Patient Safety & Quality
How to Prevent Brain-Sapping Delirium in the ICU
12 Oct, 2018 | 01:50h | UTCHow To Prevent Brain-Sapping Delirium In The ICU – NPR (free text and podcast)
Related: ABCDEF Bundle – Society of Critical Care Medicine (free resource) AND The ABCDEF Bundle: Science and Philosophy of How ICU Liberation Serves Patients and Families – Critical Care Medicine (free)
Committee Recommends New Restrictions on the use of Fluoroquinolones
11 Oct, 2018 | 21:47h | UTCCommentaries: EMA committee recommends restrictions on fluoroquinolone, quinolone antibiotics – Reuters (free) AND PRAC Recommends Restrictions on Fluoroquinolone, Quinolones – Medscape (free registration required)
Related FDA Safety Alert: Warnings for Fluoroquinolones on Risks of Mental Health and Low Blood Sugar Adverse Reactions (free statement and commentaries)
Perspective: What the Tests Don’t Show
11 Oct, 2018 | 20:11h | UTCWhat the tests don’t show – The Washington Post (a few articles per month are free)
“Many doctors are surprisingly bad at reading test results and/or fail to grasp how false positives work. This is putting patients at risk” (via @pash22 see Tweet)
Ten Principles for More Conservative, Care-Full Diagnosis
5 Oct, 2018 | 02:22h | UTCTen Principles for More Conservative, Care-Full Diagnosis – Annals of Internal Medicine (free) (via @EricTopol)
Study: Association Between Physician Medical School Ranking and Patient Outcomes and Costs of Care
28 Sep, 2018 | 00:58h | UTC“Overall, little or no relation was found between the USNWR ranking of the medical school from which a physician graduated and subsequent patient mortality or readmission rates.”
Study: Adverse Outcomes After Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy
27 Sep, 2018 | 22:59h | UTCInvited Commentary: Potential harms of isolated arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (free)
Related: Needless procedures: knee arthroscopy is one of the most common but least effective surgeries – The Conversation (free) AND Arthroscopic surgery for degenerative knee arthritis and meniscal tears: a clinical practice guideline (free guideline and commentary)
Randomized Trial: Algorithm-Based Therapy vs Usual Care in Patients with Staphylococcal Bacteremia
27 Sep, 2018 | 22:58h | UTCEffect of Algorithm-Based Therapy vs Usual Care on Clinical Success and Serious Adverse Events in Patients with Staphylococcal Bacteremia: A Randomized Clinical Trial – JAMA (free for a limited period)
Editorial: Treatment Algorithms for Staphylococcal Bacteremia: Improving Clinical Care and Enhancing Antimicrobial Stewardship (free for a limited period)
Commentary: Algorithm may reduce antibiotics for staph bloodstream infections – CIDRAP (free)
Meta-Analysis: The Preventable Proportion of Healthcare-associated Infections
21 Sep, 2018 | 02:01h | UTCThe preventable proportion of healthcare-associated infections 2005–2016: Systematic review and meta-analysis – Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Commentary: Even the best healthcare facilities can do more to prevent infections – Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (free)
“Multifaceted tactics for infection control reduce healthcare-associated infections 35-55 percent”
Study: Use of Medical Scribes to Reduce Documentation Burden
21 Sep, 2018 | 01:45h | UTCAssociation of Medical Scribes in Primary Care With Physician Workflow and Patient Experience – JAMA Internal Medicine (free for a limited period)
Commentaries: Use of Medical Scribes to Reduce Documentation Burden: Are They Where We Need to Go With Clinical Documentation? – JAMA Internal Medicine (free for a limited period) AND Scribes improve physician workflow, patient interaction – MedicalXpress (free) AND Scribes ease physician administrative burden and boost patient experience, JAMA study says – Healthcare Finance (free)
Systematic Review: Prevalence of Burnout Among Physicians
20 Sep, 2018 | 19:41h | UTCPrevalence of Burnout Among Physicians: A Systematic Review – JAMA (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Commentaries: Doctors Today May Be Miserable, But Are They ‘Burnt Out’? – NPR (free) AND Physician burnout taking center stage – Reuters (free) AND Burnout Found to Be Common Among U.S. Resident Physicians – Psychiatric News Alert (free)
Related: Why Physician Burnout Is Endemic, and How Health Care Must Respond – NEJM Catalyst (free) AND Counting the costs: U.S. hospitals feeling the pain of physician burnout – Reuters (free) AND To Care Is Human — Collectively Confronting the Clinician-Burnout Crisis – New England Journal of Medicine (free) AND Beyond Burnout — Redesigning Care to Restore Meaning and Sanity for Physicians (free) AND The Burnout Crisis in American Medicine – The Atlantic (free) AND To Combat Physician Burnout and Improve Care, Fix the Electronic Health Record (free commentaries)
Review: Implementing Optimal Team-Based Care to Reduce Clinician Burnout
20 Sep, 2018 | 19:40h | UTCImplementing Optimal Team-Based Care to Reduce Clinician Burnout – National Academy of Medicine (free)
