Mirror system for photodocumentation in plastic and aesthetic surgery.

Photodocumentation of the face before aesthetic or plastic surgery is of fundamental importance for at least three reasons: it is an aid to surgical planning, it can be used for illustrative purposes in discussions with the patient, and it satisfies medico-legal requirements for documentation. To achieve efficient and economic documentation of preoperative and postoperative status in aesthetic and reconstructive plastic procedures, the mirror system described here permits the required planes to be documented in a single photograph. The simple and inexpensive technical design allows six planes to be documented in constant and, therefore, comparable quality. Because the patient's data are also documented with the photographic record, the potential for mistaken patient identity is eliminated. No technical training is needed to operate the device and it can, therefore, be readily used by ancillary medical personnel. In a typical nasal surgery department performing about 150 rhinoplasty procedures per annum, the mirror system offers cost and time savings generated as a result of reducing the documentation burden by 750 photographs.     

From the echocardiography machine to the lecture room: a simple method for transferring echocardiographic frames and loops to a personal computer

The use of computers in scientific and educational presentations is rapidly increasing. As a digital presentation is ideal for showing moving images, the use of multimedia files, e.g., echocardiographic loops within these presentations, is common. Even though recent echocardiography machines store acquired data in a digital format, these data are often not readily accessible to be transferred to a personal computer. We present an easy and cost-efficient method for transferring frames and loops from any echocardiography machine into a personal computer using a digital video camera equipped with a standard analog input and flash memory. Still images and movies are stored in the camera to be subsequently transferred to a personal computer. In the computer, still images and movies are post-processed with graphical and video editing software. Finally, the still images and movies can be projected from the video camera or presented with specialized software such as PowerPoint. The images can also be used for Web-based publications and production of educational material or books on electronic media such as CD-ROM. The described method can also be used to transfer images from other proprietary devices and programs, as long as the devices are equipped with an analog video outlet. IMPLICATIONS: The transfer of frames and loops from echocardiographic machines to personal computers is often useful for publication, teaching, and educational purposes. We present an easy and cost-effective method for transferring frames and loops from any echocardiography machine into a personal computer using a digital video camera.     

Evaluation of standardized routine documentation with implementation of the requirement of multicenter studies.

In 1988 we did develop an EDP-System for data collection of daily routine documentation, which allows on the one hand a complete registration and on the other hand only offers entire and plausible data because of the logical program structure. The registered data are saved in a data bank structure as well as in report form for routine documentation. The substitution of routine documentation by such a system essentially depends on the content of interrogation which has to reflect the user's individual indication and operative technique. First doubts about reflection of the high variation of the individual operative technique could be disproved with help of the evaluation of this system of documentation. None of the 200 registered cases had to be documented without the help of the standardized system. The use in a prospective multicenter study for endoprosthesis of the knee was the starting point of the evaluation for the system's efficiency and acceptance. It had been analyzed the expressiveness of the study's documentation. As there was no standard in free dictated operation records the information content seemed to be reduced and with regard to scientific aspects unqualified. The analysis of the EDP-system especially checked three aspects: the general suitability to represent medical facts by standardized evaluation as well as the user's and patient's acceptance. All in all this system is an instrument for standardized daily routine documentation in a clinic which seems able to establish a quality management because of the high data quality, the differentiated registrations of multiple parameters and timeneutral application.     

Die Vernetzung chirurgischer Wundzentren mit Hilfe eines neuen EDV-Dokumentationssystems

Care of chronic wounds is of enormous medical, social and economic importance. Nevertheless there is a lack of epidemiological and economical data. A network of ten wound care centers was created and data were documented in a new computerized wound documentation system. METHODS: Treatment was performed according to a comprehensive and standardized wound care protocol. The new documentation system is a network-capable solution. Digital images and planimetry as well as patient and wound related data are recorded. RESULTS: During the first year the ten centers treated and documented already 3281 wounds. There is a wide spectrum of different chronic wounds treated in the participating centers. Despite of long wound duration of several wounds with a median of 5 weeks (range 0-62 years), the healing rate was 80% within 455 days. CONCLUSION: Large amounts of data can be collected and scientifically evaluated in the wound net. This is realized by a new computerized documentation system, which was integrated into the clinical routine and enables clear and standardized documentation. Therefore even large multicenter therapy studies may be performed easily in the wound net and economical data could be collected.     

