scholarly journals The Portuguese Model of Home Respiratory Care: Healthcare Professionals’ Perspective

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1523
Author(s):  
Cátia Caneiras ◽  
Cristina Jácome ◽  
Daniela Oliveira ◽  
Emília Moreira ◽  
Cláudia Camila Dias ◽  
...  

Patients’ and carers’ views regarding the Portuguese model of home respiratory care were recently described, yet the complementary perspective of healthcare professionals (HCPs) is still to be investigated. Thus, this study explored HCPs experience in the management of patients needing home respiratory therapies (HRT), and their perspective about the Portuguese model. A phenomenological descriptive study, using focus groups, was carried out with 28 HCPs (median 42 y, 68% female) with distinct backgrounds (57% pulmonologists, 29% clinical physiologists, 7% physiotherapists, 7% nurses). Three focus groups were conducted in three regions of Portugal. Thematic analysis was performed by two independent researchers. HCPs have in general a positive view about the organization of the Portuguese model of home respiratory care, which was revealed in four major topics: Prescription (number of references, n = 171), Implementation and maintenance (n = 162), Carer involvement (n = 65) and Quality of healthcare (n = 247). Improvements needed were related to patients’ late referral, HRT prescription (usability of the medical electronic prescription system and renewals burden), patients’ education, access to hospital care team, lack of multidisciplinary work and articulation between hospital, primary and home care teams. This study describes the perspective of HCPs about the Portuguese model of home respiratory care and identifies specific points where improvements and reflections are needed. This knowledge may be useful to decision makers improve the current healthcare model.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Zhou ◽  
Wenya Tian ◽  
Rengyu Wu ◽  
Chongzhen Qin ◽  
Hongjuan Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Transfer delay provokes prolongation of prehospital time, which contributes to treatment delay that endangers patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). A key constraint in reducing transfer delay is the shortage of emergency healthcare workers. This study was to explore the influence of the quality and quantity of healthcare professionals at emergency medical stations on transfer delay and in-hospital mortality among STEMI patients. Methods A cross-sectional study using mixed methods was conducted at 89 emergency stations in 9 districts in China’s Shenzhen province. Based on a sample of 31 hospitals, 1255 healthcare professionals, and 3131 patients with STEMI, a generalized linear model was used to explore the associations between the quality and quantity of healthcare professionals and transfer delay and in-hospital mortality among STEMI patients. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed to explore the reasons for the lack of qualified healthcare professionals at emergency medical stations. Results The analysis of the quantity of healthcare professionals showed that an increase of one physician per 100,000 individuals was associated with decreased transfer delay for patients with STEMI by 5.087 min (95% CI − 6.722, − 3.452; P < 0.001). An increase of one nurse per 100,000 individuals was associated with decreased transfer delay by 1.471 min (95% CI − 2.943, 0.002; P = 0.050). Analysis of the quality of healthcare professionals showed that an increase of one physician with an undergraduate degree per 100,000 individuals was associated with decreased transfer delay for patients with STEMI by 8.508 min (95% CI − 10.457, − 6.558; P < 0.001). An increase of one nurse with an undergraduate degree per 100,000 individuals was associated with decreased transfer delay by 6.645 min (95% CI − 8.218, − 5.072; P < 0.001). Qualitative analysis illustrated that the main reasons for low satisfaction of healthcare professionals at emergency medical stations included low income, limited promotion opportunities, and poor working environment. Conclusions The quantity and quality of emergency healthcare professionals are key factors influencing transfer delay in STEMI patients. The government should increase the quantity of healthcare professionals at emergency medical stations, strengthen the training, and improve their performance by linking with clinical pathways to enhance job enthusiasm among emergency healthcare professionals.


Author(s):  
Vassiliki Koufi ◽  
Flora Malamateniou ◽  
George Vassilacopoulos

Homecare is an important component of the continuum of care as it provides the potential to improve quality of life and quality of healthcare delivery while containing costs. Personal Health Record (PHR) systems are intended to reach patients outside of care settings and influence their behaviors thus allowing for more effective homecare services. To this end, these systems need to evolve well beyond providing a consolidated patient record, in ways that make it more widely applicable and valuable to health systems. The development of applications on top of PHR systems can allow them to function as a platform for both patients and healthcare professionals to exchange information and interact with the health system. This paper presents a prototype PHR-based system that aims at supporting chronic disease management at any point of care or decision making through familiar environments such as Google’s Android. In particular, it assists healthcare professionals in assessing an individual’s condition and in forming the appropriate treatment plan for him/her while it provides individuals with step-to-step guidance to their treatment plans.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. e000532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirstin Woody Scott ◽  
Theophile Dushime ◽  
Vincent Rusanganwa ◽  
Liana Woskie ◽  
Clint Attebery ◽  
...  

