The performance of intensive care units: does good management make a difference?
A significant portion of health care resources are spent in intensive care units with, historically, up to two-fold variation in risk-adjusted mortality. Technological, demographic, and social forces are likely to lead to an increased volume of intensive care in the future. Thus, it is important to identify ways of more efficiently managing intensive care units and reducing the variation in patient outcomes.
Interdisciplinary communication in the intensive care unit
BACKGROUND: Patient safety research has shown poor communication among intensive care unit (ICU) nurses and doctors to be a common causal factor underlying critical incidents in intensive care. This study examines whether ICU doctors and nurses have a shared perception of interdisciplinary communication in the UK ICU.
METHODS: Cross-sectional survey of ICU nurses and doctors in four UK hospitals using a previously established measure of ICU interdisciplinary collaboration.
Interprofessional Primary Care Training: Seven Champion Programs
Dr. Barbara Brandt, director, National Center, is a featured speaker for this Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) webinar. Join Marci Nielsen, PhD, MPH, and Dr. Brandt as they discuss a new publication the PCPCC is releasing on December 11 that focuses on interprofessional primary care training. The publication takes a deeper dive into seven exemplary programs that train medical students, residents, nurse practitioners, nurses, physician assistants, social workers, psychologists and other health professionals for work in patient-centered medical homes.
Amina in the Nexus
This thread is an opportunity for individuals that have used the Amina in the Nexus: A Shared Vision resources to discuss their experience and offer best practices to others. The materials are available at nexusipe.org/amina.
The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire: Psychometric properties, benchmarking data, and emerging research
BACKGROUND: There is widespread interest in measuring healthcare provider attitudes about issues relevant to patient safety (often called safety climate or safety culture). Here we report the psychometric properties, establish benchmarking data, and discuss emerging areas of research with the University of Texas Safety Attitudes Questionnaire.
Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture
In 2004, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, a staff survey designed to help hospitals assess the culture of safety in their institutions.
Measuring teamwork and conflict among emergency medical techinican personnel
OBJECTIVE: We sought to develop a reliable and valid tool for measuring teamwork among emergency medical technician (EMT) partnerships.
METHODS: We adapted existing scales and developed new items to measure components of teamwork. After recruiting a convenience sample of 39 agencies, we tested a 122-item draft survey tool (EMT-TEAMWORK). We performed a series of exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test reliability and construct validity, describing variation in domain and global scores using descriptive statistics.
Effect of obstetric team training on team performance and medical technical skills: A randomised controlled trial
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether obstetric team training in a medical simulation centre improves the team performance and utilisation of appropriate medical technical skills of healthcare professionals.
DESIGN: Cluster randomised controlled trial.
SETTING: The Netherlands.
SAMPLE: The obstetric departments of 24 Dutch hospitals.
Validation of a tool to measure and promote clinical teamwork
OBJECTIVE: Human factors and teamwork are major contributors to sentinel events. A major limitation to improving human factors and teamwork is the paucity of objective validated measurement tools. Our goal was to develop a brief tool that could be used to objectively evaluate teamwork in the field during short clinical team simulations and in everyday clinical care.