Practice standards for optometry and optometric practice accreditation

Background: To assist optometrists to deliver care more efficiently and effectively, in 1995 Optometrists Association Australia decided to develop standards that would assist optometrists in better managing their practices. Existing practice management standards for health professionals were thought to be either not specific enough for optometric practice or to have shortcomings in the context of optometric practice in Australia. Methods: Following a literature search, material previously developed by Optometrists Association Australia to assist practitioners with management of their practices and standards from other professions were used to assist with the development of a draft set of standards for optometric practices in Australia. Successive drafts were circulated for comment to optometrists in practice, non‐optometrists with experience in the development of practice standards for other health professions and to Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited. The comments were used to refine the standards and the accreditation guidelines to their final form. Results: Optometric Practice Standards suitable for use in a practice accreditation program were developed. The standards comprise seven sections—Practice administration, Quality assurance, Rights and needs of the patient, Practice services, Practice facilities, Communication and Patient records. These sections are divided into criteria that provide the detail of the requirements of the standard. Indicators describing how criteria can be assessed accompany the criteria.     

PhD Training in Clinical Psychology: Fix It Before It Breaks

During the past 60 years clinical psychology training programs have made remarkable changes as psychologists' professional roles and scientific contributions have emerged. Yet, there are a number of issues that have implications regarding the quality of research training in PhD programs. Current PhD programs are encouraged to offer a joint PsyD/PhD training program when their goal is to train researchers and clinicians who would be eligible for licensure. It is recommended that the PhD serve only as a research degree. A joint PsyD/PhD addresses many of the identified problems and issues. It conserves resources for research training and explicitly identifies, recognizes, and rewards the training that is required. It may best serve to advance the knowledge base of clinical psychology.     

Levels of quality management of blood transfusion services in Europe

The European blood legislation has defined several key quality elements to achieve Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) in the field of blood transfusion. During the recent years, the blood legislation is in the process of implementation throughout its member states. Following the Directive 2002/98/EC, Directive 2005/62/EC has given further requirements for quality-management systems to be fulfilled by blood establishments. In addition, GMP/Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and ISO standards are used inter alia by blood establishments. In order to support the implementation of the blood legislation, the European Public Health Work Plan (2005/2007) has cofunded two projects, led by the German Red Cross and supported by the European Blood Alliance, delivering a common European Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) methodology (EU-Q-Blood-SOP) and criteria and standards for the inspection of blood establishments (EUBIS). The EU-SOP manual will assist blood establishments in preparing for the inspection of their services related to the implementation of quality relevant elements required by the EU Directive 2002/98/EC and its technical annexes. The standards and criteria for inspection of blood establishments will cross-reference existing quality standards to the directive requirements and define requirements for the structure of quality-management systems based on the directive 2002/98/EC and its technical annexes. Based on these requirements, inspection standards and criteria are developed to assist in the independent assessment of quality systems established by individual blood establishments. These assessments are done in relation to the requirements defined by the European Union legislation on blood, in order to safeguard the quality of blood and to achieve continuous improvement of its quality throughout Europe.     

Setting standards of performance expected in neurosurgery residency: A study on entrustable professional activities in competency-based medical education

BackgroundCompetency-based medical education requires evaluations of residents’ performances of tasks of the discipline (ie. entrustable professional activities (EPAs)). Using neurosurgical Faculty perspectives, this study investigated whether a sample of neurosurgical EPAs accurately reflected the expectations of general neurosurgical practice.MethodA questionnaire was sent to all Canadian neurosurgery Faculty using a SurveyMonkey® platform.ResultsThe proportion of respondents who believed the EPAs were representative of general neurosurgery competences varied significantly across all EPAs [47%–100%] (p < 0.0001). For 9/15 proposed EPAs, ≥75% agreed they were appropriate for general neurosurgery training and expected residents to attain the highest standard of performance. However, a range of 27–53% of the respondents felt the other six EPAs would be more appropriate for fellowship training and thus, require a lower standard of performance from graduating residents.ConclusionThe shift towards subspecialization in neurosurgery has implications for curriculum design, delivery and certification of graduating residents.     

An overview of hospital accreditation in Taiwan, Republic of China

This paper examines the hospital accreditation system in Taiwan, Republic of China. The paper describes the historical evolution of accreditation; preliminary teaching hospital accreditation; hospital and teaching hospital accreditation; issues and problems; and perspectives and challenges.     

计算机信息管理在国家实验室认可中的应用

随着经济全球化的进展 ,开展国家实验室认可工作成为卫生检测实验室与国际接轨的手段。在中山市疾病预防控制中心创建国家认可实验室工作期间 ,计算机信息管理系统在合同评审、样品管理、检测流程管理、检测报告管理等各方面都起到了积极的作用 ,为质量体系的运转建立起了符合ISO/IEC 170 2 5 :1999要求的平台 ,保证了质量体系规范运行 ,极大地提高了工作效率 ,为中心通过国家实验室认可奠定了坚实的基础。     

Quality assurance practices in Europe: a survey of molecular genetic testing laboratories

In the 2000s, a number of initiatives were taken internationally to improve quality in genetic testing services. To contribute to and update the limited literature available related to this topic, we surveyed 910 human molecular genetic testing laboratories, of which 291 (32%) from 29 European countries responded. The majority of laboratories were in the public sector (81%), affiliated with a university hospital (60%). Only a minority of laboratories was accredited (23%), and 26% was certified. A total of 22% of laboratories did not participate in external quality assessment (EQA) and 28% did not use reference materials (RMs). The main motivations given for accreditation were to improve laboratory profile (85%) and national recognition (84%). Nearly all respondents (95%) would prefer working in an accredited laboratory. In accredited laboratories, participation in EQA (P<0.0001), use of RMs (P=0.0014) and availability of continuous education (CE) on medical/scientific subjects (P=0.023), specific tasks (P=0.0018), and quality assurance (P<0.0001) were significantly higher than in non-accredited laboratories. Non-accredited laboratories expect higher restriction of development of new techniques (P=0.023) and improvement of work satisfaction (P=0.0002) than accredited laboratories. By using a quality implementation score (QIS), we showed that accredited laboratories (average score 92) comply better than certified laboratories (average score 69, P<0.001), and certified laboratories better than other laboratories (average score 44, P<0.001), with regard to the implementation of quality indicators. We conclude that quality practices vary widely in European genetic testing laboratories. This leads to a potentially dangerous situation in which the quality of genetic testing is not consistently assured.