Patient involvement in blood transfusion safety: patients' and healthcare professionals' perspective

Background : Blood transfusion is one of the major areas where serious clinical consequences, even death, related to patient misidentification can occur. In the UK, healthcare professional compliance with pre‐transfusion checking procedures which help to prevent misidentification errors is poor. Involving patients at a number of stages in the transfusion pathway could help prevent the occurrence of these incidents. Objectives : To investigate patients' willingness to be involved and healthcare professionals' willingness to support patient involvement in pre‐transfusion checking behaviours. Measures : A cross‐sectional design was employed assessing willingness to participate in pre‐transfusion checking behaviours (patient survey) and willingness to support patient involvement (healthcare professional survey) on a scale of 1–7. Participants : One hundred and ten patients who had received a transfusion aged between 18 and 93 (60 male) and 123 healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses and midwives) involved in giving blood transfusions to patients. Results : Mean scores for patients' willingness to participate in safety‐relevant transfusion behaviours and healthcare professionals' willingness to support patient involvement ranged from 4·96–6·27 to 4·53–6·66, respectively. Both groups perceived it most acceptable for patients to help prevent errors or omissions relating to their hospital identification wristband. Neither prior experience of receiving a blood transfusion nor professional role of healthcare staff had an effect on attitudes towards patient participation. Conclusion : Overall, both patients and healthcare professionals view patient involvement in transfusion‐related behaviours quite favourably and appear in agreement regarding the behaviours patients should adopt an active role in. Further work is needed to determine the effectiveness of this approach to improve transfusion safety.     

QUEST: Questionnaire relating to patients’ Understanding and Expectations of their Symptoms and Treatment

Objectives : To survey patients’ perceptions of illness and their expectations of the emergency department visit in a major tertiary‐referral teaching hospital and to compare these responses with the doctors’ assessment in a major tertiary‐referral teaching hospital. Method : A two‐part survey was conducted. Patient questions focused on patient perception of illness severity, and expectation of process and outcome. Doctor questions focused on the severity of illness and the advice given. Results : Pre‐consultation: Of 141 patients, 94 (67%) were concerned that they were suffering from something serious or dangerous. Eighty‐three of 145 patients (57%) expected an explanation and/or reassurance. Eighty‐four of 145 patients (58%) expected investigation. Twenty‐seven of 135 patients (20%) expected admission to hospital. Post‐consultation: 119/126 patients (94%) who were given an explanation stated that they understood their illness. One hundred and thirteen of 122 patients (93%) felt reassured on departure. Conclusions : In this group of patients, fear of a dangerous or life‐threatening condition not borne out in the doctors’ assessment is common. Present clinical practice, including explanation and reassurance based on clinical and investigation findings, appears sufficient to meet patient expectations.     

Exploring the care experience of patients undergoing spinal surgery: a qualitative study

Purpose This exploratory study sought to explore the patient experience of the surgical journey from decision to operate, to hospitalization, discharge and subsequent recovery. Design Patients attended one of two focus group discussions. Patient sample Seven patients that had undergone surgery for spinal stenosis or disc prolapsed participated, aged between 48–75 years (mean age 59); five were male. Methods Patients’ attitudes towards the information and care they received from the point of the decision to operate through to post‐operative recovery were explored. Particular attention was paid to patients’ information needs, support provided, general understanding of the processes and ways in which care could have been improved. Results Patients identified nine main ‘needs’ they felt played an integral part in enhancing the patient experience including the need for reduced waiting times, for better information and preparation, to be proactive, to speak up and ask questions, to feel safe and to be treated with dignity and respect; and the need for ongoing support, human contact, and; continuity of care. Conclusion These findings suggest that there are several measures that could be taken to improve the patient's surgical experience. In particular, providing appropriate information to patients in a timely manner and ensuring that support and advice is easily accessible for those patients that need it are key areas for improvement.     

The development and piloting of a patient held record with adult mental health users

This article reports on the development and piloting of a patient held record for adult mental health users. Development of the format and content of the record was determined in consultation with a user group. Piloting and subsequent evaluation of the record with users revealed a number of issues which need to be addressed in the promotion of a patient held record.     

Client and information: a literature review

Summary

• ? This paper gives a brief review of existing research studies concerning patient information.
• ? The paper outlines two relevant perspectives on information giving and on the meaning of information to the individual patient: ideological and practical.
• ? From these two perspectives the knowledge structures of four patient groups: surgical patients, cancer patients, dialysis patients and psychiatric patients are looked at more closely.

     

Patient turnover and the relationship between nurse staffing and patient outcomes

High patient turnover (patient throughput generated by admissions, discharges, and transfers) contributes to increased demands and resources for care. We examined how the relationship between registered nurse (RN) staffing and failure-to-rescue (FTR) varied with patient turnover levels by analyzing quarterly data from the University HealthSystem Consortium. The data included 42 hospitals, representing 759 nursing units and about 1 million inpatients. Higher RN staffing was associated with lower FTR. When patient turnover increased from 48.6% to 60.7% on nonintensive units (non-ICUs), the beneficial effect of non-ICU RN staffing on FTR was reduced by 11.5%. RN staffing should be adjusted according to patient turnover because turnover increases patient care demand beyond that presented by patient count, and outcomes may be adversely affected.     

