Home About us Contact | |||
Multidisciplinary Panel (multidisciplinary + panel)
Selected AbstractsEmergency department attendances associated with drug-related problems in paediatricsJOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 2 2003KL Easton-Carter Objectives: To determine the frequency and characteristics of paediatric emergency department attendances associated with drug-related problems (DRP) at three Victorian hospitals. Methods: All paediatric medical patients attending the emergency department of the Royal Children's Hospital, Geelong Hospital or Box Hill Hospital were considered for inclusion. The investigator and attending medical practitioners screened eligible patients. A multidisciplinary panel reviewed collated data. Causality, preventability and clinical significance classifications were established by the panel. Results: Combining data from the three hospitals, over 18 weeks of data collection, a total of 8601 patients met the eligibility criteria. Of these, 280 (3.3%, 95% CI 2.9,3.7%) were determined to have emergency department attendances associated with DRP. Of the 187 cases assessed for preventability, 51.3% were judged to be preventable. Conclusions: Emergency department attendances are associated with DRP in paediatrics. Given that the need to prevent DRP in adults is recognized, it is now time to act to reduce the consequences of DRP in paediatrics. [source] Original Article: Audit of severe acute maternal morbidity describing reasons for transfer and potential preventability of admissions to ICUAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Beverley A. LAWTON Background:, Maternal mortality is a rare event in the developed world. Assessment of severe acute maternal morbidity (SAMM) is therefore an appropriate measure of the quality of maternity care. Aims:, The aim of the study was to conduct a retrospective audit of SAMM cases (pregnant women admitted to a New Zealand Intensive Care Unit) to describe clinical, socio-demographic characteristics, pregnancy outcomes and preventability. Methods:, Severe acute maternal morbidity cases were reviewed by a multidisciplinary panel to determine reasons for admission to ICU, to classify organ-system dysfunction and to determine whether the SAMM case was preventable or not. Inclusion criteria were: admission to ICU between 2005 and 2007 during pregnancy or within 42 days of delivery. Results:, Twenty-nine SAMM cases were reviewed, of which 10 (35%) were deemed preventable. The most common reasons for transfer to ICU were: the need for invasive vascular monitoring, hypotension and disseminated intravascular coagulation. The most frequent types of preventable events were: inadequate diagnosis/recognition of high-risk status, inappropriate treatment, communication problems and inadequate documentation. All five SAMM cases of septicaemia were deemed preventable. Of the ten preventable cases, three were Maori (50% of the Maori in total audit), four were Pacific (67% of the Pacific in total audit) and three were women of ,other' ethnicities (17.6%, 3 of 17 in the audit). Conclusions:, An audit of SAMM cases describing reasons for transfer to ICU and preventability is feasible. We recommend that a prospective national SAMM audit process be introduced in New Zealand as a quality of care measure. [source] Standards for the management of cervical and vulval carcinomaBJOG : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 7 2000Thomas J. D'Arcy Trainee (Gynaecological Oncology) Objective To examine the feasibility of achieving designated target standards for the management of women with cervical and vulval cancer. Design Retrospective casenote review. Setting The Gynaecological Oncology Centre at Hammersmith Hospital, London. Population Sixty-one women with cervical and vulval cancer presenting to the gynaecological oncology clinic at the Hammersmith Hospital during 1996 and 1997. Various aspects of the management of those women were compared with standards suggested by a multidisciplinary panel of local experts. Targets included the referral and treatment process, the accuracy of staging, and measures of surgical performance. Results The target interval of seven days between receipt of the referral and the first visit at the cancer centre was achieved in 93% of women. Surgical treatment was administered to 92% of the women within the target of 20 working days from the first clinic appointment. Tumour close to or involving the margins of the specimen was noted in 13% of cervical and 9% of vulval cancers. The node count fell below the target standards in 13% of pelvic and 10% of groin dissections. Appropriate imaging investigations for staging were not undertaken in 15 of 39 cases (38%) of cervical cancer and in 5 out of 22 (23%) of vulval cancers. Conclusion The suggested targets of process and surgical performance are reasonable and achievable. These standards would be appropriate for national use. The area most clearly identified where these targets were not achieved was the requesting of complementary staging investigations. This could be addressed by the use of a simple investigation protocol to be included in each patient's notes and available at specialist clinics and gynaecology wards. [source] Perspectives on cancer therapy-induced mucosal injuryCANCER, Issue S9 2004Pathogenesis, consequences for patients, epidemiology, measurement Abstract BACKGROUND A frequent complication of anticancer treatment, oral and gastrointestinal (GI) mucositis, threatens the effectiveness of therapy because it leads to dose reductions, increases healthcare costs, and impairs patients' quality of life. The Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer and the International Society for Oral Oncology assembled an international multidisciplinary panel of experts to create clinical practice guidelines for the prevention, evaluation, and treatment of mucositis. METHODS The panelists examined medical literature published from January 1966 through May 2002, presented their findings at two separate conferences, and then created a writing committee that produced two articles: the current study and another that codifies the clinical implications of the panel's findings in practice guidelines. RESULTS New evidence supports the view that oral mucositis is a complex process involving all the tissues and cellular elements of the mucosa. Other findings suggest that some aspects of mucositis risk may be determined genetically. GI proapoptotic and antiapoptotic gene levels change along the GI tract, perhaps explaining differences in the frequency with which mucositis occurs at different sites. Studies of mucositis incidence in clinical trials by quality and using meta-analysis techniques produced estimates of incidence that are presented herein for what to our knowledge may be a broader range of cancers than ever presented before. CONCLUSIONS Understanding the pathobiology of mucositis, its incidence, and scoring are essential for progress in research and care directed at this common side-effect of anticancer therapies. Cancer 2004;100(9 Suppl):1995,2025. © 2004 American Cancer Society. [source] Introduction to the Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders-3 Quality Indicator Measurement SetJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 2007Neil S. Wenger MD OBJECTIVES: To update and increase the comprehensiveness of the Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders (ACOVE) set of process-of-care quality indicators (QIs) for the medical care provided to vulnerable elders and to keep up with the constantly changing medical literature, the QIs were revised and expanded. DESIGN: The ACOVE Clinical Committee expanded the number of measured conditions to 26 in the revised (ACOVE-3) set. For each condition, a content expert created potential QIs and, based on systematic reviews, developed a peer-reviewed monograph detailing each QI and its supporting evidence. Using these literature reviews, multidisciplinary panels of clinical experts participated in two rounds of anonymous ratings and a face-to-face group discussion to evaluate whether the QIs were valid measures of quality of care using a process that is an explicit combination of scientific evidence and professional consensus. The Clinical Committee evaluated the coherence of the complete set of QIs that the expert panels rated as valid. RESULTS: ACOVE-3 contains 392 QIs covering 14 different types of care processes (e.g., taking a medical history, performing a physical examination) and all four domains of care: screening and prevention (31% of QIs), diagnosis (20%), treatment (35%), and follow-up and continuity (14%). All QIs also apply to community-dwelling patients aged 75 and older. CONCLUSION: ACOVE-3 contains a set of QIs to comprehensively measure the care provided to vulnerable older persons at the level of the health system, health plan, or medical group. These QIs can be applied to identify areas of care in need of improvement and can form the basis of interventions to improve care. [source] |