TraumaWatch

Subject

The main focus in the development of a new system for documentation of the treatment of seriously traumatized patients was to improve the quality of documentation.

Methods

At first, the requirements for such a system were determined. In a second step, contents and kind of documentation were fixed. In a last step, the developed documentation system was tested in our ER.

Results

The contents of the documentation consist of “core” data and “hospital-specific” data. This dataset covers the whole treatment period, including the outcome of the patient. The documentation itself is modular. All three modules were tested for 25 months (n=468 patients documented). Remarkable features of the system were a high degree of stability, a high level of user acceptance, improvement of data quality, and export of the data to the German Society of Trauma Surgery via the Internet.

Conclusions

The developed documentation system fulfills the requirements of documentation and facilitates quality management of ER care of traumatized patients.     

Papiergestützte digitale Einsatzdokumentation im Luftrettungsdienst

BACKGROUND: Recording of adequate mission data is of utmost importance in prehospital emergency medicine. For this, a nationwide uniform core dataset for prehospital data reporting, the so-called MIND 2, was introduced. With this procedure adequate information about structure and outcome quality, but only little information about process quality, can be obtained. Regarding the quality of data recording, primarily computer-based techniques are superior to other techniques. Against this background, the aim of this study was to develop a documentation system, which sets new standards regarding documentation dataset and documentation quality. RESULTS: A primarily computer-based documentation system based on the "digital paper" technology was achieved. This technology allows conventional data entry via a (digital) pen and documentation on conventional paper. As the core-dataset MIND 2 was realized - furthermore, the measurements performed during prehospital management as well as data on vital signs (blood pressure, heart frequency, S(a)O(2), p(et)CO(2) etc.) were included into routine data recording. Integration of this documentation system into an already existing medical quality management system was achieved via a defined interface. Testing of this new system over a 3-month period at the helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) "Christoph 22" showed a high degree of functionality and stability of the system. Serious problems, especially a total break-down of the whole system, were not observed during the study period. CONCLUSIONS: The new data recording concept, which is based on the "digital paper" technology, has proven to be completely satisfactory with respect to functionality and documentation quality during the test period.     

Qualitätsdokumentation mit einem Anästhesie-Informations-Management-System (AIMS)

OBJECTIVE: In 1994 the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine of the Justus Liebig University of Giessen decided to implement an Anaesthesia Information Management System (AIMS) to replace the previous hand-written documentation on paper. From 1997 until the end of 1998 the data sets of 41,393 anaesthesia procedures were recorded with the help of computers and imported into a data bank. Individual aspects and results of this data pool are presented under the aspect of how the system in its present form is able to guarantee documentation of quality according to the requirements of the German Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI). METHODS: Since 1997 information on all anaesthesia procedures has been documented "online" with the anaesthesia documentation software NarkoData 4 (ProLogic GmbH, Erkrath). The data sets have been stored in a relational data bank (Oracle Corporation) and statistically processed with the help of the SQL-based program Voyant (Brossco Systems, Espoo, Finland). As an example of two adverse perioperative events (AVB) we compared incidences of "hypotension" and "nausea/vomiting", recorded by staff members into the AIMS, with the incidence of comparable events that were recorded with the help of online data during anaesthesia procedures, such as blood pressure and drug application. Since 1998 data recording has been revised constantly in department meetings; advanced training has been given. The results have been analysed critically. RESULTS: In 1997 the incidence of adverse perioperative events entered manually into the system was 3.6% (grade III and higher 0.9%) and increased during 1998 to 22.2% (grade III and higher 1.9%). The frequency of anaesthesia procedures with manually documented AVBs was significantly below the incidence (determined with the help of online data) of comparable events: "hypotension" (1.8% vs. 8.5%) and "nausea/vomiting" (4.9% vs. 8.3%). CONCLUSION: The current documentation of AVBs in almost any hospital is incomplete. In contrast to the hand-written procedure, the AIMS provides recorded data for evaluation and guarantees more detailed and complete quality documentation. In addition, the effort needed for documentation is reduced. Whether these data sets really describe and measure quality or not has to be evaluated. In addition it has to be considered whether different requirements (such as automatic AVB recognition for an AIMS) are advantageous for quality documentation regarding the data raster and the AVB recognition, with respect to different documentation procedures.     

