Patient Safety in Internal Medicine

AbstractHospital Internal Medicine (IM) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of diseases, providing the comprehensive care in the office and in the hospital, managing both common and complex illnesses of adolescents, adults, and the elderly. IM is a key ward for Health National Services. In Italy, for example, about 17.3% of acute patients are discharged from the IM departments. After the epidemiological transition to chronic/degenerative diseases, patients admitted to hospital are often poly-pathological and so requiring a global approach as in IM. As such transition was not associated—with rare exceptions—to hospital re-organization of beds and workforce, IM wards are often overcrowded, burdened by off-wards patients and subjected to high turnover and discharge pressure. All these factors contribute to amplify some traditional clinical risks for patients and health operators. The aim of our review is to describe several potential errors and their prevention strategies, which should be implemented by physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals working in IM wards

Hyperhidrosis Quality of Life Measures : Review and Patient Perspective

Purpose To identify the tools that have been used to measure quality of life in hyperhidrosis research and obtain patient insight on commonly used tools. Methods Twelve databases were searched to identify studies that reported measuring quality of life or described a quality of life tool in the context of hyperhidrosis. Data on the use of the tools were tabulated and hyperhidrosis-specific and dermatology-specific measures were summarised. A workshop was held to obtain the patients’ perspective on the most commonly used tools and the newly developed HidroQoL© tool. Results 182 studies were included in the review. Twenty-two quality of life tools were identified; two or more tools were often used in combination. The most commonly used tools were the Hyperhidrosis Disease Severity Scale, the Dermatology Quality of Life Index and the Hyperhidrosis Quality-of-Life Questionnaire. Patient advisors preferred the new HidroQoL© tool, which was considered to be easy to complete and most relevant to hyperhidrosis patients. Conclusions There are several tools available for assessing quality of life in hyperhidrosis patients; disease specific measures are widely used and appear suitable. It is unclear which tool is the most reliable, although the HidroQoL© tool was preferred by a small group of patient advisors