Access to Care: End-to-End Digital Response for COVID-19 Care Delivery

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic disrupted health care, requiring organizational leaders to act quickly to manage the health-related concerns of individuals and communities. The ability to offer a variety of digitally enabled telehealth services with 24/7 access to nurse practitioners and physician assistants allowed us to care for patients in their homes. It reduced the spread of the virus, protected our employees from further disease spread, and provided early interventions to those in need. The roles of nurse practitioner leaders, the enacted strategies, and patient outcomes demonstrate the impact of an innovative digital care delivery model on care across the continuum.     

Attending Physicians' Perspectives of Resident Academic Half Day

Phenomenon: Academic health centers face significant challenges trying to improve medical education while meeting patient care needs. In response to problems with traditional forms of didactic education, many residency programs have transitioned to Academic Half Day (AHD), a curricular model in which learning is condensed into half-day blocks. In this model, trainees have protected educational time free from clinical responsibilities. However, an understanding of the impact on attending physicians and patient care when residents depart clinical sites for learning activities has not been well described. We sought to explore attending physicians’ perspectives when residents depart clinical sites to attend AHD. Approach: We performed a qualitative study with a grounded theory approach using individual semistructured interviews (December 2016–April 2017) of attending physicians who worked at inpatient and emergency department clinical sites from which residents departed to attend AHD. We used the constant comparative method, generating codes using an iterative approach and continuing sampling until saturation was reached. Major themes were identified and disagreements were resolved by consensus. Findings: Fifteen attending physicians from 6 clinical services were interviewed. Data analysis yielded 5 themes: emotional strain of workload, technology and systems challenges, patient safety and care concerns, disrupted resident learning, and the challenge to optimize resident education. Attending physicians, already working on busy services, felt frustrated and perceived having an increased workload when residents departed for AHD. They were concerned about safely entering orders in the electronic health record, impeded patient workflow, and further disruption of resident schedules already disrupted by duty hour restrictions and continuity clinic. Attending physicians described the importance of experiential learning from caring for patients and from structured didactic learning; however, the optimal balance was uncertain. Insights: We found that attending physicians experienced significant emotional strain, faced technological challenges, and were concerned about impeded workflow and patient safety when residents departed clinical sites for AHD. This is likely to be true whenever residents are pulled out of the clinical setting for any reason. Educators need to partner with hospital administrators to provide appropriate support for attending physicians when residents leave clinical sites, evaluate the effectiveness of different educational models, and determine how structured learning activities fit into the overall curriculum.     

Perception of the Quality of Communication With Physicians Among Relatives of Dying Residents of Long-term Care Facilities in 6 European Countries: PACE Cross-Sectional Study

ObjectiveTo examine how relatives evaluate the quality of communication with the treating physician of a dying resident in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) and to assess its differences between countries.DesignA cross-sectional retrospective study in a representative sample of LTCFs conducted in 2015. Relatives of residents who died during the previous 3 months were sent a questionnaire.Settings and participants761 relatives of deceased residents in 241 LTCFs in Belgium, England, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland.MethodsThe Family Perception of Physician-Family Communication (FPPFC) scale (ratings from 0 to 3, where 3 means the highest quality) was used to retrospectively assess how the quality of end-of-life communication with treating physicians was perceived by relatives. We applied multilevel linear and logistic regression models to assess differences between countries and LTCF types.ResultsThe FPPFC score was the lowest in Finland (1.4 ± 0.8) and the highest in Italy (2.2 ± 0.7). In LTCFs served by general practitioners, the FPPFC score differed between countries, but did not in LTCFs with on-site physicians. Most relatives reported that they were well informed about a resident's general condition (from 50.8% in Finland to 90.6% in Italy) and felt listened to (from 53.1% in Finland to 84.9% in Italy) and understood by the physician (from 56.7% in Finland to 85.8% in Italy). In most countries, relatives assessed the worst communication as being about the resident's wishes for medical treatment at the end of life, with the lowest rate of satisfied relatives in Finland (37.6%).ConclusionThe relatives' perception of the quality of end-of-life communication with physicians differs between countries. However, in all countries, physicians' communication needs to be improved, especially regarding resident's wishes for medical care at the end of life.ImplicationsTraining in end-of-life communication to physicians providing care for LTCF residents is recommended.     

A process evaluation of implementing a vocational enablement protocol for employees with hearing difficulties in clinical practice

Objective: A multidisciplinary vocational rehabilitation programme, the Vocational Enablement Protocol (VEP) was developed to address the specific needs of employees with hearing difficulties. In the current study we evaluated the process of implementing the VEP in audiologic care among employees with hearing impairment. Design: In conjunction with a randomized controlled trial, we collected and analysed data on seven process parameters: recruitment, reach, fidelity, dose delivered, dose received and implemented, satisfaction, and perceived benefit. Study sample: Sixty-six employees with hearing impairment participated in the VEP. The multidisciplinary team providing the VEP comprised six professionals. Results: The professionals performed the VEP according to the protocol. Of the recommendations delivered by the professionals, 31% were perceived as implemented by the employees. Compliance rate was highest for hearing-aid uptake (51%). Both employees and professionals were highly satisfied with the VEP. Participants rated good perceived benefit from it. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the VEP could be a useful treatment for employees with hearing difficulties from a process evaluation perspective. Implementation research in the audiological setting should be encouraged in order to further provide insight into parameters facilitating or hindering successful implementation of an intervention and to improve its quality and efficacy.     

论我国医患冲突成因及和谐关系构建

目前我国医患之间的矛盾与冲突，实质上是新时期我国社会矛盾在卫生工作中的具体表现，反映了社会群体在经济状况、价值取向、角色意识、道德水平、法律法规等多方面的矛盾与冲突。和谐医患关系应是构建我国和谐社会的内容之一。和谐医患关系的构建需要完善的社会医疗保障体系建立、国家卫生行政管理加大、财政补偿合理投入、医疗服务质量提高、医学知识教育普及与提高、媒体理性传播、社会大众道德控制水平提升，法律法规完善等全方位的努力，有赖于医事主体双方及全社会的关注与通力改善。     

南山区与某社区常住人口6年恶性肿瘤发病调查

目的：了解某社区常住人口恶性肿瘤平均年发病率是否高于周边人群，重点是白血病平均年发病率。方法：采用回顾性调查法及个案调查表收集该社区1998年6月～2004年9月常住人口中的确诊恶性肿瘤病人22例，将该社区恶性肿瘤平均年发病率与南山区在该时段恶性肿瘤平均的发病率进行比较。结果：1998年6月～2004年9月南山区常住人口恶性肿瘤平均年发病66．1／10万，某社区常住人口恶性肿瘤平均年发病率29．9／10万，两地差异有统计学意义（F=0．0001，P〈0．05）；南山区常住人口白血病平均年发病率2．79／10万，某社区常住人口白血病平均年发病率4．07／10万，两者无统计学意义差异（F=0．467，P〉0．05）。结论：该社区常住人口恶性肿瘤及白血病平均年发病水平低于南山区全区水平。