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Showing results for tags 'Communication'.
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Content ArticleTracey Herlihey, head of patient safety incident response policy, in the NHS England national patient safety team, is joined by Vicky Ainsworth, a communications lead at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and Stuart Kaill, from Health Innovation Manchester, to discuss ways of communicating about large scale change projects in NHS organisations. The podcast explores Vicky’s experience of leading on communications for a large scale change project in Manchester, with a specific focus on sharing advice and suggestions relating to communicating the changes related to the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF). It includes expert tips on how to communicate large scale change to different audiences as well as within both large and small organisations.
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Content ArticleIn this article, published by Patient Satisfaction News, author Sarah Heath argues that more needs to be done to address the power imbalance between patients and providers. She discusses the dangers of a paternalistic approach and why patient engagement and shared decision making is key to patient safety.
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News Article
'Keep mums and babies safe by improving digital medical records'
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
With the distressing spate of news reports about mums and babies who weren’t kept safe in hospital, an initiative in the Midlands to improve patient safety in maternal and acute care settings comes as a relief. The newly announced Midlands Patient Safety Research Collaboration will bring together NHS trusts, universities and private business to evaluate how digital tools can help clinical decision making and reduce danger for patients. Problems can arise if communication is poor between medics when patients move between departments. Professor Alice Turner of Birmingham University said: “The power of new technology available to us means that we can address one of the ongoing areas of risk for patients, which is effective communication and clinical decision making. “The new collaboration will be looking at how digital tools can make a real difference to reduce risks and support patient safety in the areas of acute medicine and maternal health.” Digital decision-making tools could improve prescribing and personalised management for patients needing emergency care. Importantly, these tools should provide a smoother flow of information between healthcare professionals in acute care between hospitals, doctors and the West Midlands Ambulance Service, and hopefully reduce risks of patient harm at key points during acute care. Read full story Source: The Mirror, 18 December 2022 -
Content ArticleThe Communication, Apology and Resolution model (CARe) offers healthcare organisations a detailed process for responding to unanticipated adverse outcomes, which includes proactively communicating with patients and families, examining and explaining what happened, avoiding recurrences by improving systems of care and, where appropriate, apologising and offering financial compensation. The model recognises that clinicians and staff will need peer support and training to effectively communicate with patients and families. In June 2022, advocates of the CARe model held an annual forum to highlight the successes of CARe programs in Massachusetts and to look at challenges health care providers face in doing this work consistently across their organisations. This article by the Betsy Lehman Center highlights video recordings shared at the forum including: A family member testimonial by Jane Bugbee, whose healthy daughter, Lindsay, died of Strep A and sepsis shortly after giving birth to her third child in July 2018 A simulation of a resolution conversation with a family A simulation of a conversation with provider after an adverse event.
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Content ArticleThis report published by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD) assesses the quality of care provided to adult patients with a pre-existing epilepsy disorder, or who were subsequently diagnosed with epilepsy and presented to hospital following a seizure, between 1 January and 31 December 2020.
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News Article
GPs say parents need clearer strep A advice
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
GP leaders have urged the government to put out clearer advice for parents about when to seek help over potential strep A infections. Prof Kamila Hawthorne, of the Royal College of GPs, said many surgeries were struggling with the extra demand on top of existing pressures. The government should consider "overspill" services for surgeries unable to cope, she said. Since September, 15 UK children have died after invasive strep A infections. This includes the death of one child in Wales, and one in Northern Ireland. There have been no deaths confirmed in Scotland. The UK Health Security Agency figures (UKHSA) show there have also been 47 deaths from strep A in adults in England. Most strep A infections are mild, but more severe invasive cases - while still rare - are rising. Prof Hawthorne, said: "We do not want to discourage patients who are worried about their children to seek medical attention, particularly given the current circumstances. "But we do want to see good public health messaging across the UK, making it clear to parents when they should seek help and the different care options available to them - as well as when they don't need to seek medical attention." Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 December 2022 -
Content ArticleThis US study in the journal Medical Care aimed to investigate the extent of physician practice adoption of patient engagement strategies nationally. The authors analysed data collected from the National Survey of Healthcare Organizations and Systems (NSHOS) on adoption of patient engagement strategies. They found that there was modest adoption of shared decision-making and motivational interviewing, and low adoption of shared medical appointments.
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Content ArticleThis report by the Beryl Institute and Ipsos explores the core trends impacting healthcare and patient experience overall in the United States. It highlights key issues expressed by consumers in an online survey relating to quality of care and experience of care, taking into account the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it has altered the delivery of healthcare.
