scholarly journals Whistleblowing in Health Care Organizations: A Comprehensive Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 4/2021 (94) ◽  
pp. 131-165
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Z. Wiśniewska ◽  

Purpose: To receive the answers to the following research problems: (1) How is the interest of researchers in whistleblowing in health care organizations developing? (2) How do researchers define whistleblowing in health care? (3) What are the main problems (limitations) of whistleblowing in health care organizations? (4) What factors affect whistleblowing in health care organizations? Design/methodology/approach: The method of systematic literature review based on the PRISMA model was used. To identify the factors affecting whistleblowing, McKinsey’s 7S framework was used. Findings: The researchers from the UK definitely dominate, and the papers from Central European countries seem to be invisible. The vast majority of works came from the 2010s. Whistleblowing serves the good and safety of the patient; however, there are staff concerns about the consequences they may face. ‘Style’, ‘staff’ and ‘shared values’ seem to be the most crucial for whistleblowing, and these are factors considered ‘soft’. Research limitations: The access to databases managed by the home University. In future studies, there is a need to take into account other databases, including additional sources of knowledge, like books and grey literature. Originality/implications: Identifying the state and place of research worldwide on whistleblowing in health care, and a proposal of the whistleblowing verification matrix. New definitions of whistleblowing and whistleblowers were proposed. The above may be considered theoretical contribution to science.

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 254-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Innis ◽  
Karen Dryden-Palmer ◽  
Tyrone Perreira ◽  
Whitney Berta

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 205520762091477
Author(s):  
Ayça Kolukısa Tarhan ◽  
Vahid Garousi ◽  
Oktay Turetken ◽  
Mehmet Söylemez ◽  
Sonia Garossi

Background The maturity of practices and infrastructure in the health care domain directly impacts the quality and efficiency of health care services. Therefore, various health care administrations (e.g. from hospital management to the nationwide health authority) need to assess and improve their operational maturity. Objective This study aimed to review and classify studies that propose/use maturity assessment or maturity models (MMs) as a vehicle to achieve operational excellence in the health care domain. Method To achieve this objective, we performed a multivocal literature review (MLR) – a form of systematic review that includes data from the grey literature (e.g. white papers and online documents) in addition to formal, peer-reviewed literature. Results Based on 101 sources, 80 from peer-reviewed literature and 21 from the grey literature, we identified 68 different MMs on, for example, telemedicine, care pathways and digital imaging. We reviewed them with respect to various aspects, including types of research and contribution, list of MMs proposed/used with their subject areas, elements of maturity/capability and application scope or scale. In the synthesis of empirical benefits of using MMs, two were found to be significant: (a) identifying issues and providing guidance for improvement in health care contexts, and (b) improving efficiency, effectiveness, performance and productivity. Conclusion This MLR provides an overview of the landscape and serves as an index to the vast body of knowledge in this area. Our review creates an opportunity to cope with the challenges in obtaining an overview of the state-of-the-art and practice, choosing the most suitable models or developing new models with further specialties.


Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rocco Palumbo ◽  
Capolupo Nicola ◽  
Paola Adinolfi

PurposePromoting health literacy, i.e. the ability to access, collect, understand and use health-related information, is high on the health policy agenda across the world. The digitization of health-care calls for a reframing of health literacy in the cyber-physical environment. The article systematizes current scientific knowledge about digital health literacy and investigates the role of health-care organizations in delivering health literate health-care services in a digital environment.Design/methodology/approachA literature review was accomplished. A targeted query to collect relevant scientific contributions was run on PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. A narrative approach was undertaken to summarize the study findings and to envision avenues for further development in the field of digital health literacy.FindingsDigital health literacy has peculiar attributes as compared with health literacy. Patients may suffer from a lack of human touch when they access health services in the digital environment. This may impair their ability to collect health information and to appropriately use it to co-create value and to co-produce health promotion and risk prevention services. Health-care organizations should strive for increasing the patients’ ability to navigate the digital health-care environment and boosting the latter’s value co-creation capability.Practical implicationsTailored solutions should be designed to promote digital health literacy at the individual and organizational level. On the one hand, attention should be paid to the patients’ special digital information needs and to avoid flaws in their ability to contribute to health services’ co-production. On the other hand, health-care organizations should be involved in the design of user-friendly e-health solutions, which aim at engaging patients in value co-creation.Originality/valueThis contribution is a first attempt to systematize extant scientific knowledge in the field of digital health literacy specifically focused on the strategies and initiatives that health-care organizations may take to address the limited digital health literacy pandemic.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Thwaites ◽  
Anh B Tran ◽  
Sue Mann

ObjectivesProvision of immediate postnatal contraception, including long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods, is increasingly identified and endorsed as a key strategy for reducing unplanned and rapid repeat pregnancies. This literature review aims to evaluatethe views of women and healthcare professionals regarding the receipt, initiation or delivery of these services.MethodsDatabases (Embase, Medline, CINAHL, HMIC) were searched for relevant English language studies, from January2003 to December 2017. In addition, Evidence Search, Google Scholar and Scopus (citation search) were used to identify further literature. Other relevant websites were accessed for policies, guidance and supplementary grey literature.ResultsThere is clear guidance on how to deliver good-quality postnatal contraception to women, but the reality of service delivery in the UK does not currently meet these aspirations, and guidance on implementation is lacking. The available evidence on the provision of immediate postnatal contraception focuses more on clinical rather than patient-centred outcomes. Research on postnatal women’s views is limited to receptivity to LARC and contraception counselling rather than what influences their decision-making process at this time. Research on views of healthcare professionals highlights a range of key systemic barriers to implementation.ConclusionsWhile views of postnatal women and healthcare professionals are largely in support of immediate postnatal contraception provision, important challenges have been raised and present a need for national sharing of service commissioning and delivery models, resources and evaluation data. Provider attitudes and training needs across multidisciplinary groups also need to be assessed and addressed as collaborative working across a motivated, skilled and up-to-date network of healthcare professionals is viewed as key to successful service implementation.


