scholarly journals Real time location systems: Is it big brother or a big opportunity for professional practice?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Limoges ◽  
Sara Lankshear ◽  
Joseph Church
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Location Systems

Purpose: Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) is an emerging health care technology with the potential to capture data that can be used to improve professional practice and patient outcomes. However, there is a paucity of literature in this area to guide health professionals and leaders in both the implementation and use of RTLS data. To address this gap in the literature, this qualitative study was designed to explore how staff perceive and experience RTLS, and how health care providers anticipate using RTLS data for professional practice and clinical decision making.Results: Interviews and focus groups were conducted with 31 health care professionals who work in a community hospital in Canada. There was variation between the participants in terms of the experience of being monitored, the intensity of emotions related to RTLS and being monitored, the degree to which RTLS influenced clinical decision making and reflection, and the perceptions of usefulness of RTLS data for  professional practice. Three key themes emerged from the data: (1) the experience of being monitored, (2) anticipating using the data and (3) claiming the data for professional practice.Conclusions: Supports are vital to the successful adoption of RTLS and to enable health care professionals to claim and use RTLS data for professional practice and clinical decision making. During the implementation and use of RTLS data, it is crucial to recognize that RTLS data only represent the time spent in a location, and not the professional or knowledge-based practice of health professionals. Further research is required to understand the leadership strategies to guide the use of RTLS data.

scholarly journals Health record systems that meet clinical needs

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Negrini
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Patient Safety ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Clinical Information ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Health Record ◽  
Record System ◽  
Health Records

Introduction Increased attention has recently been focused on health record systems as a result of accreditation programs, a growing emphasis on patient safety, and the increase in lawsuits involving allegations of malpractice. Health-care professionals frequently express dissatisfaction with the health record systems and complain that the data included are neither informative nor useful for clinical decision making. This article reviews the main objectives of a hospital health record system, with emphasis on its roles in communication and exchange among clinicians, patient safety, and continuity of care, and asks whether current systems have responded to the recent changes in the Italian health-care system.Discussion If health records are to meet the expectations of all health professionals, the overall information need must be carefully analyzed, a common data set must be created, and essential specialist contributions must be defined. Working with health-care professionals, the hospital management should define how clinical information is to be displayed and organized, identify a functionally optimal layout, define the characteristics of ongoing patient assessment in terms of who will be responsible for these activities and how often they will be performed. Internet technology can facilitate data retrieval and meet the general requirements of a paper-based health record system, but it must also ensure focus on clinical information, business continuity, integrity, security, and privacy.Conclusions The current health records system needs to be thoroughly revised to increase its accessibility, streamline the work of health-care professionals who consult it, and render it more useful for clinical decision making—a challenging task that will require the active involvement of the many professional classes involved.

mHealth in clinical decision-making: A systematic literature review (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amandeep Dhir
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Rigorous Approach ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Mhealth Apps

UNSTRUCTURED A large number of mHealth apps are available nowadays for patients and health care providers. Many of those apps are designed specifically for clinical decision making (CDM). Despite their proliferation, limited studies have examined the utilization and effectiveness of these apps. The current study undertakes a systematic review to organize and synthesize the extant literature on mHealth for CDM in all resource settings. A thorough search of databases resulted in a preliminary list of 1,313 titles and abstracts, of which 1,107 were excluded as they were either duplicates or irrelevant to the scope of the study. Thereafter, full-text screening of the remaining 206 articles was performed, and 175 were excluded on the basis of pre-specified inclusion/exclusion criteria. This rigorous approach resulted in the identification of 31 studies for inclusion in the review. The utilization of mHealth for CDM appears to have pervaded almost all health care settings, as demonstrated by the insights gleaned from the review of the prior studies in the domain. However, the evidence of effectiveness is still limited and unreliable, which underscores the existence of a paucity of accumulated knowledge that, in turn, invites interesting opportunities for future research.

scholarly journals The development of the WHO Labour Care Guide: an international survey of maternity care providers