Using Patient Advisory Boards to Solicit Input Into Clinical Trial Design and Execution

Academic institutions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, foundations, and associations are routinely implementing patient advisory boards (PABs) to solicit patients' voices and perspectives on a variety of clinical research–related areas, including protocol design, clinical trial execution, informed-consent form design, clinical trial medicine kit design, wearable devices and mobile technologies, and patient-communication materials. Based on experience conducting >50 PABs during the past several years, the authors provide insights into how to best plan and execute PABs and their value in informing improvement in patient engagement.     

Making clear and effective communication SOuND BETTeR for patients with communication barriers

The consequences of ineffective communication between patients and clinicians in the ED range from frustration to significant adverse events. Unfortunately, scenarios where we are unable to understand what our patient is saying to us are common, due to a multitude of factors including acute illness, disability and patient diversity. Current communication aids can be difficult to access and use in the Emergency setting due to lack of physical resources, specific training and time. Our aim was to develop a communication tool which allowed for the rapid identification of urgent patient needs. In order to overcome current challenges, the tool had to be resource-light, quick to use and not reliant on additional staff training or patient education for its effective use. The SOuND BETTeR communication tool is a list of yes/no questions, formatted as a mnemonic, which aims to identify the most common and urgent needs of patients in the ED. As the list of potential needs is not exhaustive, the tool does not purport to replace formal communication aids in the medium and long term, but to bridge the gap often left in the ED where urgent needs must be met and more formal communication aids are not yet available. The tool can effectively and quickly identify important needs in patients with expressive communication barriers such as those with aphasia, facial trauma and on non-invasive ventilation. In addition, the tool can be modified for use in patients with non-English speaking backgrounds. At this stage the tool has not yet been prospectively validated.     

患者参与患者安全策略的研究现状

通过对患者参与患者安全的研究背景、对象及意义、理论支持、意愿研究、患者参与患者安全的策略研究的探讨,提出了患者参与患者安全未来的发展方向,为使患者真正参与医疗卫生服务提供参考。     

Patients' and health care professionals' attitudes towards the PINK patient safety video

Rationale, aims and objectives Patients can play an important role in reducing health care harm. Finding strategies to encourage patients to take on an active role in issues related to the quality and safety of their care is therefore essential. The aim of this study was to examine patients' and health care professionals' attitudes towards a video aimed at promoting patient involvement in safety‐related behaviours. Method A within‐subjects design was used where participants were required to complete a questionnaire pre and post screening of a patient safety video. Participants are 201 patients aged 19–103 years (mean 52) and 95 health care professionals aged 23–48 years (mean 32). Main outcome measures include (i) patients' willingness to participate and perceived importance in participating in safety‐related behaviours; and (ii) health care professionals' willingness to support patient involvement. Results After watching the video patients elicited more positive attitudes towards asking doctors and nurses if they had washed their hands and notifying them about issues to do with personal hygiene. No significant effects were observed in relation to patients notifying staff if they have not received their medication or if they were in pain or feeling unwell. In relation to health care professionals, doctors and nurses were more willing to support patient involvement in asking about hand hygiene after they had watched the video. Conclusion Video may be effective at changing patients' and health care professionals' attitudes towards patient involvement in some, but not all safety‐related behaviours. Our findings suggest video may be most effective at encouraging involvement in behaviours patients are less inclined to participate in and health care professionals are less willing to support.     

Assessing Participation Burden in Clinical Trials: Introducing the Patient Friction Coefficient

Protocol design complexity, and associated study volunteer burden, negatively impact patient recruitment and retention as well as overall research and development productivity. Complex protocols reduce the willingness of potential clinical trial participants to enroll and reduce retention rates. There have been few systematic assessments of protocol design characteristics to determine the burden placed on study volunteers, although such an assessment would offer a compelling opportunity to optimize trial designs and improve recruitment and retention performance. To be useful, an assessment would need to be patient-centric, and focused on the factors that influence participation throughout the clinical trial. Such an assessment would also need to accommodate the unique cost-value trade-off compared with current treatment patterns that each participant makes when choosing to participate and remain in a clinical trial. This article proposes a new methodology to quantify patient burden: the clinical trial patient friction coefficient (PFC). A case example is provided to illustrate the utility of the PFC. A number of applications for the PFC are envisioned: standardizing patient burden assessment to evaluate clinical trial design feasibility, shedding light on the impact of patient burden on clinical trial economics and performance, and conducting sensitivity analyses to identify factors that most reduce patient burden and improve the performance and efficiency of clinical trials.