A performance assessment framework for hospitals: the WHO regional office for Europe PATH project

OBJECTIVE

The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe launched in 2003 a project aiming to develop and disseminate a flexible and comprehensive tool for the assessment of hospital performance and referred to as the performance assessment tool for quality improvement in hospitals (PATH). This project aims at supporting hospitals in assessing their performance, questioning their own results, and translating them into actions for improvement, by providing hospitals with tools for performance assessment and by enabling collegial support and networking among participating hospitals.

METHODS

PATH was developed through a series of four workshops gathering experts representing most valuable experiences on hospital performance assessment worldwide. An extensive review of the literature on hospital performance projects was carried out, more than 100 performance indicators were scrutinized, and a survey was carried out in 20 European countries.

RESULTS

Six dimensions were identified for assessing hospital performance: clinical effectiveness, safety, patient centredness, production efficiency, staff orientation and responsive governance. The following outcomes were achieved: (i) definition of the concepts and identification of key dimensions of hospital performance; (ii) design of the architecture of PATH to enhance evidence-based management and quality improvement through performance assessment; (iii) selection of a core and a tailored set of performance indicators with detailed operational definitions; (iv) identification of trade-offs between indicators; (v) elaboration of descriptive sheets for each indicator to support hospitals in interpreting their results; (vi) design of a balanced dashboard; and (vii) strategies for implementation of the PATH framework.

CONCLUSION

PATH is currently being pilot implemented in eight countries to refine its framework before further expansion.

[Familial adenomatous polyposis and thyroid cancer]

Familial adenomatous polyposis may exhibit extracolonic tumors which include thyroid carcinoma. It has been recently suggested that thyroid carcinomas associated with familial adenomatous polyposis show distinct histologic features different from sporadic follicular or papillary thyroid carcinomas. We report a case of thyroid carcinoma in a young girl affected by familial adenomatous polyposis, whose thyroid tumor exhibited some of these features. This finding confirms the peculiar histologic phenotype of the thyroid carcinomas associated with familial adenomatous polyposis. Alterations of the APC gene responsible for familial adenomatous polyposis may play a role in the development of these thyroid cancers.

Pancreaticoduodenectomy in childhood for rare pancreatic ductal anomalies--case reports

In the past 9 years, 3 children suffering rare pancreatic disorders have undergone cephalic pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple procedure) required after the failure of initial conservative treatments. Ductal anomalies such as pancreas divisum or predominant Santorini duct can be managed conservatively (especially by papillotomy of the minor papilla), unless the extent of the fibrotic lesions of the pancreas jeopardizes the final evolution of the pancreatic disease. Intrapancreatic gastric duplications remain extremely rare. Even to-day, diagnosis was made only on pathologic specimens after radical surgery. Better knowledge of this rare pathology, with emphasis on its radiological features, may help better assessment. Hemoductal pancreatitis is evocative of the coexistence of gastric duplication and pancreatic aberrant duct. However, when fibrotic and necrotic changes in the duodenopancreatic region are considerable, assessment of this anomaly becomes difficult. Radical though it is, pancreaticoduodenectomy may be necessary to treat cephalic pancreatic lesions in childhood after the failure of reasonable attempts of conservative treatment.

[Total abnormal pulmonary venous return. Preoperative stabilization by extracorporeal veno-venous circulation]

BACKGROUND

Total anomalous pulmonary venous return (TAPVR) is a rare congenital cardiac disease. When this includes pulmonary artery hypertension, the infant is severely ill. Survival beyond infancy is rare without surgical correction.

CASE REPORT

A girl in whom hydramnios and a short femur were discovered by ultrasonography at the 25th week of gestation was admitted to the intensive care unit a few hours after birth because of respiratory distress. Blood PaO2 was 37 mmHg, PaCO2, 36 mmHg, and pH 7.25. She had tachycardia (190/min) and circulatory insufficiency. Echocardiography showed right ventricular overload, a right-to-left shunt through a patent ductus arteriosus and foramen ovale and tricuspid insufficiency. This refractory hypoxemia was not corrected by conventional respiratory support, high-frequency oscillation plus dobutamine and dopamine followed by noradrenaline infusion. Because of further deterioration, the baby was given extracorporeal lung support; this rapidly improved the respiratory and hemodynamic conditions. Persistent pulmonary artery hypertension led to a second investigation that showed TAPVR She underwent emergency surgery.

CONCLUSION

Extracorporeal lung support can stabilize a precarious state in a case of severe congenital cardiac disease, so allowing surgical treatment under satisfactory conditions.

[Anuria after abdominal surgery in 2 newborn infants. Beneficial effect of noradrenaline]

BACKGROUND

Abdominal surgery in neonates may be complicated by acute renal failure that is sometimes due to increased intra-abdominal pressure. Correction of the decreased renal perfusion may be difficult.

CASE REPORTS

Case no 1. A girl weighing 3,000 g was operated on at 3 hours of life for congenital omphalocele. Closing the defect induced increased intra-abdominal pressure and decreased systemic pressure. Despite dopamine, dobutamine, followed by furosemide, anuria persisted without manifestations of heart failure. Noradrenaline (0.1 to 0.7 micrograms/kg/min intravenously) given 24 hours after surgery resulted in normalization of systemic pressure and diuresis. Case no 2. A boy was born at gestational week 30, weighing 1,450 g. At 8 days of age, he was suffering from shock that was attributed to perforation of the bowel due to necrotizing enterocolitis. Surgery was complicated by acute circulatory and renal failure that did not respond to dopamine, dobutamine or furosemide. Infusion of noradrenaline, (0.2 to 0.6 micrograms/kg/min intravenously) induced diuresis within 3 hours.

CONCLUSIONS

Noradrenaline can be useful in patients with postoperative increased intra-abdominal pressure. It should only be given after correction of hypovolemia, control of myocardial function, and when dopamine remains ineffective.

Tracheal rupture in a newborn during a complicated delivery. Diagnosis and surgical repair

Rupture of the trachea is an exceptional obstetrical lesion. The infant reported in this paper, at 1 hour of age, developed respiratory distress with pneumomediastinum, bilateral pneumothorax and subcutaneous emphysema. This resulted from the fact that the trachea had ruptured, within 1 cm of the carina, during the difficult delivery. When the child was 23 days old, operation proved necessary because extubation was not feasible. The stenotic portion of the trachea was resected and continuity restored by end-to-end anastomosis. The tracheal lumen at the site of the anastomosis proved normal by bronchoscopic examination 4 months after the operation. There is only one similar case in the literature. The etiology of this rupture is discussed.