Improving the quality of healthcare delivery is increasingly a global health priority. However, quality improvement training opportunities that provide theoretical foundations and basic skills for patient safety and other quality initiatives have been limited or historically out of reach, especially in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). To address this gap, the Harvard Initiative on Global Health Quality (HIGHQ) created and launched a massive open online course (MOOC) in 2014 focused on patient safety and quality of care using the edX platform. More than 30 000 students from across 195 countries registered for the online course. This paper summarises an innovative educational partnership between the course team and one of these countries, Rwanda, to develop a blended-learning model to bolster participation in this new course among Rwandan healthcare professionals. Although a small country, Rwanda was among the top performing countries for attracting course registrants and was the leading country for the proportion of enrollees who ultimately completed the course. Further, half (21 of 42) of Rwanda’s district hospitals opted to appoint a PH555x course facilitator at their site to help lead regular meetings and discussions about the course content at their facility. The majority of Rwandan enrollees were health professionals (63%) and 81% reported that PH555x was their first experience taking an online course. Among those participating in the ‘flipped’ component at hospital sites, 94% reported that the course helped them to think of specific ways to improve healthcare quality at their facility. In this paper, we describe this innovative public–private educational model, challenges to implementation and lessons learned that may be helpful for future MOOC developers who wish to augment learning opportunities among healthcare professionals in LMICs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 101204
Author(s):  
Priscilla Caetano Guerra ◽  
Danilo F. Santaella ◽  
Vania D'Almeida ◽  
Rogerio Santos-Silva ◽  
Sergio Tufik ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Vasso Koufi ◽  
Flora Malamateniou ◽  
George Vassilacopoulos

Homecare is an important component of the continuum of care as it provides the potential to improve quality of life and quality of healthcare delivery while containing costs. Personal Health Record (PHR) systems constitute a technological infrastructure that can support greater flexibility for healthcare professionals and patients, thus allowing for more effective homecare services. In particular, PHRs are intended to reach patients outside of care settings, influence their behaviors and satisfy their demand for greater information and access. Moreover, PHRs can facilitate access to comprehensive real-time patient data for healthcare professionals thus enabling them to identify problems quickly (e.g. prior to scheduled appointments) and steer patients to appropriate facilities when needed. To this ends, PHR technology needs to evolve well beyond providing a consolidated patient record, in ways that make it more widely applicable and valuable to health systems. The development of applications and tools on top of PHR systems can allow the PHR to function as a platform for both patients and healthcare professionals to exchange information and interact with the health system (e.g., scheduling appointments electronically). This chapter presents a prototype PHR-based system that aims at supporting chronic disease management. In particular, it assists healthcare professionals in assessing an individual’s condition and in forming the appropriate treatment plan for him/her while it provides individuals with a user-friendly application for step-to-step guidance to their treatment plans. The system has been developed on the grounds of a service-oriented architecture where healthcare process automation is realized by means of dynamic, patient-related workflows.


Author(s):  
Anastasius Moumtzoglou

Healthcare services have experienced a sharp increase in demand while the shortages in licensed healthcare professionals have formed one of the toughest challenges that healthcare providers face. In addition, illness has become more complex while advancement in technology and research have expedited the rise of modern and more effective diagnoses and treatment techniques. Cloud computing allows healthcare professionals to share medical records, including all sorts of image and accuracy while new applications or workloads can be started much faster, without going through the entire procurement process or testing the interoperability of the entire infrastructure. Moreover, although the notion of organizational culture is now routinely invoked in organizations and management literature, it remains an elusive concept. However, it is clear that managing the culture is one path towards improving healthcare, and cloud computing introduces a dynamic system adaptation, affecting the quality of care. This is explored in this chapter.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ahmed Babatunde Jimoh