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Content ArticleIn this blog for The Patients Association, Patient Safety Commissioner Henrietta Hughes looks at the importance of patient involvement in improving patient safety. She argues that patient voices should be embedded in the design and delivery of healthcare, and highlights that services and organisations need to seek feedback from patients from a wide variety of backgrounds. She also outlines why shared decision making and consent are vital to ensure patients are safe and have more control over their care and treatment.
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Content ArticleThis editorial by Barbara Fain, Chief Executive of the Betsy Lehman Center in Massachusetts, highlights the need to focus on system safety and moving away from a culture of individual blame, in order to improve patient safety. Referring to the case of nurse RaDonda Vaught who was convicted of negligent homicide for a medication error at a Tennessee hospital, Barbara looks at research that demonstrates that people generally believe the best way to reduce the likelihood of medical errors is by choosing the right doctor, and argues that this cultural belief played into Vaught's conviction. She highlights the need to use evidence-based strategies to communicate with healthcare professionals and the public about the wider picture of patient safety and systems thinking.
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Content ArticleThis video by the NHS England National Patient Safety Team provides tips for patients on keeping safe during a hospital stay. It highlights simple things you can do as a patient to help keep yourself safe during a hospital stay, such as asking for help when needed, protecting yourself from slips and falls and helping to prevent blood clots. A British Sign Language (BSL) version of the video is also available, as well as a leaflet translated into these languages: English Arabic Cantonese French Gujarati Mandarin Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Spanish Urdu
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Content ArticleThis report by the Harmed Patients Alliance (HPA) explores the needs of injured patients and their loved ones for independent advocacy, advice and information when they have been involved in patient safety incidents that are believed to have led to harm. It examines the extent to which this is available or resourced, and aims to stimulate and inform a national discussion about this issue in England among key stakeholders. It looks at the historical context and the moral and economic arguments and implications of resourcing these kinds of services.
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EventDifficult conversations - Thursday 2nd February 2023 Difficult people - Tuesday 7th February 2023 Conflict management - Wednesday 15th February 2023 This 3 day intensive training course will provide an effective guide to improving your communication skills. With each day focusing on difficult conversations, managing difficult people, and conflict and conflict resolution the course will empower you with the skills to deal with difficult issues and difficult situations within your everyday practice. Day 1 - how to deal with and manage difficult conversations. With a focus on telephone and virtual consultations with patients this masterclass focuses on dealing with difficult conversations, The event will focus on speaking to patients in distress, understanding where patient safety issues arise, and managing unhappy patients and complaints. It will discuss strategies and tools to improve communication and interactions. Day 2 - how to with difficult people. Do you have someone at work who consistently triggers you? Doesn’t listen? Takes credit for work you’ve done? Wastes your time with trivial issues? Acts like a know-it-all? Can only talk about themselves? Constantly criticises? It will discuss strategies and tools to improve communication and interactions with others. Day 3 - conflict from how to manage different types of conflict through to conflict resolution This course is aimed at all healthcare staff from frontline staff through to senior managers in dealing with conflict with colleagues, staff, clients and patients. Further information and registration
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Content ArticleThis blog by a UK-based dentist, who blogs under the name Fang Farrier, highlights the dangers of popular media presenting rumour about dentistry services as fact. She refers to an incident where a presenter on the TV show Good Morning Britain said that NHS doctors were no longer trained to be able to perform tooth extractions, describing it as a "categorical fact [presented] by a private dentist." The blog highlights four related issues concerning public perception of dentists, dentistry training and the impact of fear of complaints and litigation on NHS dentistry services: We need to be more mindful about how we talk about dentistry, particularly other dentists Our new graduates seem to be graduating with less experience and less confidence in most procedures, most notably extractions and root canal Fear of failure and taking risks The NHS question… will it stay or will it go?
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Content ArticleThe Patients Association has been working with NHS England to look at how to improve GP referrals of patients to hospital. The goal was to look at ways specialists could support GPs so they could reduce the number of outpatient appointments patients have to attend, without compromising care. This report includes an overview of the patient panel workshops, key themes and findings from the workshops, and a set of recommendations.
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Content ArticleMoral injury is a specific kind of trauma that can happen when when people face situations that deeply violate their conscience or threaten their core values. This blog for Scientific American looks at the experience of ER doctor Torree McGowan when the Delta wave of Covid-19 hit the central Oregon region where she works. It examines the impact that moral injury has had on her mental health and her relationship with patients. The author looks at how Covid-19 hugely increased the incidence of moral injury as people in frontline roles faced ethically wrenching dilemmas every day. The growing realisation that moral injury is a separate diagnosis to other conditions such as PTSD and depression is resulting in a wider range of treatments and trauma therapies. Many of these treatments encourage people to face moral conflicts head-on rather than blotting them out or explaining them away, and they emphasize the importance of community support in long-term recovery.
