| Literature DB >> 28860881 |
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A National Health Service (NHS) contingent liability for medical error claims of over £26 billion.Entities:
Keywords: aviation; educational benefits; health care; management benefits; safety audit
Year: 2017 PMID: 28860881 PMCID: PMC5558587 DOI: 10.2147/RMHP.S131763
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Risk Manag Healthc Policy ISSN: 1179-1594
Figure 1Blank Threat and Error Assessment and Management Worksheet.
Threat and error codes
| Threats (Code 100–499) | |
|---|---|
| Code | Scored n times |
| 100 Human in origin | 5 |
| 101 Infection, introduced by: | 2 |
| 1011 Visitors | 0 |
| 1012 Staff | 19 |
| 1013 Patients | 1 |
| 102 Exhausted staff | 14 |
| 103 Temporary staff | 0 |
| 104 Insufficient staff | 32 |
| 105 Insufficient range of skills among duty staff | 12 |
| 106 Lack of leadership – junior staff making high-level decisions | 4 |
| 107 Mandatory training naïve | 1 |
| 108 Health and safety issue – staff, e.g., alcohol, blood-borne virus, mental health | 3 |
| 109 Health and safety issue – patients | 4 |
| 1091 Physical health | 4 |
| 1092 Mental health | 6 |
| 1093 Violence | 2 |
| 110 Inadequate patient notes available | 31 |
| 111 Wrong patient labels in notes | 0 |
| 112 Wrong investigation results filed | 0 |
| 113 Similar patient names in a clinical arena | 2 |
| 114 Copying and pasting from one software program to another | 2 |
| 115 Not logging out in clinical area | 1 |
| 116 Mislabeling specimens | 2 |
| 117 Mixing biopsies/smears/aspirates | 0 |
| 118 Laterality | 0 |
| 119 Leaving swabs in situ | 0 |
| 120 Privacy and dignity | 6 |
| 1201 Staff-related, e.g., discussing patient in corridor, leaving patient lying in urine and so on | 24 |
| 1202 Institution-related, e.g., no private room | 20 |
| 121 Abnormal result not acted upon | 0 |
| 1211 Not escalated | 0 |
| 1212 Escalated, but did not reach frontline team in time, e.g., message not passed on | 0 |
| 122 Risk of pressure sores | 0 |
| 1221 Lying on trolleys awaiting a bed | 1 |
| 123 Risk of deep-vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism | 0 |
| 124 Too many patients on theater list or clinic | 6 |
| 125 Smoking on site | 0 |
| 126 Slipping | 2 |
| 127 Manual handling | 3 |
| 128 Cultural issues | 0 |
| 1281 Insensitivity to cultural norms | 0 |
| 1282 Imperfect knowledge of spoken tongue | 14 |
| 129 Information blindness (useful knowledge overlooked) | 2 |
| 1291 Willful | 0 |
| 1292 Accidental | 1 |
| 130 Team dynamics | 13 |
| Total | 239 |
Note:
The Convenor judged that threat and error subcodes scored 10 or more times merited case studies.
Qualitative analysis (case studies)
| (A) Threat: 1012 infection, introduced by: staff | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event | Threat X | Error X | How the event was managed and the outcome(s) (M&O) | Lessons learned by the observer (LL) | Event code (EC) |
| The Dr did not wash hands before going to see and examine the patient (occurred eight times) | X | The Dr washed hands after each patient, but not before | It is not sufficient to wash hands only after seeing a patient. Hands must be washed again before seeing the next patient | 1012 | |
| A Charge Nurse entered the patient side-room without the required PPE. There was a notice on the door which says to use aprons and gloves before entering | X | X | Patients are inside the room due to infectious disease. The Charge Nurse risks contracting the infection himself by entering without PPE, and also passing the infection to other patients | 1012 | |
| Failure of medical staff to change PPE (apron and gloves) when moving between patients in an isolation bay | X | X | A nurse pointed out that they should be changing their PPE in between each patient, and after that, they did | Staff may be aware of the guidelines, but may choose to follow them only when reminded | 1012 |
| Doctor did not wash hands before or after examining patients. Wore gloves | X | The error was not acknowledged | Possibly, doctors believe that if they use gloves, they do not need to wash | 1012 | |
Abbreviations: F1, Charge Nurse; PPE, personal protective equipment; NHS, (UK) National Health Service; HCA, Health care assistant.
Figure 2Student feedback pie chart.
Abbreviation: SSC, student selected component.
Student roster
| Wednesday 31st August | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attend | 0800 h Outpatients | 0755 h Junior doctor handover and emergency Urology ward round | 1100 h onward: Urology ward | 0845 h Mental health clinic | 0800 h Fracture clinic |
| Observer team (OT) | D | C | E | A | B |
Note: The students were divided into 5 groups: A, B, C, D, E.
Abbreviations: HCA, Health-care assistant; ESWL, Extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy; MDT, Multi-disciplinary team; TRUS, trans-rectal ultrasound.
Convenor-generated observational data
Afternoon urology clinic in a large city hospital.
| Consulting room | In | Out | Minutes | In | Out | Minutes | In | Out | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 1347 h | 1410 h | 23 | 1419 h | 1439 h | 10 | 1448 h | 1512 h | 24 |
| 8 | 1408 h | 1415 h | 7 | 1422 h | 1426 h | 4 | 1436 h | 1442 h | 6 |
| 9 | 1416 h | 1425 h | 9 | 1428 h | 1438 h | 10 | 1440 h | 1455 h | 15 |
Note: No scheduled breaks for staff (although some were able to take an informal break). Timings for early part of clinic.