survey. 21 respondents were diagnosed with COVID-19. Local regulation was decisive in terms of increasing the risk for COVID-19 disease (p = 0.001). 91.8% of the respondents reported being concerned about their financial health and 57.7% described a state of feeling emotionally overextended. 75.0% believe that pandemic can change their professional activity.Conclusion: The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America has negatively impacted the professional, financial, and psychosocial health of orthopedic trauma surgeons. It seems reasonable to state that the combination of psychosocial distress and deprivation together with financial uncertainty and decreased revenue can be straightly related to development of burnout symptoms among doctors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since 2009, hospital quality policy in Flanders, Belgium, is built around a quality-of-care triad, which encompasses accreditation, public reporting (PR) and inspection. Policy makers are currently reflecting on the added value of this triad.Methods: We performed a narrative review of the literature published between 2009 and 2020 to examine the evidence base of the impact accreditation, PR and inspection, both individually and combined, has on patient processes and outcomes. The following patient outcomes were examined: mortality, length of stay, readmissions, patient satisfaction, adverse outcomes, failure to rescue, adherence to process measures and risk aversion. The impact of accreditation, PR and inspection on these outcomes was evaluated as either positive, neutral (i.e. no impact observed or mixed results reported) or negative.Objectives: To assess the current evidence base on the impact of accreditation, PR and inspection on patient processes and outcomes.Results: We identified 69 studies, of which 40 were on accreditation, 24 on PR, three on inspection and two on accreditation and PR concomitantly. Identified studies reported primarily low-level evidence (level IV, n = 53) and were heterogeneous in terms of implemented programmes and patient populations (often narrow in PR research). Overall, a neutral categorization was determined in 30 articles for accreditation, 23 for PR and four for inspection. Ten of these recounted mixed results. For accreditation, a high number (n = 12) of positive research on adherence to process measures was discovered.Conclusion: The individual impact of accreditation, PR and inspection, the core of Flemish hospital quality, was found to be limited on patient outcomes. Future studies should investigate the combined effect of multiple quality improvement strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Free access to information as a public right has become a critical issue in healthcare. Some health systems disclose information about hospitals’ performance to influence patients’ choices. However, there is little transparency in Iran. Objectives. As a basic step to improve the transparency of hospitals’ performance in Iran, this study was designed to explore the perceived barriers to transparency. Material and methods. This qualitative study was conducted through eighteen face-to-face interviews with macro-, meso- and micro- -level experts of the health system with different academic orientations. The data was analyzed using a thematic analysis method. Results. Five main themes were identified, including inadequate regular hospital performance data available to the government; lack of transparency culture among health system authorities; concerns about the transparency of hospitals’ poor performance; absence of rule of law and immaturity of the country’s health system governance, which weakens democracy. Therefore, the decision-making system mostly supports special groups rather than the public. Conclusions. These barriers have become more prominent due to the existence of the conflict of interests among authorities and the power of pressure groups. Therefore, interviewees suggested that the necessary infrastructures be created prior to promoting transparency. Among the most important prerequisites is managing the conflict of interest in the health system to have decisions favor public interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Transplant center report cards are publicly available and used by regulators, insurance payers, and importantly patients and families., Objectives: In this study, the authors sought to evaluate the variability in reported public performance ratings of pediatric and adult heart transplant centers., Methods: Program-specific reports from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients from 2017-2021 were used to evaluate stability, volatility, and reliability of 3 publicly reported ratings: waitlist survival (WS), getting to a faster transplant (FT), and post-transplantation graft failure (GF)., Results: There were 112 adult and 55 pediatric centers. Over the study period, nearly all centers (98%) had at least 1 change in rating in at least 1 of the tiers. The average time to the first rating change of any magnitude was 12-18 months for all tiers and centers. For adult centers, the most volatile rating was WS (SD: 0.77), followed by GF (SD: 0.76) and then FT (SD: 0.57). For pediatric centers, the most volatile rating was WS (SD: 0.79), followed by both GF (SD: 0.66) and FT (SD: 0.68), which were equally volatile. All tiers except adult FT had an estimated Fleiss's kappa <0.20, indicating poor agreement/consistency across the study period. In addition, the intraclass correlation coefficient for all tiers was <0.50, indicating poor reliability., Conclusions: The current 5-tier reporting of transplant center performance is highly volatile and has poor reliability and consistency. Given the unintended and significant negative consequences these reports can have, critical revision of these