Ein neues Video-Dokumentationssystem für die starre Prokto-Rectoskopie

INTRODUCTION: Disadvantages of rigid procto-rectoscope systems are the lack of sufficient visual documentation, data processing and the insufficient demonstration for educational purposes. Therefore a video documentation system for rigid procto-rectoscopy (Endovision Telecam SL) was developed. METHOD: For evaluation of the Endovision Telecam SL, the system was compared to the conventional technique over a 6-month period. RESULTS: The Endovision Telecam SL offers the advantage of flexible video-endoscopy and displays an excellent quality of documentation for rigid procto-rectoscopy. The handling of the system is slightly more time-consuming and difficult and the use is limited to cases without severe bleeding and stool contamination. CONCLUSIONS: The Endovision Telecam SL combines the advantages of flexible video-endoscopy in documentation, demonstration and data processing with the practibility of rigid instruments for procto-rectoscopy. In the present set-up the system is still limited to special indications and should be combined with conventional procedures.     

Requirements for the successful installation of an data management system

Due to increasing requirements on medical documentation, especially with reference to the German Social Law binding towards quality management and introducing a new billing system (DRGs), an increasing number of departments consider to implement a patient data management system (PDMS). The installation should be professionally planned as a project in order to insure and complete a successful installation. The following aspects are essential: composition of the project group, definition of goals, finance, networking, space considerations, hardware, software, configuration, education and support. Project and finance planning must be prepared before beginning the project and the project process must be constantly evaluated. In selecting the software, certain characteristics should be considered: use of standards, configurability, intercommunicability and modularity. Our experience has taught us that vaguely defined goals, insufficient project planning and the existing management culture are responsible for the failure of PDMS installations. The software used tends to play a less important role.     

Die Vidierkonferenz

INTRODUCTION: The introduction of the German Diagnostic Related Groups (D-DRG) system requires redesigning administrative patient management strategies. Wrong coding leads to inaccurate grouping and endangers the reimbursement of treatment costs. This situation emphasizes the roles of documentation and coding as factors of economical success. PURPOSE: The aims of this study were to assess the quantity and quality of initial documentation and coding (ICD-10 and OPS-301) and find operative strategies to improve efficiency and strategic means to ensure optimal documentation and coding quality. METHODS: In a prospective study, documentation and coding quality were evaluated in a standardized way by weekly assessment. RESULTS: Clinical data from 1385 inpatients were processed for initial correctness and quality of documentation and coding. Principal diagnoses were found to be accurate in 82.7% of cases, inexact in 7.1%, and wrong in 10.1%. Effects on financial returns occurred in 16%. Based on these findings, an optimized, interdisciplinary, and multiprofessional workflow on medical documentation, coding, and data control was developed. CONCLUSIONS: Workflow incorporating regular assessment of documentation and coding quality is required by the DRG system to ensure efficient accounting of hospital services. Interdisciplinary and multiprofessional cooperation is recognized to be an important factor in establishing an efficient workflow in medical documentation and coding.     