Commentaries: Optimal team-based health care is associated with improved patient outcomes and physician well-being – ACP Newsroom (free) AND New Review Shows Team-Based Care May Reduce Physician Burnout – Medscape (free registration required)
Review: Optimizing Medications in Older Adults with Cognitive Impairment
20 Sep, 2018 | 19:23h | UTC
Shared Decision-Making: Staying Focused on the Ultimate Goal
20 Sep, 2018 | 19:21h | UTCShared Decision-Making: Staying Focused on the Ultimate Goal – NEJM Catalyst (free)
Viewpoint: Aligning Patient and Physician Incentives
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:33h | UTCAligning Patient and Physician Incentives – JAMA (free for a limited period)
Systematic Analysis: Mortality Due to Low-quality Health Systems in 137 countries
14 Sep, 2018 | 01:25h | UTCHigh-quality health systems in the Sustainable Development Goals era: time for a revolution – The Lancet Global Health (free articles)
Related Article: Mortality due to low-quality health systems in the universal health coverage era: a systematic analysis of amenable deaths in 137 countries – The Lancet (free)
Editorial: Putting quality and people at the centre of health systems – The Lancet (free)
Commentaries: Political and technical barriers to improving quality of health care – The Lancet (free) AND What Kills 5 Million People A Year? It’s Not Just Disease – NPR (free)
Related Report: Crossing the Global Quality Chasm: Improving Health Care Worldwide (free report and commentaries)
Guidance: Use Plain English to Write to Patients
6 Sep, 2018 | 03:09h | UTCWriting Outpatient Clinic Letters to Patients – Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (free PDF)
Commentaries: Doctors told to ditch Latin and use ‘plain English’ – BBC News (free) AND New drive to encourage doctors to write to patients in plain English – The Guardian (free) AND Rx for British Doctors: Use Plain English Instead of Latin – The New York Times (free)
“Guidance suggests specialists should avoid Latin terms, acronyms and convoluted language” (from The Guardian)
Perspective: Good Documentation
6 Sep, 2018 | 02:52h | UTCGood Documentation – JAMA (free for a limited period)
“In this narrative medicine essay, the author, who transitioned from paper and pen to computer-generated electronic health record keeping wonders whether the self-select menu items ultimately dehumanizes both the patient and the physician.” (via @JAMA_current see Tweet)
Meta-Analysis: Association Between Physician Burnout and Patient Safety, Professionalism, and Patient Satisfaction
6 Sep, 2018 | 02:43h | UTCAssociation Between Physician Burnout and Patient Safety, Professionalism, and Patient Satisfaction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis – JAMA Internal Medicine (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Commentaries: Physician Burnout Poses Risks to Patient Safety – Psychiatric News Alert (free) AND Burnout in doctors doubles risk of patient safety incidents, study finds – Pulse (free)
Study: Prediction Rules to Detect Delirium at Hospital Admission
6 Sep, 2018 | 02:29h | UTCCommentary: New prediction rule may help detect delirium at hospital admission – ACP Hospitalist (free)
Perspective: Changing the Way We Communicate About Patients
2 Sep, 2018 | 02:31h | UTCAbraar Karan: Changing the way we communicate about patients – The BMJ Opinion (free) (via @NUNESDOC)
“Father of 2, retired car salesman and keen on football NOT the colon cancer in Bed 4 – social history brings humanity back to the bedside” (via @hospicedoctor see Tweet)
Study: Performance of Electronic Prediction Rules for Prevalent Delirium at Hospital Admission
2 Sep, 2018 | 02:23h | UTCCommentary: New prediction rule may help detect delirium at hospital admission – ACP Hospitalist (free)
Emergency Department Crowding: A Systematic Review of Causes, Consequences and Solutions
2 Sep, 2018 | 01:56h | UTCEmergency department crowding: A systematic review of causes, consequences and solutions – PLOS One (free)
Report: Improving Health Care Worldwide
31 Aug, 2018 | 02:09h | UTCVideos: The Scope of the Problem (free) AND Health Systems of the Future (free)
See also: Report Highlights (free PDF) AND Recommendations (free PDF)
Randomized Trial: Telemedicine in Heart Failure Patients
31 Aug, 2018 | 02:04h | UTCEfficacy of telemedical interventional management in patients with heart failure (TIM-HF2): a randomised, controlled, parallel-group, unmasked trial – The Lancet (link to abstract – $ for full-text)
Commentaries: Telemedicine in Heart Failure Patients (TIM-HF2) – American College of Cardiology (free) AND ESC: Telemonitoring of HF Cuts Admissions, Mortality MedPage Today (free registration required)
Perspective: Using a New EHR System to Increase Patient Engagement, Improve Efficiency, and Decrease Cost
31 Aug, 2018 | 01:49h | UTC“Another solution might be to capitalize on patients’ vested interest in their own health care by actively engaging them in the entry of their own medical history information into the EHR.”