Changing the site of delivery of thrombolytic treatment for acute myocardial infarction from the coronary care unit to the emergency department greatly reduces door to needle time. (1/24)

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the change in door to needle time when delivery of thrombolytic treatment of acute myocardial infarction was changed from the coronary care unit to the emergency department. DESIGN: A comparative observational study using prospectively collected data. SETTING: Coronary care unit and emergency department of an Australian teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: 89 patients receiving thrombolysis in coronary care unit between June 1994 and January 1996, and 100 patients treated in the emergency department between April 1997 and May 1998. INTERVENTIONS: From April 1997, by agreement between cardiology and emergency medicine, all patients with acute myocardial infarction receiving thrombolysis were treated by emergency physicians in the emergency department. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Door to needle time measured from time of arrival at the hospital to start of thrombolysis. Other outcomes included pain to needle time and mortality. RESULTS: Median door to needle times were less for patients treated in the emergency department than in the coronary care unit (37 minutes, 95% confidence interval (CI) 33 to 44 v 80 minutes, 95% CI 70 to 89, respectively; p < 0.0001). Door to needle time was under 60 minutes in 83% of emergency department patients and 26% of coronary care unit patients (57% difference, 95% CI 45% to 69%; p < 0.0001). Median pain to needle time was less for emergency department patients than for coronary care unit patients (161 minutes, 95% CI 142 to 177 v 195 minutes, 95% CI 180 to 209; p = 0.004); times of less than 90 minutes occurred in 18% of emergency department patients v 1% of coronary care unit patients (17% difference, 95% CI 9% to 25%; p < 0.05). Overall mortality was similar in patients treated in the emergency department and the coronary care unit. CONCLUSIONS: With a collaborative interdepartmental approach, thrombolytic treatment of acute myocardial infarction was more rapid in the emergency department, without compromising patient safety. This should improve the outcome in patients with infarcts treated with thrombolytic agents.  (+info)

Inequalities in health: approaches by health authorities in an English health region. (2/24)

BACKGROUND: In 1995 the Department of Health published Variations in health: what can the Department of Health do? This recommended that health authorities should have a comprehensive plan for identifying and tackling variations in health. We investigated how health authorities in the South and West Region were taking forward this work. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews and reviews of documentation were conducted in all health authorities in the South and West Region of England. RESULTS: All health authorities viewed tackling inequalities in health as important; however, explicit strategies did not exist and Health of the Nation targets were a vehicle for determining priorities of inequalities. Explicit corporate commitment was often weak. Analyses were being conducted to determine the magnitude of local health inequalities and to assist in designing appropriate interventions. The importance of alliance working was highlighted; much work was being done although success was variable. CONCLUSIONS: Efforts are being made throughout the South and West region to tackle inequalities in health. Although strategic vision at the corporate level was often lacking, there was evidence of commitment to taking the inequalities agenda forward within public health directorates. Strengthening of primary care and alliance working roles is essential. Recent national strategy documents, forthcoming legislation, and a review of health inequalities recognize the health effects of inequalities and require health authorities to collaborate with local partners to tackle these, and will offer opportunities to improve corporate commitment and alliance working. Uptake and success of these opportunities will have a major influence on progress in tackling health inequalities.  (+info)

Customizing for clients: developing a library liaison program from need to plan. (3/24)

Building on the experiences of librarian representatives to curriculum committees in the colleges of dentistry, medicine, and nursing, the Health Science Center Libraries (HSCL) Strategic Plan recommended the formation of a Library Liaison Work Group to create a formal Library Liaison Program to serve the six Health Science Center (HSC) colleges and several affiliated centers and institutes. The work group's charge was to define the purpose and scope of the program, identify models of best practice, and recommend activities for liaisons. The work group gathered background information, performed an environmental scan, and developed a philosophy statement, a program of liaison activities focusing on seven primary areas, and a forum for liaison communication. Hallmarks of the plan included intensive subject specialization (beyond collection development), extensive communication with users, and personal information services. Specialization was expected to promote competence, communication, confidence, comfort, and customization. Development of the program required close coordination with other strategic plan implementation teams, including teams for collection development, education, and marketing. This paper discusses the HSCL's planning process and the resulting Library Liaison Program. Although focusing on an academic health center, the planning process and liaison model may be applied to any library serving diverse, subject-specific user populations.  (+info)