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronica Pingray ◽  
Mercedes Bonet ◽  
Mabel Berrueta ◽  
Agustina Mazzoni ◽  
María Belizán ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Maternity Care ◽  
Health Personnel ◽  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Respectful Maternity Care ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Skilled Health Personnel ◽  
Skilled Health

Abstract Background The partograph is the most commonly used labour monitoring tool in the world. However, it has been used incorrectly or inconsistently in many settings. In 2018, a WHO expert group reviewed and revised the design of the partograph in light of emerging evidence, and they developed the first version of the Labour Care Guide (LCG). The objective of this study was to explore opinions of skilled health personnel on the first version of the WHO Labour Care Guide. Methods Skilled health personnel (including obstetricians, midwives and general practitioners) of any gender from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America were identified through a large global research network. Country coordinators from the network invited 5 to 10 mid-level and senior skilled health personnel who had worked in labour wards anytime in the last 5 years. A self-administered, anonymous, structured, online questionnaire including closed and open-ended questions was designed to assess the clarity, relevance, appropriateness of the frequency of recording, and the completeness of the sections and variables on the LCG. Results A total of 110 participants from 23 countries completed the survey between December 2018 and January 2019. Variables included in the LCG were generally considered clear, relevant and to have been recorded at the appropriate frequency. Most sections of the LCG were considered complete. Participants agreed or strongly agreed with the overall design, structure of the LCG, and the usefulness of reference thresholds to trigger further assessment and actions. They also agreed that LCG could potentially have a positive impact on clinical decision-making and respectful maternity care. Participants disagreed with the value of some variables, including coping, urine, and neonatal status. Conclusions Future end-users of WHO Labour Care Guide considered the variables to be clear, relevant and appropriate, and, with minor improvements, to have the potential to positively impact clinical decision-making and respectful maternity care.

What Is Medical Ethics Consultation?

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giles R. Scofield
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Medical Technology ◽  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Ethics Consultation ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Medical Ethicist ◽  
Care Decision

As everybody knows, advances in medicine and medical technology have brought enormous benefits to, and created vexing choices for, us all – choices that can, and occasionally do, test the very limits of thinking itself. As everyone also knows, we live in the age of consultants, i.e., of professional experts who are ready, willing, and able to give us advice on any and every conceivable question. One such consultant is the medical ethics consultant, or the medical ethicist who consults.Medical ethics consultants involve themselves in just about every aspect of health care decision making. They help legislators and judges determine law, hospitals formulate policies, medical schools develop curricula, etc. In addition to educating physicians, nurses, and lawyers, amongst others, including medical, nursing, and law students, they participate in clinical decision making at the bedside.

Consent, Refusal, and Waivers in Patient-Centered Dysphagia Care: Using Law, Ethics, and Evidence to Guide Clinical Practice

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Horner ◽  
Maria Modayil ◽  
Laura Roche Chapman ◽  
An Dinh
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
Clinical Decision ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Patient Centered ◽  
Legal Advice ◽  
Medical Context

PurposeWhen patients refuse medical or rehabilitation procedures, waivers of liability have been used to bar future lawsuits. The purpose of this tutorial is to review the myriad issues surrounding consent, refusal, and waivers. The larger goal is to invigorate clinical practice by providing clinicians with knowledge of ethics and law. This tutorial is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.MethodThe authors use a hypothetical case of a “noncompliant” individual under the care of an interdisciplinary neurorehabilitation team to illuminate the ethical and legal features of the patient–practitioner relationship; the elements of clinical decision-making capacity; the duty of disclosure and the right of informed consent or informed refusal; and the relationship among noncompliance, defensive practices, and iatrogenic harm. We explore the legal question of whether waivers of liability in the medical context are enforceable or unenforceable as a matter of public policy.ConclusionsSpeech-language pathologists, among other health care providers, have fiduciary and other ethical and legal obligations to patients. Because waivers try to shift liability for substandard care from health care providers to patients, courts usually find waivers of liability in the medical context unenforceable as a matter of public policy.

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