Exploring experiences of implementing standardized cancer patient pathways within investigatory units – a qualitative study

Background In the implementation of standardized cancer patient pathways (CPPs), the investigatory units, endoscopy, radiology and pathology, are crucial to ensure an eventual cancer diagnosis. However, when evaluating the implementation of CPPs, little attention has been paid to the healthcare professionals working in these units. The aim of this study was to explore experiences of the implementation of CPPs among health professionals in investigatory units. Methods This descriptive qualitative study included 55 health professionals working in investigatory units. Participants were interviewed in 2017–2018, and data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results The health professionals reported benefits, facilitators and challenges when describing their experiences of implementing CPPs. Benefits included that CPP improved collaboration and increased focus on the patients. Facilitators in the implementation process included pre-existing well-functioning work processes and having supportive functions (e.g. coordinators). Challenges included the lack of staff and clinical equipment, as well as unjustified time-slots and incorrect referrals. Conclusions The findings show that most health professionals working in investigatory units’ experience benefits with the implementation of CPP, but the lack of resources was especially hard to overcome.

Basic clinical equipment for physical health assessment in mid Essex inpatient units

AimsIt is trust policy that the Basic Clinical Equipment for Physical Health Assessment should be available on each unit. The standard for this audit is therefore 100% completion.BackgroundThis was a cross-sectional study of six mental health units across Mid Essex. We audited equipment and consumables in comparison to trust policies. For the purpose of the audit we designed an audit tool.MethodOverall compliance across all wards for all audited items was 77.5% (64.9% – 87.5%). Average compliance for equipment provision 83.3% (73.9 %– 91.3%) was greater than that for consumables 72.1% (58.8% – 82.4%).ResultWhen looking at the compliance on each unit separately, our data show that no unit has met the standard of 100% for equipment or consumables. From all units, one of the two older adults’ inpatient units had the highest overall compliance and highest compliance for consumables at 87.5% and 82.4% respectively while the perinatal unit had the lowest overall compliance and lowest compliance for consumables at 64.9% and 58.8 respectively. For the equipment compliance, intensive care unit and one of the older adults tied for the highest compliance at 91.3% while male inpatient unit and perinatal inpatient unit were tied the lowest compliance at 73.9%.ConclusionThis is an audit to assess the availability of Basic Clinical Equipment for Physical Health Assessment on inpatient units in Mid Essex. With an audit standard of 100% completion, it shows that overall compliance on all units was 77.5% which is not meeting our standard.

The challenge of infection control in patients' homes

Infection control is the responsibility of all nurses, but, traditionally, it has been seen as a priority only in hospitals. Infection control does not stop when a patient is discharged home, but should be practiced wherever clinical care takes place. Community nurses face a unique challenge as they work in patients' homes, and they must manage infection control in that unique environment. This article looks at practical ways to maintain infection control in patients' homes. It covers hand hygiene and personal protective equipment (PPE), including the five moments of hand hygiene, appropriate hand hygiene, the use of all PPE and when gloves are required and when they are not. It also discusses managing clinical equipment, both that taken into the home and that left with a patient, including decontamination, safe storage of sharps and waste management. It touches upon what can be done in a patient's home to reduce the risk of contamination, as well as infectious disease management, including specimens and wound infection management. Lastly, it talks about cross-infection and why staff health is also important.

Exploring Experiences of Implementing Standardized Cancer Patient Pathways Within Investigatory Units – a Qualitative Study

Background: In the implementation of standardized cancer patient pathways (CPPs), the investigatory units, endoscopy, radiology and pathology, are crucial to ensure an eventual cancer diagnosis. However, when evaluating the implementation of CPPs, little attention has been paid to the healthcare professionals working in these units. The aim of this study was to explore experiences of the implementation of CPPs among health professionals in investigatory units.Methods: This descriptive qualitative study included 55 health professionals working in investigatory units. Participants were interviewed in 2017–2018, and data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The health professionals reported benefits, facilitators and challenges when describing their experiences of implementing CPPs. Benefits included that that CPP improved collaboration and increased focus on the patients. Facilitators in the implementation process included pre-existing well-functioning work processes and having supportive functions (e.g. coordinators). Challenges included the lack of staff and clinical equipment, as well as unjustified time-slots and incorrect referrals.Conclusions: The findings show that most health professionals working in investigatory units’ experience benefits with the implementation of CPP, but the lack of resources was especially hard to overcome.