2007 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 261-286
Author(s):  
Tamara K Hervey

Cases involving patients such as Mrs Yvonne Watts, who travelled from the UK to France for a hip replacement to avoid a ‘waiting list’ in the UK, relying on rights in European Union (EU) law, attract high levels of media attention. While the vast majority of patients are either unwilling or unable to travel across borders to receive health care, it is clear that some patients are seeking health care abroad. Although data on patient mobility within the EU are significantly limited, nevertheless, a relatively steady, small but not insignificant number of patients are moving across borders within the EU to receive health care. This paper considers the current legal framework on the rights in EU law of those patients who seek health care in another Member State. As the right to seek private health care abroad is (largely) non-contentious, and has been a well-established feature of EU law since at least the mid 1980s, the focus of this paper is on publicly or quasi-publicly funded health care.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-35
Author(s):  
Sanju Pukhraj Khawa ◽  

The concept of stress plays an important role in an occupational area, especially health care setting. Health care professionals are repeatedly exposed to this stress, especially nursing personnel. The response to this chronic stress is termed burnout. In other words, burnout means giving more time, energy, and effort to work for a long period of time leading to exhaustion both mentally and physically. In order to reduce these burnout symptoms, an individual tries to adopt certain strategies to minimize his/her negative feelings. This is known as a coping strategy. Due to the increase in workload, advancement in science and technology, quality patient care, these symptoms have escalated which have drawn attention to health care organizations. Many strategies have been developed to reduced these symptoms and develop a positive environment for nurses to work within it. Keywords: Burnout, coping strategies, nurses.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Müller ◽  
Alessandro Cau ◽  
Muhammed Semakula ◽  
Peter Lodokiyiia ◽  
Osman Abdullahi ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND As a result of the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, significantly fewer patients are able to communicate with their health care practitioners (HCPs) as a result of internationally encouraged physical distancing. This has led to an unprecedented rapid expansion of digital tools to provide digitalized virtual care globally, especially mobile phone facilitated health interventions, called mHealth. To help keep abreast of different mHealth and virtual care technologies being used internationally to facilitate patient care and public health during the COVID-19 pandemic we did a rapid investigation of solutions being deployed and considered in 4 countries. OBJECTIVE To evaluate mHealth, and digital and contact tracing technologies being used in healthcare among 4 countries. METHODS This data was procured by accessing a variety of resources including grey literature, government & health organization websites, in addition to contacting our collaborators in Canada, the UK, Rwanda, and Kenya. We specifically requested information regarding various mHealth and virtual care interventions being used to facilitate patient care and public health, such as case contact tracing. RESULTS We identified a variety of technology in Canada, the UK, Rwanda, and Kenya being used for patient care and public health. The afore-mentioned countries are using both video and text-message based platforms to facilitate communication with HCPs (ex. WelTel, Zoom). Nationally-developed contact-tracing apps are provided free to the public, with most of them using Bluetooth-based technology. We identified that often multiple complimentary technologies are being utilized for different aspects of patient care and public health with the common purpose to disseminate information safely. CONCLUSIONS Virtual care and mHealth technologies have evolved rapidly as a tool for health care support for both patient care and public health. It is evident that, on an international level, a variety of mHealth and virtual care interventions, often in combination, are required to be able to address patient care and public health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic. CLINICALTRIAL N/A


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (Sup1) ◽  
pp. S16-S24
Author(s):  
Dale Ware ◽  
John Habron

Background: Music has been demonstrated to have therapeutic effects for relaxation and pain management in various healthcare settings. However, this practice has not been adopted in the UK in the endoscopy environment. Music as an intervention could potentially lower pain thresholds, promote anxiolysis, reduce sedation and enhance the patient experience. Aims: The study aimed to identify, analyse and discuss existing knowledge on the topic of music medicine as an intervention in the endoscopy setting and to expose gaps in previous research and form recommendations for future research. Methods: Iterative searching of electronic databases, hand searches and grey literature searches were employed, following inclusion/exclusion criteria to identify relevant studies. Studies were then thematically analysed and themes identified. Findings: The search identified 11 relevant studies, with emergent themes of anxiety, patient satisfaction, sedation/analgesia, choice of music and procedure times. Conclusions: This literature review showed that music is a safe therapeutic intervention. It has the potential to act as an anxiolytic, reducing amounts of sedation or even replacing sedation in some cases. Patient satisfaction and experience can be enhanced, reducing DNA rates and encouraging greater uptake of repeat procedures.


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