SMJ articles in the category "patient safety"

Original Article

Fostering Collaboration: An Interprofessional Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Workshop for Medical, Physician Assistant, Nursing, and Pharmacy Students

Objectives: Quality improvement and patient safety (QI/PS) education is required for students in undergraduate healthcare training. Interprofessional education provides an excellent collaborative opportunity to teach the core concepts of this topic; however, implementing a successful interprofessional activity often is challenging due to complex curricular and scheduling differences. To meet this…

Posted in: interprofessional education 5 patient safety 24 quality improvement 22

Original Article

CME Article: Improving the Quality of Inpatient Discharge Instructions: An Evaluation and Implementation of Best Practices

Objectives: Little is known about whether improving the quality of written discharge instructions can result in improved readmission rates and whether there are differences in the quality of discharge instructions based on provider and patient characteristics. We set out to determine provider characteristics associated with high quality discharge instructions and…

Posted in: patient safety 24

Original Article

Improving Critical Value Read-Back Failure Rate by Modifying the Notification Procedure

Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine whether a system process change improved successful read-back of critical values by the appropriate provider.Methods: The study implemented a system process change of switching the “first call” physician from the admitting physician to the most recent document writer. Data were compared…

Posted in: patient safety 24 quality improvement 22

Original Article

Impact of an Innovative Psychiatric Consultation Liaison Model on Provider Satisfaction with Care of Behaviorally Complex Patients

Objectives: The increasing behavioral acuity and complexity of hospitalized patients overwhelms providers’ capacity to effectively manage their behaviors. Hospitals must train their providers in how to cope with these behaviors to provide high-quality care. In addition to improved patient care, increased capacity to manage these challenging patients may improve resilience…

Posted in: clinical decision support 4 patient safety 24 provider satisfaction 2

Original Article

Frequency of Adverse Events Before, During, and After Hospital Admission

Objectives: Adverse events (AEs) are unintended physical injuries resulting from or contributed to by medical or surgical care. We determined the frequency and type of AEs before, during, and after hospital admission. Methods: We conducted a cohort study of 296 adult hospital patients. We used the standardized Institute for Healthcare…

Posted in: adverse events 6 patient safety 24

Original Article

Comportment and Communication Patterns among Hospitalist Physicians: Insight Gleaned Through Observation

Objectives: By 2014, there were more than 40,000 hospitalists delivering the majority of inpatient care in US hospitals. No empiric research has characterized hospitalist comportment and communication patterns as they care for patients. Methods: The chiefs of hospital medicine at five different hospitals were asked to identify their best hospitalists….

Posted in: hospitalists 3 patient safety 24 patient-centered care 7 professionalism 5

Perspectives

Practical Strategies to Improve Patient Adherence to Treatment Regimens

Adherence is “the extent to which a patient acts in accordance with the prescribed interval, and dose of a dosing regimen.”1 Poor adherence is ubiquitous in medicine, and its ramifications are far from trivial. Nonadherence costs the United States a staggering $300 billion in the form of emergency department use,…

Posted in: patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75

Original Article

Cost and Utilization: Hospitalized Patients on a Family Medicine Service

Objectives: The cost of hospitalizations contributes to the rising expense of medical care in the United States. Providing health insurance to uninsured Americans is a strategy to reduce these costs, but only if costs for uninsured patients are disproportionately high. This study examined hospitalization use patterns for uninsured patients compared…

Posted in: family medicine 11 healthcare utilization 6 patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 quality of care 7 Special Issue 75

Editorial

Special Issue on Quality Health Care, Patient Safety, and Best Practices

The editorial staff of the Southern Medical Journal is pleased to present this special issue on quality care and patient safety to the readership of the Journal. During the past decade, important issues in clinical medicine have received renewed emphasis in American health care, including evidence-based medicine, quality-of-life issues, patient…

Posted in: patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75

Original Article

Influence of Back Pain on Patient Satisfaction Scores

Objectives: Patient satisfaction scores are increasing in importance. Although the influence of selected patient and physician characteristics on satisfaction scores has been identified, the impact of different pediatric diagnoses is unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare patient satisfaction scores in visits for mechanical back pain with visits…

Posted in: communication 10 patient safety 24 patient satisfaction 12 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75