Quality management and benchmarking in emergency medicine

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Being critical in terms of time and complexity, emergency medicine is exposed to an emerging imperative for quality improvement strategies. We review current concepts and recent advances in the management of quality in emergency medicine. RECENT FINDINGS: There is a strong interdependence between quality of emergency healthcare provision and the education of emergency healthcare providers. Introduction of emergency medical residencies and highly qualified triage liaison physicians helps prevent the overcrowding of emergency departments, accelerate access to emergency medical care and improve patient satisfaction. New advances in detecting and reducing patient management errors include the collection of healthcare provider complaints and the classification of unpreventable and preventable deaths of patients within 1 week of admission via the emergency department. Medical record review and video recording have revealed that frequent patient management problems relate to shortcomings in the diagnostic process, clinical tasks, patient factors, and poor teamwork. Communication skills and patient data/documentation systems may effectively resolve these problems. SUMMARY: According to the available evidence, more performance improvement strategies need to be tested to delineate which process changes would be most effective in improving patient outcome in emergency medicine.     

Zertifizierte Prostatakarzinomzentren der Deutschen Krebsgesellschaft

The 12-month data for 21 of the 44 certified centers were analyzed 2 years after certification of the first prostate cancer centers of the German Cancer Society. Currently about 25% of patients with prostate cancer are being treated in the centers certified by the German Cancer Society. On the one hand, a positive development toward interdisciplinary management can be observed with verifiably good surgical quality in most of the centers and good outpatient care provided by social services, and in some instances psycho-oncological support. On the other hand, there are substantial problems with data documentation. The quality of documentation declines considerably when the patient leaves the hospital. Concerted efforts must be made to improve documentation of patient data and transfer of aftercare information. The association with hospital cancer registries must be enhanced. The quality of both inpatient care and intersectoral care can only be improved on a long-term basis when the insurance providers support this development. Only when there is evidence for improved treatment quality can the long-term development of centers be justified, but until this is corroborated the establishment of centers cannot remain without financing.     

Not?rztliche Einsatzdokumentation in der Simulation

Background

The aim of this study was to examine documentation quality in physician staffed emergency medical services (EMS). This study compared simulated on-site care with the associated patient records written by EMS physicians.

Methods

For this study two standardized simulated case scenarios, ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and major trauma with traumatic brain injury were designed by an expert committee. Overall 29 EMS teams each consisting of 1 EMS physician and 2 paramedics ran through the scenarios on high fidelity patient simulators and each scenario was videotaped. The scenarios were stopped after 12?min for STEMI and after 14?min for major trauma independent of the actions carried out and each EMS physician then had 10?min to document this initial phase on standardized protocol sheets. The videotaped scenarios were analyzed by two independent investigators. Documentation of predefined contents and all drug dosages were checked against the simulated on-site care. The data were evaluated and classified as correct, incorrect or missing documentation although action performed.

Results

Written consent for data analysis was provided by 28 teams. Overall 20 parameters and actions in the STEMI scenario and 16 in the major trauma scenario as well as all drug dosages were evaluated. For the scenario STEMI 469 actions were analyzed of which 271 (58%) were correct, 94 (20%) incorrect and 104 (22%) had missing documentation. A total of 140 medications were administered of which 31 (22%) were documented incorrectly and 14 (10%) were not documented. For major trauma 401 actions were analyzed of which 244 (61%) were correct, 101 (25%) incorrect and 56 (14%) had missing documentation. In this scenario the teams administered 138 medications of which 31 (22%) were documented incorrectly and 16 (12%) were not documented. Infused amounts of crystalloids and colloids were mostly documented correctly in this case (35 correct /6 incorrect/8 not documented). Documentation of several clinical parameters was carried out predominantly correctly, e.g. initial blood pressure (STEMI: 25/2/1, major trauma: 21/4/2) and initial ECG rhythm (STEMI: 27/0/1, major trauma: 26/0/1). Documentation of other clinically relevant parameters was often performed incorrectly: 12-lead ECG in STEMI (5/9/12) and capnometry in major trauma (9/4/7). No team used a pain scale to assess the level of pain in the STEMI scenario but 12 EMS physicians documented an accordant value (numerical rating scale) on the patient records. Furthermore some parameters could be identified where documentation was mostly missing although they were measured, e.g. onset of symptoms in STEMI (5/4/15) and reduced level of consciousness and bradypnea in major trauma (9/2/17).