ratings is warranted., Competing Interests: Funding Support and Author Disclosures The statistical analysis for this study was supported by the Center for Population Health Research, Cleveland Clinic. Dr Amdani is a site primary investigator for a multicenter study led by the University of Michigan (receives no salary support). Dr Schold is vice-chair of the United Network for Organ Sharing data advisory committee. Dr Dewey has reported that she has no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The Joint Commission uses nulliparous, term, singleton, vertex, cesarean delivery (NTSV-CD) rates to assess hospitals' perinatal care quality through the Cesarean Birth measurement (PC-02). However, these rates are not risk-adjusted for maternal health factors, putting this measure at odds with the risk adjustment paradigm of most publicly reported hospital quality measures. Here, the authors tested whether risk adjustment for readily documented maternal risk factors affected hospital-level NTSV-CD rates in a large health system., Methods: Included were all consecutive NTSV pregnancies from January 2019 to April 2023 across 10 hospitals in one health system. Logistic regression, adjusting for age, obesity, diabetes, and hypertensive disorders. was used to calculate hospital-level risk-adjusted NTSV-CD rates by multiplying observed vs. expected ratios for each hospital by the systemwide unadjusted NTSV-CD rate. The authors calculated intrahospital risk differences between unadjusted and risk-adjusted rates and calculated the percentage of hospitals qualifying for different reporting status after risk adjustment using the 30% Joint Commission reporting threshold rate., Results: Of 23,866 pregnancies, 6,550 (27.4%) had cesarean deliveries. Across 10 hospitals, the number of deliveries ranged from 393 to 7,671, with unadjusted NTSV-CD rates ranging from 21.0% to 30.5%. Risk-adjusted NTSV-CD rates ranged from 21.5% to 30.4%, with absolute intrahospital differences in risk-adjusted vs. unadjusted rates ranging from -1.33% (indicating lower rate after risk adjustment) to 3.37% (indicating higher rate after risk adjustment). Three of 10 (30.0%) hospitals qualified for different reporting statuses after risk adjustment., Conclusion: Risk adjustment for age, obesity, diabetes, and hypertensive disorders is feasible and resulted in meaningful changes in hospital-level NTSV-CD rates with potentially impactful consequences for hospitals near The Joint Commission reporting threshold., (Copyright © 2024 The Joint Commission. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Despite agreement among policymakers, funders, consumers and researchers about the value of public reporting of health information, limited attention has been paid to how it can be used to understand the performance of rural hospitals. Objective: To determine whether publicly available information can be used to measure health service performance in a rural hospital. Method: The study used performance data routinely reported for public consumption in Australia. Data across four domains, multiple measures and time periods were collected to examine access and equity; efficiency and sustainability; quality, safety and patient orientation; and employee engagement. Performance of the rural hospital was examined using a visualisation tool. Results: Visualisation of multiple measures of performance over time was achievable but required a high degree of health information management skills. Conclusion and implications: Publicly reported data can be used to represent performance for a rural hospital. Timeliness, level of detail available and peer groupings of data limits optimal utility. Consumers, clinicians and health service managers wanting to understand the performance of rural hospitals will need to use significant health information management skills to gain a picture of performance. Further research in the applied use of publicly available performance data and relevant dashboards for rural hospitals is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To demonstrate the influence and added value of a Standardized Assessment and Reporting System (StARS) upon the reporting of functioning outcomes for national rehabilitation quality reports. A StARS builds upon an ICF-based (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) and interval-scaled common metric.Design: Comparison of current ordinal-scaled Swiss national rehabilitation outcome reports including an expert-consensus-based transformation scale with StARS-based reports through descriptive statistical methods and content exploration of further development areas of the reports with relevant ICF Core Sets.Setting: Swiss national public rehabilitation outcome quality reports on the clinic level.Participants: A total of 29 Swiss rehabilitation clinics provided their quality report datasets including 18 047 patients.Interventions: Neurological or musculoskeletal rehabilitation.Main Outcome Measures: Functional Independence Measure™ or Extended Barthel Index.Results: Outcomes reported with a StARS tended to be smaller but more precise than in the current ordinal-scaled reports, indicating an overestimation of achieved outcomes in the latter. The comparison of the common metric's content with ICF Core Sets suggests to include 'energy and drive functions' or 'maintaining a basic body position' to enhance the content of functioning as an indicator.Conclusions: A StARS supports the comparison of outcomes assessed with different measures on the same interval-scaled ICF-based common metric. Careful consideration is needed whether an ordinal-scaled or interval-scaled reporting system is applied as the magnitude and precision of reported outcomes is influenced. The StARS' ICF basis brings an added value by informing further development of functioning as a relevant indicator