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Content ArticleIn July 2022, HSIB launched a national investigation into the safety risk of clinical investigation booking systems failures. Specifically, the investigation explores the use of paper or hybrid booking systems and the production of appointment letters. This interim bulletin highlights a safety risk identified by the investigation and presents a safety observation for the attention of NHS care providers. Some vital NHS services still use paper-based or hybrid systems, which may have been developed over time and could leave unintended gaps where patients can be lost in the system. The reference case for this investigation is the experience of a patient whose magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan was not rescheduled following a cancellation, leading to a delay in the diagnosis of cancer. Hybrid systems were in use, which did not assist staff to keep track of patients. Additionally, the hybrid systems in use did not allow appointment letters in non-English languages to be produced.
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Judy Walker, Senior Business Consultant at iTS Leadership, describes an After Action Review (AAR) that took place at a large London hospital following the first wave of Covid-19. As part of the AAR, Emergency Department porter Aaron described his experience of the first Covid 19 surge—wheeling large numbers of patients who had died through an empty hospital. Judy describes the value of staff listening to different perspectives as a way to reflect on their own experiences and understand the impact events have on different individuals. She highlights the importance of listening to the process of learning for individuals and teams.
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Content ArticlePatient safety remains a global challenge for society today; in high income countries, it is estimated that one patient in ten is subject to adverse events while receiving hospital care. This article by Laís Junqueira, Quality, Patient Safety and Innovation Manager at Elsevier, in The Journal of mHealth looks at how enabling safer healthcare decision-making could reduce the burden of avoidable harm. Junqueira highlights the need to recognise that non-analytic and implicit decisions occur in healthcare systems, and that these have an impact on patient safety. He argues that as healthcare systems evolve, there must be an increased focus on the importance of an environment that fosters safe decision-making.
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Content Article
Survey - Keeping up to date with NICE guidance (November 2022)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in NICE
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is looking for feedback on how people currently keep up to date with NICE guidance and what they do when an update has been made to NICE guidance. NICE will use your feedback to help shape the future of its guidelines. The survey takes around 10 minutes to complete. The closing date of the survey is 28th November 2022. -
Content ArticlePatient (or lived experience) leadership involves those affected by life-changing illness, injury or disability becoming equal partners in NHS decision-making. Patient leadership champion David Gilbert picks out the most significant developments in a field of increasing relevance to the NHS.
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Content Article
PACE communication tool
Patient_Safety_Learning posted an article in Staff safety
Supporting staff to speak up is essential to patient safety. The PACE communication tool is designed to help anyone in a team challenge an action or behaviour they feel is inappropriate. You can read more about PACE (probe, alert, challenge, emergency) and other communication tools on the Victorian Trauma System website via the link below. -
News ArticleVoices offer lots of information. Turns out, they can even help diagnose an illness — and researchers in the USA are working on an app for that. The National Institutes of Health is funding a massive research project to collect voice data and develop an AI that could diagnose people based on their speech. Everything from your vocal cord vibrations to breathing patterns when you speak offers potential information about your health, says laryngologist Dr. Yael Bensoussan, the director of the University of South Florida's Health Voice Center and a leader on the study. "We asked experts: Well, if you close your eyes when a patient comes in, just by listening to their voice, can you have an idea of the diagnosis they have?" Bensoussan says. "And that's where we got all our information." Someone who speaks low and slowly might have Parkinson's disease. Slurring is a sign of a stroke. Scientists could even diagnose depression or cancer. The team will start by collecting the voices of people with conditions in five areas: neurological disorders, voice disorders, mood disorders, respiratory disorders and pediatric disorders like autism and speech delays. This isn't the first time researchers have used AI to study human voices, but it's the first time data will be collected on this level — the project is a collaboration between USF, Cornell and 10 other institutions. The ultimate goal is an app that could help bridge access to rural or underserved communities, by helping general practitioners refer patients to specialists. Long term, iPhones or Alexa could detect changes in your voice, such as a cough, and advise you to seek medical attention. Read full story Source: NPR, 10 October 2022
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Content ArticleCorey Adams, Researcher at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, shares the impact of trauma on the patient experience. Corey shares his personal story of trauma and how we can alleviate the negative effects of trauma by building a culture of safety, kindness, trust, and respect.
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Content ArticleTeamwork is critical in delivering quality medical care, and failures in team communication and coordination are substantial contributors to medical errors. This study in JAMA Internal Medicine aimed to determine the effectiveness of increased familiarity between medical resident doctors and nurses on team performance, psychological safety and communication. The authors found that increased familiarity between nurses and residents promoted rapid improvement of nursing perception of team relationships and, over time, led to higher team performance on complex cognitive tasks in medical simulations. They argue that medical systems should consider increasing team familiarity as a way to improve doctor-nursing teamwork and patient care.
