Expert panel on weight loss surgery: executive report update

Rapid shifts in the demographics and techniques of weight loss surgery (WLS) have led to new issues, new data, new concerns, and new challenges. In 2004, this journal published comprehensive evidence-based guidelines on WLS. In this issue, we've updated those guidelines to assure patient safety in this fast-changing field. WLS involves a uniquely vulnerable population in need of specialized resources and ongoing multidisciplinary care. Timely best-practice updates are required to identify new risks, develop strategies to address them, and optimize treatment. Findings in these reports are based on a comprehensive review of the most current literature on WLS; they directly link patient safety to methods for setting evidence-based guidelines developed from peer-reviewed scientific publications. Among other outcomes, these reports show that WLS reduces chronic disease risk factors, improves health, and confers a survival benefit on those who undergo it. The literature also shows that laparoscopy has displaced open surgery as the predominant approach; that government agencies and insurers only reimburse procedures performed at accredited WLS centers; that best practice care requires close collaboration between members of a multidisciplinary team; and that new and existing facilities require wide-ranging changes to accommodate growing numbers of severely obese patients. More than 100 specialists from across the state of Massachusetts and across the many disciplines involved in WLS came together to develop these new standards. We expect them to have far-reaching effects of the development of health care policy and the practice of WLS.

Comparing patient-reported hospital adverse events with medical record review: do patients know something that hospitals do not?

BACKGROUND

Hospitals routinely survey patients about the quality of care they receive, but little is known about whether patient interviews can detect adverse events that medical record reviews do not.

OBJECTIVE

To compare adverse events reported in postdischarge patient interviews with adverse events detected by medical record review.

DESIGN

Random sample survey.

SETTING

Massachusetts, 2003.

PATIENTS

Recently hospitalized adults.

MEASUREMENTS

By using parallel methods, physicians reviewed postdischarge interviews and medical records to classify hospital adverse events.

RESULTS

Among 998 study patients, 23% had at least 1 adverse event detected by an interview and 11% had at least 1 adverse event identified by record review. The kappa statistic showed relatively poor agreement between interviews and medical records for occurrence of any type of adverse event (kappa = 0.20 [95% CI, 0.03 to 0.27]) and somewhat better agreement between interviews and medical records for life-threatening or serious events (kappa = 0.33 [CI, 0.20 to 0.45]). Record review identified 11 serious, preventable events (1.1% of patients). Interviews identified an additional 21 serious and preventable events that were not documented in the medical record, including 12 predischarge events and 9 postdischarge events, in which symptoms occurred after the patient left the hospital.

LIMITATIONS

Patients had to be healthy enough to be interviewed. Delay in reaching patients (6 to 12 months after discharge) may have resulted in poor recall of events during the hospital stay.

CONCLUSION

Patients report many events that are not documented in the medical record; some are serious and preventable. Hospitals should consider monitoring patient safety by adding questions about adverse events to postdischarge interviews.

Reconciling medications at admission: safe practice recommendations and implementation strategies

BACKGROUND

Fifty hospitals collaborated in a patient safety initiative developed and implemented by the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors and the Massachusetts Hospital Association.

METHODS

A consensus group identified safe practices and suggested implementation strategies. Four collaborative learning sessions were offered, and teams monitored their progress and shared successful strategies and lessons learned. Reports from participating teams and an evaluation survey were then used to identify successful techniques for reconciling medications.

RESULTS

For the 50 participating hospitals, implementation strategies most strongly correlated with success included active physician and nursing engagement, having an effective improvement team, using small tests of change, having an actively engaged senior administrator, and sending a team to multiple collaborative sessions.

DISCUSSION

Adoption of the reconciling safe practices proved challenging. The process of writing medication orders at patient transfer points is complex. The hospitals' experiences demonstrated that implementing the proposed safe practices requires a team effort with leadership support and vigilant measurement.

Error reporting and disclosure systems: views from hospital leaders

CONTEXT

The Institute of Medicine has recommended establishing mandatory error reporting systems for hospitals and other health settings.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the opinions and experiences of hospital leaders with state reporting systems.

DESIGN AND SETTING

Survey of chief executive and chief operating officers (CEOs/COOs) from randomly selected hospitals in 2 states with mandatory reporting and public disclosure, 2 states with mandatory reporting without public disclosure, and 2 states without mandatory systems in 2002-2003.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Perceptions of the effects of mandatory systems on error reporting, likelihood of lawsuits, and overall patient safety; attitudes regarding release of incident reports to the public; and likelihood of reporting incidents to the state or to the affected patient based on hypothetical clinical vignettes that varied the type and severity of patient injury.

RESULTS

Responses were received from 203 of 320 hospitals (response rate = 63%). Most CEOs/COOs thought that a mandatory, nonconfidential system would discourage reporting of patient safety incidents to their hospital's own internal reporting system (69%) and encourage lawsuits (79%) while having no effect or a negative effect on patient safety (73%). More than 80% felt that the names of both the hospital and the involved professionals should be kept confidential, although respondents from states with mandatory public disclosure systems were more willing than respondents from the other states to release the hospital name (22% vs 4%-6%, P = .005). Based on the vignettes, more than 90% of hospital leaders said their hospital would report incidents involving serious injury to the state, but far fewer would report moderate or minor injuries, even when the incident was of sufficient consequence that they would tell the affected patient or family.

CONCLUSIONS

Most hospital leaders expressed substantial concerns about the impact of mandatory, nonconfidential reporting systems on hospital internal reporting, lawsuits, and overall patient safety. While hospital leaders generally favor disclosure of patient safety incidents to involved patients, fewer would disclose incidents involving moderate or minor injury to state reporting systems.

Radiology of skeletal tuberculosis

In recent years, the incidence of tuberculosis (TB) has increased, primarily in developing countries, but also in Europe and North America. The association between TB and human immunodeficiency virus infection is well-documented. In these cases, TB is more likely to be extrapulmonary. The spine is the most common site for skeletal TB. Atypical appearances may be present in immigrants. Plain radiography remains the cornerstone for imaging, but newer cross-sectional modalities such as computed tomography, ultrasonography, and magnetic resonance imaging are becoming increasingly valuable in early and accurate diagnosis. This article reviews the features of musculoskeletal TB and the role that imaging plays in diagnosis and management.

The radiological appearances after the endoscopic crico-pharyngeal myotomy: Dohlman's procedure

The treatment of pharyngeal pouches (Zenker's Diverticulum) may be by either open surgical or endoscopic techniques. The endoscopic Dohlman's procedure is an ideal technique in the elderly. However, confusion has been created by the persisting presence of the pouch on the postoperative barium examination, creating the impression of surgical failure. We describe the subtle radiographic findings of the postoperative barium swallow by comparing pre- and postoperative examinations which may be used to indicate the success of the procedure. These include demonstration of the reduced height of the partition wall, the ease of passage of the barium down the ooesophagus and the height of barium supported in the substance of the residual pouch.

Serum lysozyme in inflammatory bowel disease

Serum lysozyme (muramidase) concentrations were measured in three groups of patients: control, ulcerative colitis and proctitis, and Crohn's disease. The mean +/-SD for each group was: control, 7 +/- 2; ulcerative colitis and proctitis, 7 +/- 2; and Crohn's disease, 10 +/- 4. Although a significant difference was seen between values in patients with Crohn's disease and values observed in those with ulcerative colitis or control patients, an important overlap was found between these groups. Further studies are necessary to explain the disparate results between this study and previous reports.