Conclusion

Patient safety can be reduced if relevant preclinical data are not transmitted correctly to the admitting hospital. Therefore there is a need to improve documentation quality in EMS. Electronic documentation, training of EMS staff and quality management programs might offer solutions. Because of the small sample size further studies are needed to evaluate the validity of these results.     

Documentation. Prerequisite for quality management

For the judgment of the quality of medical services and for the progress of clinical medicine the comparison of data and informations of the diagnostic and therapeutic process is demanded. Therefore a systematic and concrete system of documentation should be implemented in every clinic, which consists of standard nomenclature, classification, instruments of outcome measure and documentation standards. There are a group of problems and barriers which stand in the way of this goal. It is useful to build a minimum basis data set which includes core criteria of clinical documentation in orthopedic surgery and include this in an information system so that all of these parts are considered and that a central and comparable data pool is offered for patient care, quality management and research.     

The importance of computer-based procedures for planning and documentation of orthopaedic surgery

The demand for efficiency in OR management and increase in the necessity of surgical documentation require the use of software applications in hospitals. A client-server based OP-planning and documentation system has been in use in the department of orthopedic surgery in Giessen University since 1992 and is being continuously further developed. Aside from the lawful requirements, the demands of clinical doctors have been especially considered. The main functions are management of non medical patient data, scheduling and documentation of operations with coding of diagnoses and therapy, tissue banking, implant inventory, on call scheduling, storage of medical video images, clinical word processing and e-mail. With an integrated web-server, MedXS has the capabilities to offer functions accessible over any webbrowser (Netscape, Internet-Explorer) in the internet or intranet. Through the usage of this application clinical procedures could be more efficiently realized and better agreeing positions with the insurance companies could be reached.     

Instantaneous "video photography" with a low-cost black-and-white video printer: its value in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery

Despite its shortcomings in black-and-white imagery and its print quality, the video printer described here is an inexpensive and convenient video image-printing instrument and is useful for documentation of anatomy and pathologic conditions of otolaryngologic structures. It is of great value in patient counselling and in development of a permanent pictorial record.     

Medizinisches Qualitätsmanagement mit Hilfe ausgewählter Zieldiagnosen

Finding the answers to various questions in medical quality management is hampered by the current possibilities for documentation in emergency medicine.The available tools for documentation such as the DIVI protocol for emergency physicians and databases such as MIND are inadequate for assessing prehospital care with a view to subsequent diagnosis-related evaluation. Appropriate test criteria must first be determined for data analysis in quality management with which the quality of prehospital care for specific diagnoses can be appraised. This article presents a survey of the test criteria for diagnoses encountered in everyday emergency medicine: “acute coronary syndrome,” “acute apoplexy,” “severe craniocerebral trauma,” and “multiple trauma.” These are derived from current action guidelines of the medical specialty associations.Thus, in the future, it will be possible to implement uniform data analysis and comprehensive nationwide quality management.     

A method for measuring system safety and latent errors associated with pediatric procedural sedation

The practice of sedating patients in the hospital for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures may be associated with life-threatening respiratory depression. We describe a method that uses a simulated event to identify latent system failures. A simulated scenario was developed that was reproducible with realistic physiology that degraded over time if no interventions occurred and improved when treated appropriately. Management of the scenario was observed in an ideal setting, a radiology department, and an emergency department. Event management was videotaped. The simulator's physiological data were saved automatically at 5-s intervals. Deviations from "best practice" were measured by using a set of video markers for event detection, diagnosis, and treatment. The simulator data files were used to calculate time out of range for critical variables. Hypoxia and hypotension lasted 4.5 and 5.5 min in the radiology and emergency departments, respectively, compared with 0 min in the gold standard setting. Many latent failures were identified by reviewing the video. This study supports the feasibility of using available human simulation as a crash-test dummy to more objectively quantify rescue system performance in actual sedation care settings. This method revealed vulnerabilities in personnel and in care systems even though sedation care regulatory requirements were met.