Perspectives

Clinical Excellence in HIV Care

Clinical excellence in medicine is multifaceted and difficult to define. It requires an extraordinary commitment to patient care, which, it is hoped, translates into improved patient outcomes.1 In academic medicine, clinical excellence often becomes undervalued and assumed, with an emphasis on excellence in research and teaching.2-4 Based on interviews with…

Posted in: patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75

Original Article

Developing a Communication Curriculum and Workshop for an Internal Medicine Residency Program

Objectives: Learning effective communication is essential for physicians. Effective communication has been shown to affect healthcare outcomes, including patient safety, adherence rates, patient satisfaction, and enhanced teamwork. The importance of these skills has become even more apparent in recent years, with value-based purchasing programs and federal measures of patient satisfaction…

Posted in: communication 10 healthcare outcomes 2 healthcare quality 2 internal medicine residents 3 patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75

Original Article

Feedback on Bounce Backs: Real-Time Notification of Readmissions and the Impact on Readmission Rates and Physician Perceptions

Objectives: Readmissions are an increasing area of focus for quality improvement initiatives. Widely variable estimates exist on preventability and impact of multipronged readmission interventions. Given the rotating nature of attending physicians in academic centers, physicians often are unaware of readmissions. We present a before-and-after (uncontrolled) trial evaluating timely feedback of…

Posted in: hospitalist 6 patient safety 24 Prevention 18 Quality Health Care 17 quality improvement 22 Special Issue 75

Original Article

Disparity in Patients’ Self-Reported and Charted Medication Allergy Information

Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare current adverse drug/allergy reaction reporting in patient electronic medical records/charts against information gathered during patient interviews in the emergency department. Our hypothesis was that current methods for allergy reporting results in significant discrepancy between what is documented and the actual allergy…

Posted in: adverse drug reaction 6 agreement 4 allergy 4 electronic medical records 2 patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75

Perspectives

Inverted Pyramid of Inpatient Consultation in the Academic Hospital

A common scenario in inpatient medicine is an admitting team asking another medical team for advice: the inpatient consultation. For many faculty, the next steps are a mystery managed by residents because in the academic hospital, both the initial consultation requisition and the response often are initiated by residents. In…

Posted in: patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75

Invited Commentary

Commentary on Quality and Patient Safety

It is well documented that when compared with 11 industrialized countries in quality of, access to, efficiency of, and equity in health care, and healthy lifestyles, the United States ranks last, despite the cost expenditure per year as a percentage of the gross domestic product.1 Furthermore, the Institute of Medicine’s…

Posted in: patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75

Invited Commentary

Commentary on the Special Quality and Safety in Health Care Issue

This issue of the Southern Medical Journal (SMJ) is a special one. Dedicated to the topics of healthcare quality and safety, the contributions reflect the diverse and significant initiatives that are under way to improve patient care, reduce the incidence of harm, and address the larger challenges of the US…

Posted in: patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75

Original Article

Incorporating Patient Satisfaction Metrics in Assessing Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Care Quality

Objectives: The Medical University of South Carolina implemented a patient-centered multidisciplinary breast clinic program (MDBC) in August 2012. In this study, patient satisfaction with the MDBC care delivery model and communication with healthcare providers was examined to inform the refinement of the MDBC program. Methods: During the first 10 months…

Posted in: breast cancer 44 patient safety 24 patient satisfaction 12 Quality Health Care 17 quality improvement 22 Special Issue 75

Original Article

Quality of Life of Patients with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck Receiving High-Dose Cisplatin Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life (QOL) of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck before and during treatment with high-dose cisplatin and radiotherapy. Methods: This was an observational and longitudinal prospective study conducted from June 2011 to March 2013…

Posted in: chemotherapy 15 cisplatin 2 patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 quality of life 11 radiotherapy 6 Special Issue 75

Original Article

Back to Anatomy: Improving Landmarking Accuracy of Clinical Procedures Using a Novel Approach to Procedural Teaching

Objectives: Many believe that knowledge of anatomy is essential for performing clinical procedures; however, unlike their surgical counterparts, internal medicine (IM) programs rarely incorporate anatomy review into procedural teaching. This study tested the hypothesis that an educational intervention focused on teaching relevant surface and underlying anatomy would result in improved…

Posted in: anatomy 2 medical education 73 patient safety 24 Quality Health Care 17 Special Issue 75
SMA Menu