Is It Important for Healthcare Services to Place the Onus on Patient Satisfaction in Their Brand?

Due to the advent of computers, internet, and social media communication, the marketing of services has changed, and consequently, organizations of any kind need to specify a brand image strategy and position it successfully in customer minds without cultural limitations. A semiotic approach for examining the branding strategy was applied on the websites of some healthcare services organizations which were taken as representative case studies. This research study seeks to point out the significance of the signs, either in the linguistic level or the iconic level of analysis, in order to make easily understandable the main issues of a branding strategy. The quality of services, the high standard of scientific expertise, and the availability of clinical equipment are the dominant issues of the examining branding strategies, whereas patient satisfaction and their further quality of life are completely ignored. A suggested innovative branding approach is shown to help entrepreneurs, branding designers, and marketers of healthcare services recognize the value of patient satisfaction.

A Wearable Patient Healthcare Monitoring System Using IoT and Cloud Computing Based Security

Now-a-days, a developing number of individuals at some point of a developing international locations like India forces to seem for brand spanking new answers for the persistent tracking of fitness check-up for stable data. It’s emerge as a need to go to hospitals frequently for doctor’s consultation, which has Growth to be financially associated and a time ingesting process. To beat this situation, we endorse a design to observe the patient’s fitness situations like heartbeat, temperature, ECG and BP and ship the message to guardian the use of GSM. Within the recent improvement of internet of factors (IoT) makes all objects interconnected and cloud been diagnosed due to the fact the subsequent technical revolution and now not secure for patient data. Patient monitoring is one a few of the IoT application to watch the affected person fitness status to collect facts to security for both medical doctor and patients Internet of things makes clinical equipment greater efficient with the aid of allowing actual time tracking of health in security privateness of the patient. Using IoT doctor can continuously monitor the patient’s cloud the usage of protection on his smartphone and also the affected person history could be stored on the web server and health practitioner can get entry to the statistics on every occasion wished from anywhere.

3D printing in critical care: a narrative review

Background 3D printing (3DP) has gained interest in many fields of medicine including cardiology, plastic surgery, and urology due to its versatility, convenience, and low cost. However, critical care medicine, which is abundant with high acuity yet infrequent procedures, has not embraced 3DP as much as others. The discrepancy between the possible training or therapeutic uses of 3DP in critical care and what is currently utilized in other fields needs to be addressed. Objective This narrative literature review describes the uses of 3DP in critical care that have been documented. It also discusses possible future directions based on recent technological advances. Methods A literature search on PubMed was performed using keywords and Mesh terms for 3DP, critical care, and critical care skills. Results Our search found that 3DP use in critical care fell under the major categories of medical education (23 papers), patient care (4 papers) and clinical equipment modification (4 papers). Medical education showed the use of 3DP in bronchoscopy, congenital heart disease, cricothyroidotomy, and medical imaging. On the other hand, patient care papers discussed 3DP use in wound care, personalized splints, and patient monitoring. Clinical equipment modification papers reported the use of 3DP to modify stethoscopes and laryngoscopes to improve their performance. Notably, we found that only 13 of the 31 papers were directly produced or studied by critical care physicians. Conclusion The papers discussed provide examples of the possible utilities of 3DP in critical care. The relative scarcity of papers produced by critical care physicians may indicate barriers to 3DP implementation. However, technological advances such as point-of-care 3DP tools and the increased demand for 3DP during the recent COVID-19 pandemic may change 3DP implementation across the critical care field.

Implementing oncology clinical trials in Nigeria: A model for Capacity building.