Job satisfaction is vitally necessary in the daily life of the workforce, and the essential elements, materials and mechanism that drives job satisfaction demand great attention. At present, the situation of healthcare workers in the employment of Ogun State Hospitals Management Board, Nigeria, seems to be less satisfied with the policies of the healthcare institutions. The study examined job satisfaction and the quality of healthcare delivery in Ogun State Hospitals Management Board (HMB) in Nigeria. This study adopted a cross-sectional design method and was conducted among the healthcare professionals in the study area. A total of 729 copies of a well-structured questionnaire were administered using a multi-staged sampling technique to obtain information from all the available healthcare professionals in the study area. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings of this study revealed that 12.5 % of healthcare professionals in Ogun State Hospitals strongly agreed, 21.9% moderately, and 32% slightly agreed with the level of satisfaction of the leadership and management styles. 25.7% of the healthcare professionals disagreed (7.4% strongly, 4.0% moderately and 14.3% slightly) that they would recommend employment in the study area. The results further revealed that 47.9% of healthcare workers had a low level of job satisfaction that could lead to many factors. In addendum, 43.6% of the respondents believed that the healthcare delivery was not low but with moderate quality. The study concluded that majority of the healthcare workers had low level of job satisfaction. The quality of healthcare delivery is of medium quality. Finally, this study recommends that there should be an establishment of health and life insurance for health workers; improved health infrastructures; conducive work environment and working conditions; job security; regular and continuous training of healthcare professionals; and attractive rewards and compensation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Zhou ◽  
Wenya Tian ◽  
Rengyu Wu ◽  
Chongzhen Qin ◽  
Hongjuan Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The purpose of the present study was to explore the influence of the quality and quantity of healthcare professionals at emergency medical stations on transfer delay and in-hospital mortality among patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).Methods: A cross-sectional study using mixed methods was conducted at 89 emergency stations in 9 districts in China’s Shenzhen province. Based on a sample of 31 hospitals, 1255 healthcare professionals, and 3131 patients with STEMI, a generalized linear model was used to explore the associations between the quality and quantity of healthcare professionals and transfer delay and in-hospital mortality among patients with STEMI. Qualitative data were also collected and analyzed to explore the reasons for the lack of quantity and quality of healthcare professionals at emergency medical stations.Results: The analysis of the quantity of healthcare professionals showed that an increase of one physician per 100,000 individuals was associated with decreased transfer delay for patients with STEMI by 5.087 min (95% CI −6.722, −3.452; P<0.001). An increase of one nurse per 100,000 individuals was associated with decreased transfer delay by 1.471 min (95% CI −2.943, 0.002; P=0.050). Analysis of the quality of healthcare professionals showed that an increase of one physician with an undergraduate degree per 100,000 individuals was associated with decreased transfer delay for patients with STEMI by 8.508 min (95% CI −10.457, −6.558; P<0.001). An increase of one nurse with an undergraduate degree per 100,000 individuals was associated with decreased transfer delay by 6.645 min (95% CI −8.218, −5.072; P<0.001). Qualitative analysis illustrated that the main reasons for low satisfaction of healthcare professionals at emergency medical stations included low income, limited promotion opportunities, and poor working environment.Conclusions: The quantity and quality of emergency healthcare professionals are key factors influencing transfer delay in patients with STEMI. The government should increase the quantity of healthcare professionals at emergency medical stations, strengthen the training, and improve their performance by linking with clinical pathways to enhance job enthusiasm among emergency healthcare professionals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 9859
Author(s):  
Ricardo Alves ◽  
Cátia Caneiras ◽  
Ana Isabel Santos ◽  
Patricia Barbosa ◽  
João Cardoso ◽  
...  

Home respiratory care (HRC) is the provision of healthcare services at the place of residence of patients or their families, with the aim of meeting needs mainly resulting from chronic respiratory conditions, permanent disability, or terminal illness. In 2016, an innovative electronic prescription system, PEM-CRD, was fully implemented for HRC services in Portugal. To date, no study has addressed the impact of the execution of this digital innovation. For this purpose, we carried out an analysis of the prevalence and number of prescriptions for people with chronic respiratory diseases receiving HRC in the Lisbon metropolitan area, during 2014–2018, using the information obtained from the PEM-CRD database. The data analysis shows that while the number of patients receiving HRC treatment with a prescription has remained stable over the last four years, the number of prescriptions has significantly dropped since 2016 (2016–2018), with consequent paper and processes efficiency. The implementation of the digital Medical Electronic Prescription for Home Respiratory Care tool (PEM-CRD) and consequent dematerialization of these processes has increased the efficiency of prescribing in HRC. Additionally, the possibility of obtaining data through the PEM-CRD allows the monitoring of the evolving prevalence of therapies, improving the health services optimization and allowing reporting on data other than medicines.


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