for national outcome quality reports in rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze factors related to patient safety incidents by analyzing '2018 patient safety report data' for Korea, and to prepare a plan for preventing patient safety incidents. Methods: Analysis was done for 2018 patient safety report data published in 2019. In 2018, 9,250 patient safety incidents were reported, and for this study data (3,757) from hospitals with more than 500 beds were analyzed. SPSS 25.0 was used for the crosstabulation analysis and multinominal logistic regression. Results: There were no factors affecting the sentinel event. The main factors of adverse events were age, patient room, treatment room, day duty of nurses, falls, transfusions, and medication. Conclusion: In order to prevent patient safety incidents, elderly patients should receive verbal and nonverbal communication that will help them understand the complexity of the disease. Finding ways to reduce nurse overtime and reduce human error by computerizing patient monitoring systems, fall prevention activities, and patient safety regulations and procedures are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health needs up-to-date information for surveillance and response. As healthcare application programming interfaces become widely available, a novel data gathering mechanism could provide public health with critical information in a timely fashion to respond to a fast-moving epidemic. In this article, we extrapolate from our experiences using a Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource-based architecture for infectious disease surveillance for sexually transmitted diseases to its application to gather case information for an outbreak. One of the challenges with a fast-moving outbreak is to accurately assess its demand on healthcare resources, since information specific to comorbidities is often not available. These comorbidities are often associated with poor prognosis and higher resource utilization. If the comorbidity data and other clinical information were readily available to public health workers, they could better address community disruption and manage healthcare resources. The use of FHIR resources available through application programming and filtered through tools such as described herein will give public health the flexibility needed to investigate rapidly emerging disease while protecting patient privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report of death cases is an important source of information for cause analysis and monitoring of trends, which can reflect the death situation and characteristics of a population in a relatively accurate manner. It helps understand the health status of the population and the level of healthcare. The special deployment of case review for in-hospital deaths is not only the high priority for health authorities in terms of quality and safety of medical care but also a practical implementation of the concept that values people and life. Currently, there is a lack of scientific and standardized evaluation for the review of death cases in various specialties, excluding maternal and neonatal cases. To standardize the quality control and management of death cases in medical institutions, the Guidelines for quality control and management of death cases in medical institutions (2023) has been developed by the Hunan Province Resuscitation Quality Control Center. The members of the working group of this guideline visited medical institutions, conducted research, reviewed relevant guidelines from domestic and international sources, and integrated clinical experience to form a preliminary consensus. This consensus was submitted to the expert group for multiple discussions, underwent several revisions, and finally, it was sent to the experts in the form of a questionnaire for feedback. The guidelines clarify the scope, data collection, and quality control requirements for death case quality control, providing a reference for the quality control and management of death cases in medical institutions.

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare facilities have implemented contingency plans to minimize the consequences of this pathology however, the deployment and results of these contingency plans are scarcely shared., Objectives: To describe the implementation of the contingency plan in the social and health care in the COVID-19 pandemic in the Public Hospital of Monforte (Lugo, Spain) and to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures included in this plan., Method: Phenomenological sampling conducted between March 10 and May 15, 2020. Evaluation qualitative assessment by an external quality improvement team of the Galician Health Service (SERGAS), based on the Practicum Direct rapid structured checklist in risk management, organizational management, and evaluation of decision making. As outcome indicators, we assessed the number of hospital admissions, number of PCRs performed, telephone attention to social and health social-healthcare patients, number of hospitalizations avoided and estimation of their direct cost., Results: After assessing and managing the risks, an information security plan was developed and solutions to minimize complications in our patients derived from this pandemic. An emergency decision making team was created, as well as an employee communication mechanism for employees through standardized documents and documentation channels., Conclusions: The adaptation of the Practicum Direct rapid model to the healthcare setting is a useful and easy-to-apply tool that allows us to identify weak points and areas for improvement in our Service and thus to strengthen patient care in all clinical areas, improving the quality of care., (Copyright © 2023 SEGG. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)