Patient Safety and Quality in Surgery

Evaluating Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Amongst Practicing Urologists: Analysis of the 2018 American Urological Association Census

OBJECTIVE

To describe factors associated with Quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) participation using 2018 American Urological Association Census data. QIPS have become increasingly important in medicine. However, studies about QIPS in urology suggest low levels of participation, with little known about factors predicting non-participation.

METHODS

Results from 2339 census respondents were weighted to estimate 12,660 practicing urologists in the United States. Our primary outcome was participation in QIPS. Predictor variables included demographics, practice setting, rurality, fellowship training, QIPS domains in practice, years in practice, and non-clinical/clinical workload.

RESULTS

QIPS participants and non-participants significantly differed in distributions of age (P = .0299), gender (P = .0013), practice setting (P <.0001), employment (employee vs partner vs owner vs combination; P <.0001), and fellowship training (P <.0001). QIPS participants reported fewer years in practice (21.3 vs 25.9, P = .018) and higher clinical (45.2 vs 39.2, P = .022) and non-clinical (8.76 vs 5.28, P = .002) work hours per week. Non-participation was associated with male gender (OR = 2.68, 95% CI 1.03-6.95) and Asian race (OR = 2.59, 95% CI 1.27-5.29) for quality programs and private practice settings (ORs = 8.72-27.8) for patient safety initiatives.

CONCLUSION

QIPS was associated with academic settings. Interventions to increase rates of quality and safety participation should target individual and system-level factors, respectively. Future work should discern barriers to QIPS engagement and its clinical benefits.

The emergence of patient safety issues in France

INTRODUCTION

The objective of this study was to elucidate the conditions of emergence of patient safety issues in the public debate and the limits to implementation of patient safety in the current health system.

METHOD

A narrative review of the international literature was conducted by searching PubMed, Cairn and Persée databases.

RESULTS

The database search retrieved 2,206 documents, 48 of which were included in the study. The theme of patient safety has spread worldwide, but emerged late in France. The delayed emergence of patient safety in France is essentially related to the euphemistic approach to the problem of patient safety, the difficulty of adopting systematic reasoning, the lack of human resources management levers and the ambiguous position of patients in relation to patient safety.

Developing a weekly patient safety and quality meeting in a medium-sized GI surgical unit in the United Kingdom

Background

Morbidity and Mortality (M&M) meetings are advocated as part of good surgical practice, but have been criticised as a method of improving patient outcomes. Several groups have re-designed the format of M&M meetings to improve reporting of complications, near misses and maximise learning points. As a medium sized department of 8 GI surgeons in the UK, we wished to explore and discuss the complications encountered in our clinical practice in more detail than currently available in our monthly M&M/audit meeting, in order to try and improve the quality of care we deliver to our patients. This article describes the practicalities of introducing a weekly meeting and reports on the initial data generated from the patients discussed.

Methods

Four groups of general surgical patients (both elective and acute) are discussed in depth at the weekly meeting- a) patients whose length of in-patient stay is greater than 7 days (as a surrogate marker of a complicated surgical episode), b) unplanned patient readmissions to our hospital (under any specialty) within 30 days of a previous discharge from the GI surgical service, c) all GI surgical inpatient deaths and d) returns to theatre within the same admission (either planned or unplanned).

Results

The initial data generated from the meeting first six months of the meeting are presented e.g.– 302 length of stay greater than 7 days patient episodes (attributable to complications in 26%, normal variant of disease in 59% and social reasons delaying discharge in 15%).

Conclusions

We feel that these weekly meetings can be helpful in addressing both patient safety and quality issues in more depth than the traditional M&M format, as well as being a valuable training resource for both surgical trainees and consultants alike.

Resident education in the era of patient safety: a nationwide analysis of outcomes and complications in resident-assisted oncologic surgery

BACKGROUND

Complex, oncologic surgery is an important component of resident education. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of resident participation in oncologic procedures on overall 30-day morbidity and mortality.

METHODS

A retrospective cohort analysis was performed using the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Participant User Files for 2005-2009. Colorectal, hepatopancreaticobiliary, and gastroesophageal oncology procedures were included. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the impact of trainee involvement on 30-day morbidity and mortality after adjusting for potential confounders.

RESULTS

A total of 77,862 patients were included for analysis, 53,885 (69.2%) involving surgical trainees and 23,977 (30.8%) without trainees. The overall 30-day morbidity was significantly higher in the trainee group [27.2 vs. 21%, adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.19, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.15-1.24, p < 0.0001)]; however, there was significantly lower 30-day postoperative mortality in the trainee group (1.9 vs. 2.1%, AOR 0.87, 95% CI 0.77-0.98, p = 0.02) and significantly lower failure-to-rescue rate (defined as mortality rate among patients suffering one or more postoperative complications) (5.9 vs. 7.6%, AOR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68-0.90, p = 0.001). The overall 30-day morbidity was highest in the PGY 5 level (29%) compared to 24% for PGY 1 or 2 and 23% for PGY 3 (AOR per level increase 1.05, 95% CI 1.03-1.07, p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

Trainee participation in complex, oncologic surgery is associated with significantly higher rates of 30-day postoperative complications in NSQIP-participating hospitals; however, this effect is countered by overall lower 30-day mortality and improved rescue rate in preventing death among patients suffering complications.

