36 research outputs found

    Systematic review of safety checklists for use by medical care teams in acute hospital settings - limited evidence of effectiveness

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patient safety is a fundamental component of good quality health care. Checklists have been proposed as a method of improving patient safety. This systematic review, asked "In acute hospital settings, would the use of safety checklists applied by medical care teams, compared to not using checklists, improve patient safety?"</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We searched the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and EMBASE for randomised controlled trials published in English before September 2009. Studies were selected and appraised by two reviewers independently in consultation with colleagues, using inclusion, exclusion and appraisal criteria established a priori.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nine cohort studies with historical controls studies from four hospital care settings were included-intensive care unit, emergency department, surgery, and acute care. The studies used a variety of designs of safety checklists, and implemented them in different ways, however most incorporated an educational component to teach the staff how to use the checklist. The studies assessed outcomes occurring a few weeks to a maximum of 12 months post-implementation, and these outcomes were diverse.</p> <p>The studies were generally of low to moderate quality and of low levels of evidence, with all but one of the studies containing a high risk of bias.</p> <p>The results of these studies suggest some improvements in patient safety arising from use of safety checklists, but these were not consistent across all studies or for all outcomes. Some studies showed no difference in outcomes between checklist use and standard care without a checklist. Due to the variations in setting, checklist design, educational training given, and outcomes measured, it was unfeasible to accurately summarise any trends across all studies.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The included studies suggest some benefits of using safety checklists to improve protocol adherence and patient safety, but due to the risk of bias in these studies, their results should be interpreted with caution. More high quality and studies, are needed to enable confident conclusions about the effectiveness of safety checklists in acute hospital settings.</p

    Процесс анализа угроз, влияющих на экономическую устойчивость предприятия

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    На основании проведенного исследования были выявлены факторы возникновения угроз, их группировка по степени воздействию на экономическую устойчивость предприятий и рассмотрена формализация процесса анализа угроз экономической устойчивости предприятий. В условиях рыночной экономики невозможно управлять предприятием без учета влияния угроз, а для эффективного управления важно не только знать об их присутствии, а и правильно идентифицировать конкретную угрозу.На підставі проведеного дослідження були виявлені чинники виникнення загроз, їх угруповання по степені впливу на економічну стійкість підприємств і розглянута формалізація процесу аналізу загроз економічної стійкості підприємств. В умовах ринкової економіки неможливо керувати підприємством без вивчення впливу загроз, а для ефективного керування важливо не тільки знати про їх присутність, а і правильно ідентифікувати конкретну загрозу.On the basis of the conducted research the factors of origin of threats were exposed, their gourmet on a degree to influence on economic stability of enterprises and formalization of process of analysis of threats of economic stability of enterprises is considered. In the conditions of market economy it is impossible to manage an enterprise without taking into account influencing of threats, and for the effective management it is important not only to know about their presence, and to identify the concrete threat correctly

    Multiorgan MRI findings after hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the UK (C-MORE): a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study