Background: There is both higher mortality and morbidity from cancer in low and medium income countries (LMICs) compared with high income countries (HICs). Clinical trial activities and development of more effective and less toxic therapies have led to significant improvements in morbidity and mortality from cancer in HICs. Unfortunately, clinical trials remain low in LMICs due to poor infrastructure and paucity of experienced personnel to execute clinical trials. There is an urgent need to build local capacity for evidence based treatment for cancer patients in LMICs. Methods: We conducted a survey at facilities in four Teaching Hospitals in South West Nigeria using a checklist of information on various aspects of clinical trial activities. The gaps identified were addressed using resources sourced in partnership with investigators at HIC institutions. Results: Deficits in infrastructure were in areas of patient care such as availability of oncology pharmacists, standard laboratories and diagnostic facilities, clinical equipment maintenance and regular calibrations, trained personnel for clinical trial activities, investigational products handling and disposals and lack of standard operating procedures for clinical activities. There were two GCP trained personnel, two study coordinators and one research pharmacist across the four sites. Interventions were instituted to address the observed deficits in all four sites which are now well positioned to undertake clinical trials in oncology. Training on all aspects of clinical trial was also provided.Conclusions: Partnerships with institutions in HICs can successfully identify, address, and improve deficits in infrastructure for clinical trial in LMICs. The HICs should lead in providing funds, mentorship and training for LMIC institutions to improve and expand clinical trials in LMIC countries.

Implementing oncology clinical trials in Nigeria: A model for Capacity building.

Background: There is both higher mortality and morbidity from cancer in low and medium income countries (LMICs) compared with high income countries (HICs). Clinical trial activities and development of more effective and less toxic therapies have led to significant improvements in morbidity and mortality from cancer in HICs. Unfortunately, clinical trials remain low in LMICs due to poor infrastructure and paucity of experienced personnel to execute clinical trials. There is an urgent need to build local capacity for evidence based treatment for cancer patients in LMICs. Methods: We conducted a survey at facilities in four Teaching Hospitals in South West Nigeria using a checklist of information on various aspects of clinical trial activities. The gaps identified were addressed using resources sourced in partnership with investigators at HIC institutions. Results: Deficits in infrastructure were in areas of patient care such as availability of oncology pharmacists, standard laboratories and diagnostic facilities, clinical equipment maintenance and regular calibrations, trained personnel for clinical trial activities, investigational products handling and disposals and lack of standard operating procedures for clinical activities. Interventions were instituted to address the observed deficits in all four sites which are now well positioned to undertake clinical trials in oncology. Training on all aspects of clinical trial was also provided.Conclusions: Partnerships with institutions in HICs can successfully identify, address and improve deficits in infrastructure for clinical trial in LMICs. The HICs should lead in providing funds, mentorship and training for LMIC institutions to improve and expand clinical trials in LMIC countries.

Quantifying the relative impact of contact heterogeneity on MRSA transmission in ICUs - a modelling study

Background An efficient surface cleaning strategy would first target cleaning to surfaces that make large contributions to the risk of infections. Methods In this study, we used data from the literature about methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and developed an ordinary differential equations based mathematical model to quantify the impact of contact heterogeneity on MRSA transmission in a hypothetical 6-bed intensive care unit (ICU). The susceptible patients are divided into two types, these who are cared by the same nurse as the MRSA infected patient (Type 1) and these who are not (Type 2). Results The results showed that the mean MRSA concentration on three kinds of susceptible patient nearby surfaces was significantly linearly associated with the hand-touch frequency (p < 0.05). The noncompliance of daily cleaning on patient nearby high-touch surfaces (HTSs) had the most impact on MRSA transmission. If the HTSs were not cleaned, the MRSA exposure to Type 1 and 2 susceptible patients would increase 118.4% (standard deviation (SD): 33.0%) and 115.4% (SD: 30.5%) respectively. The communal surfaces (CSs) had the least impact, if CSs were not cleaned, the MRSA exposure to Type 1 susceptible patient would only increase 1.7% (SD: 1.3). The impact of clinical equipment (CE) differed largely for two types of susceptible patients. If the CE was not cleaned, the exposure to Type 1 patients would only increase 8.4% (SD: 3.0%), while for Type 2 patients, it can increase 70.4% (SD: 25.4%). Conclusions This study provided a framework to study the pathogen concentration dynamics on environmental surfaces and quantitatively showed the importance of cleaning patient nearby HTSs on controlling the nosocomial infection transmission via contact route.