Medical errors and patient safety in palliative care: a review of current literature

BACKGROUND

Recently, the discussion about medical errors and patient safety has gained scientific as well as public attention. Errors in medicine have been proven to be frequent and to carry enormous financial costs and moral consequences. We aimed to review the research on medical errors in palliative care and to screen relevant literature to appreciate the relevance of safety studies to the field.

METHODS

We performed a literature search using the database PubMed that cross-matched terms for palliative care with the words "errors" and "patient safety." Publications were classified according to type of study and kind of error, and empiric research results were extracted and critically assessed.

RESULTS

We found 44 articles concerning medical errors in palliative care, most of which were case studies. Of these 44 articles, 16 deal with palliative care errors as a key issue, referring mostly to symptom control (n = 13). Other examples are errors in communication, prognostication, and advance care planning. There are very few empirical studies, which are mostly retrospective observational studies.

DISCUSSION

Although patients in palliative care are more vulnerable to errors and their consequences, there is little theoretical or empirical research on the subject. We propose a specific definition for errors in palliative care and analyze the challenges of delineating, identifying and preventing errors in such key areas as prognostication, advance care planning and end-of-life decision-making.

Predictors of the perceived impact of a patient safety collaborative: an exploratory study

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of various factors on the perceived impact of a patient safety improvement collaborative in the UK, the Safer Patients Initiative (SPI).

STUDY DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey design was used. Study setting Twenty National Health Service organizations from the UK that participated in the main phase of the SPI programme, which ran from September 2007 to 2008.

PARTICIPANTS

Senior executive leads, clinical operational leads in the four clinical areas targeted by the programme, programme coordinators and any other staff involved in the SPI (n = 635).

INTERVENTION

The SPI is a patient safety improvement intervention based on the Breakthrough Series Collaborative model (Institute of Healthcare Improvement, 2004) aimed at improving patient safety in four clinical areas (general ward care, intensive care, perioperative care and pharmacy) through implementing a number of evidence-based clinical practices and a focus on organizational leadership. Outcome measures Participant perceptions of the impact of the programme on their organizations.

RESULTS

Exploratory regression analysis showed that programme management, the value assigned to programme methodology and length of data collection contributed the largest variance in perceived impact of the SPI followed by perceived support from junior doctors, inter-professional collaboration, difference of the programme from existing safety improvement practices and organizational readiness.

CONCLUSIONS

The resulting model suggests hierarchical importance for a range of variables to support future research concerning the mechanisms by which large-scale organizational programmes, such as the SPI, impact on the care systems they are designed to influence.

Patient safety: a literature review to inform an evaluation of a maternity service

This literature review summarises the history of patient safety initiatives in health-care systems around the world. The need to improve patient safety is commonly called for following interrogation of data captured as a measure of patient safety including audit, clinical indicator reporting and evaluation methods. Many such reports exist for maternity services. Recommendations for improvement identified after review may be taken up, but there is little in the literature that demonstrates how clinicians consider such recommendations, implement improvement strategies and assess their impact. The authors of this paper concur with other authors who call for more research in this regard.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy: the first 100 patients-improving patient safety and outcomes

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Patient safety and outcomes are paramount when using new technology. We report our initial experience of 100 patients with robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) with a focus on patient safety and outcomes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Data were prospectively collected from the first 100 consecutive patients who underwent RALP for localized prostate cancer from October 2004 to August 2007. To determine our learning curve, the cases were divided into quarters of 25 patients and stratified to identify trends.

RESULTS

Mean age was 59.4 years (range 44.5-72.6 yrs), body mass index was 28.4 (range 20.4-40.1), preoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level was 5.7 ng/mL (range 0.4-15.0 ng/mL), and follow-up was 12.7 months (range 7 days-38 mos). Mean operative time was 5.9 hours (range 3.7-10.9 hr), and estimated blood loss (EBL) was 218 mL (range 25-600 mL). Thirty bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomies were performed. Twelve patients had pT(2a) disease, 3 had T(2b), 61 had T(2c), 22 had T(3a)N(0), and 1 had T(3b)N(1). Positive surgical margin rate was 23%. Overall complication rate was 26%. At last follow-up, 88% (76/86) of patients had undetectable PSA levels, and 80% (70/87) of patients were using no pads. Improvement in EBL and operative time was noted throughout the series, and changes in surgical technique and perioperative management were made to improve patient safety and outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

RALP perioperative parameters improved throughout the first 100 cases, while postoperative outcomes remained acceptable. Methods to improve patient safety and outcome occurred throughout the series. Even during the initial learning curve for this procedure, RALP appears to be another alternative for achieving prostate cancer control.

Medication errors in neonates

Prevention of harm from medication errors has become a national priority. Medication errors in the neonatal intensive care unit are common, and most can be avoided. This article reviews the prevalence and types of medication errors affecting the care of the neonate and summarizes approaches that have been used to reduce these errors. Safety initiatives applicable to minimizing medication errors also are discussed.