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    INTRODUCTION: The multiorgan impact of moderate to severe coronavirus infections in the post-acute phase is still poorly understood. We aimed to evaluate the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities after hospitalisation with COVID-19, evaluate their determinants, and explore associations with patient-related outcome measures. METHODS: In a prospective, UK-wide, multicentre MRI follow-up study (C-MORE), adults (aged ≥18 years) discharged from hospital following COVID-19 who were included in Tier 2 of the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study (PHOSP-COVID) and contemporary controls with no evidence of previous COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody negative) underwent multiorgan MRI (lungs, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys) with quantitative and qualitative assessment of images and clinical adjudication when relevant. Individuals with end-stage renal failure or contraindications to MRI were excluded. Participants also underwent detailed recording of symptoms, and physiological and biochemical tests. The primary outcome was the excess burden of multiorgan abnormalities (two or more organs) relative to controls, with further adjustments for potential confounders. The C-MORE study is ongoing and is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04510025. FINDINGS: Of 2710 participants in Tier 2 of PHOSP-COVID, 531 were recruited across 13 UK-wide C-MORE sites. After exclusions, 259 C-MORE patients (mean age 57 years [SD 12]; 158 [61%] male and 101 [39%] female) who were discharged from hospital with PCR-confirmed or clinically diagnosed COVID-19 between March 1, 2020, and Nov 1, 2021, and 52 non-COVID-19 controls from the community (mean age 49 years [SD 14]; 30 [58%] male and 22 [42%] female) were included in the analysis. Patients were assessed at a median of 5·0 months (IQR 4·2–6·3) after hospital discharge. Compared with non-COVID-19 controls, patients were older, living with more obesity, and had more comorbidities. Multiorgan abnormalities on MRI were more frequent in patients than in controls (157 [61%] of 259 vs 14 [27%] of 52; p5mg/L, OR 3·55 [1·23–11·88]; padjusted=0·025) than those without multiorgan abnormalities. Presence of lung MRI abnormalities was associated with a two-fold higher risk of chest tightness, and multiorgan MRI abnormalities were associated with severe and very severe persistent physical and mental health impairment (PHOSP-COVID symptom clusters) after hospitalisation. INTERPRETATION: After hospitalisation for COVID-19, people are at risk of multiorgan abnormalities in the medium term. Our findings emphasise the need for proactive multidisciplinary care pathways, with the potential for imaging to guide surveillance frequency and therapeutic stratification. FUNDING: UK Research and Innovation and National Institute for Health Research

    Cohort Profile: Post-Hospitalisation COVID-19 (PHOSP-COVID) study

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    A bridge between worlds: understanding network structure to understand change strategy

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    A number of scholars are exploring district and site relations in organizational change efforts in the larger policy context of No Child Left Behind. These studies suggest the importance of the central office as a support to the work of reform and offer strategies for building relations between district offices and sites in order to implement and sustain change efforts. What is frequently overlooked in these studies is that organizational change efforts are often socially constructed. Therefore, examining the underlying social networks may provide insight into structures that support or constrain efforts at change. This exploratory case study uses social network analysis and interviews to examine the communication and knowledge network structures of central office and site leaders in an ‘in need of improvement’ district facing sanctions under No Child Left Behind. Findings indicate sparse ties among and between school site and central office administrators, as well as a centralized network structure that may constrain the exchange of complex information and ultimately inhibit efforts at change

    Characterization of carboxylic acid reductases as enzymes in the toolbox for synthetic chemistry

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    ArticleCarboxylic acid reductase enzymes (CARs) meet the demand in synthetic chemistry for a green and regio-specific route to aldehydes from their respective carboxylic acids. However, relatively few of these enzymes have been characterized. A sequence alignment with members of the ANL superfamily of enzymes shed light on CAR functional dynamics. Using a phylogenetic analysis of known and hypothetical CARs, four unstudied enzymes were selected, and for the first time, a thorough biochemical characterization carried out. Kinetic analysis of these enzymes with various substrates shows they have a broad, but similar substrate specificity. Electron rich acids are favored, suggesting that the first step in the proposed reaction mechanism, attack by the carboxylate on the -phosphate of ATP, is the step determining substrate specificity and reaction kinetics. The effects of pH and temperature provide a clear operational window for the use of these CARs, while investigation of product inhibition by NADP+, AMP and pyrophosphate (PPi) indicates that binding of substrates at the adenylation domain is ordered with ATP binding first. This paper consolidates CARs as important and exciting enzymes in the toolbox for sustainable chemistry, providing specifications for their use as a biocatalyst.The authors thank Andrew Hill (University of Manchester) for providing many of the substrates tested, the pCDF-Sfp plasmid and the plasmid for the expression of niCAR; and Clive Mountain (GSK), Stacy Clark (GSK), and Alison Hill (University of Exeter) for advice on the chemistry of the CAR reaction, and Jennifer Farrar (Georgia Institute of Technology) for providing walltime on her server to run the Bayesian analyses. Nzomics (Prof. Gary Black and team) and Prozomix (Simon Charnock and team) are gratefully acknowledged for cloning msCAR and tpCAR. WF was funded by BBSRC (grant no. BB/K501001/1) and GlaxoSmithKline; AT was funded by BBSRC (grant no. BB/J014400/1). Requests for raw data should be sent to NJH
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