The standards for emergency surgical services. (4/24)

Gross underfunding of the National Health Service in England and Wales results in too few beds and operating theatres and too few nurses and doctors. Thus, standards of surgical care, particularly for emergencies, are compromised. The service requires sufficient senior and trainee surgeons to meet the needs of specialization, working together in an acceptable surgical rota which enables both dedication to emergency admissions and continuity of care. Calculation of local manpower needs demands an understanding of the acceptable workloads for operating and outpatient activity and assessment of the NHS and private surgical work carried out in the area. For general surgery and trauma and orthopaedics this equates to 1 consultant for 30,000 population. Emergency surgical services require the presence on site of all the core specialties, including sufficient fully staffed intensive-care, high-dependency and coronary care beds to ensure their availability for emergency admissions together with 24-hour-staffed dedicated emergency operating theatres.  (+info)

Quality measures for the emergency obstetrics and gynaecology services. (5/24)

The maternal mortality rate was the first measure of quality in the obstetric services. It is a crude indicator but is still used for international comparisons. In the UK, confidential enquiries into maternal and perinatal deaths produce recommendations the implementation of which is not well audited as yet. 'Near misses' are harder to define but are audited in individual units. Standards drawn up by the Central Negligence Scheme for Trusts could potentially promote improvements. The Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have jointly published standards of care in labour wards. Gynaecological standards are less well developed but should evolve as NHS audit improves.  (+info)

What are the standards for the emergency anaesthetic services? (6/24)

Anaesthetists provide services throughout acute hospitals in areas such as the delivery floor and the intensive therapy unit as well as working in their traditional role in the operating theatre. Consensus standards of the number of staff needed to provide a satisfactory level of acute anaesthetic services, their qualifications and experience and the resources they require have been produced by a number of organizations. It is probable that many small and medium-sized district general hospitals will be unable to meet these standards without changes to traditional UK staffing structures.  (+info)

Activity profiles of the occupational health services in a multinational company. (7/24)

The management of the European division of a multinational company was aware of possible differences in the occupational health services (OHS) at their different locations. The objective of this study was to carry out a baseline assessment of these OHS. Structured interviews with representatives of the OHS were conducted at 20 locations in 11 countries. The OHS Recommendation from the International Labour Organization (ILO) was used as a standard for the organization and functions of the OHS. Considerable differences in the activity profiles of the OHS were detected. The inter-enterprise, multidisciplinary OHS spent most of their time on surveillance of workers' health in relation to work and on preventive activities in the working environment. Little time was spent on curative services for individual workers. OHS made up of individual physicians and nurses generally spent much of their time on treatment of occupational and non-occupational diseases. This study has clarified the status of the OHS providers and the potential for improvements in order to meet the needs of the company's locations and to comply more closely with the ILO recommendation.  (+info)

An evaluation of clinical governance in the public health departments of the West Midlands Region. (8/24)

STUDY OBJECTIVES: (1) To evaluate the development of clinical governance within public health departments. (2) To assess two models for examining clinical governance in public health departments. DESIGN: Semi-structured interviews carried out during the annual visits of the regional director of public health to the health authority public health departments. SETTING: West Midland Region, England. PARTICIPANTS: Directors of public health plus other members of public health departments. MAIN RESULTS: These visits demonstrated that there is already a substantial amount of clinical governance activity taking place in the region's public health departments. There was also a need to reclassify many routinely occurring activities and include them under the clinical governance heading. CONCLUSIONS: The two models both proved useful for examining clinical governance in public health departments, however combining them into a matrix provided the best results. This matrix will still be useful after the reorganisation of the NHS and could be used to assess any public health department in the world. The West Midland public health departments find the visits valuable as they provide a source of external peer review of their activities. The public health departments have ownership of the process.  (+info)

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