ShortNotice and Unannounced Survey Methods: Literature review

The Commission’s role is to lead and coordinate national improvements in the safety and quality of health care. The Commission works in partnership with the Australian Government, state and territory governments and the private sector to achieve a safe and high -qu ality, sustainable health system. In doing so, the Commission also works closely with patients, carers, clinicians, managers, policymakers and healthcare organisations. The Commission is responsible under the National Health Reform Act 2011 for the formul ation of standards relating to health care safety and quality matters and for formulating and coordinating national models of accreditation for health service organisations. The Commission developed the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards in consultation with the Australian Government , state and territory governments, technical experts and other stakeholders. They aim to protect the public from harm and to improve the quality of health service provision. To become accredited, health service organisations must pass assessments to show they have implemented the NSQHS Standards. The assessments are conducted by independent accrediting agencies, approved by the Commission, as part of the AHSSQA Scheme. However, state and territory regulators and chief executives of health service organisations have raised concerns about several aspects of the accreditation process

Attestation by Governing Bodies: Literature review

Preface This preface was written by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) to provide context and background to the report which follows, Attestation by Governing Bodies: Literature review. The Commission contracted the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to prepare the literature review, as part of the review of the Australian Health Service Safety and Quality Accreditation (AHSSQA) Scheme. Background The Commission’s role is to lead and coordinate national improvements in the safety and quality of health care. The Commission works in partnership with the Australian Government, state and territory governments and the private sector to achieve a safe and high-quality, sustainable health system. In doing so, the Commission also works closely with patients, carers, clinicians, managers, policymakers and healthcare organisations. The Commission is responsible under the National Health Reform Act 2011 for the formulation of standards relating to healthcare safety and quality matters and for formulating and coordinating national models of accreditation for health service organisations. The Commission developed the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards in consultation with the Australian Government, state and territory governments, technical experts and stakeholders. They aim to protect the public from harm and to improve the quality of health service provision. To become accredited, health service organisations must pass assessments to show they have implemented the NSQHS Standards. The assessments are conducted by independent accrediting agencies approved by the Commission as part of the AHSSQA Scheme. However, state and territory regulators and chief executives of health service organisations have raised concerns about several aspects of the accreditation process. The Commission is undertaking a review to update and improve the accreditation process. In May 2017, the Commission contracted four literature reviews to provide an evidence base to inform the Commission’s review of the AHSSQA Scheme. The reviews explored the potential use of the following methods to improve the veracity of health service organisations: • Attestation by a governing body • Short-notice and unannounced surveys • Patient journey and tracer methodologies • Safety culture assessment. The report that follows this preface presents the findings of a literature review that explored the potential use of attestation by governing bodies during accreditation of health service organisations. Key findings The report on attestation by governing bodies includes a definition of attestation, a review of the evidence of the effectiveness of attestation by governing bodies as part of accreditation in healthcare, and examples of the use of attestation in practice

Patient Journey and Tracer Methodologies: Literature review

Preface This preface was written by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) to provide context and background to the report which follows, Patient Journey and Tracer Methodologies: Literature review. The Commission contracted the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to prepare the literature review, as part of the review of the Australian Health Service Safety and Quality Accreditation (AHSSQA) Scheme. Background The Commission’s role is to lead and coordinate national improvements in the safety and quality of health care. The Commission works in partnership with the Australian Government, state and territory governments and the private sector to achieve a safe and high-quality, sustainable health system. In doing so, the Commission also works closely with patients, carers, clinicians, managers, policymakers and healthcare organisations. The Commission developed the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards in consultation with the Australian Government, state and territory governments, technical experts and stakeholders. They aim to protect the public from harm and to improve the quality of health service provision. To become accredited, health service organisations must pass assessments to show they have implemented the NSQHS Standards. The assessments are conducted by independent accrediting agencies, approved by the Commission, as part of the AHSSQA Scheme. However, state and territory regulators and chief executives of health service organisations have raised concerns about several aspects of the accreditation process. The Commission is undertaking a review to update and improve the accreditation process. In May 2017, the Commission contracted four literature reviews to provide an evidence base to inform the Commission’s review of the AHSSQA Scheme. The reviews explored the potential use of the following methods to improve the veracity of health service organisations: • Attestation by a governing body • Short-notice and unannounced surveys • Patient journey and tracer methodologies • Safety culture assessment. The report that follows this preface presents the findings of a literature review that explored the potential use of patient journey and tracer methodologies as part of health service organisation accreditation. Key findings The key findings of the report on patient journey and tracer methodologies (hereafter referred to as ‘patient journey methodologies’) are discussed according to the evidence of its effectiveness and considerations for its use in the AHSSQA Scheme

Dynamic ductile to brittle transition in a one-dimensional model of viscoplasticity

We study two closely related, nonlinear models of a viscoplastic solid. These models capture essential features of plasticity over a wide range of strain rates and applied stresses. They exhibit inelastic strain relaxation and steady flow above a well defined yield stress. In this paper, we describe a first step in exploring the implications of these models for theories of fracture and related phenomena. We consider a one dimensional problem of decohesion from a substrate of a membrane that obeys the viscoplastic constitutive equations that we have constructed. We find that, quite generally, when the yield stress becomes smaller than some threshold value, the energy required for steady decohesion becomes a non-monotonic function of the decohesion speed. As a consequence, steady state decohesion at certain speeds becomes unstable. We believe that these results are relevant to understanding the ductile to brittle transition as well as fracture stability.Comment: 10 pages, REVTeX, 12 postscript figure

Noncognitive skills in the classroom

This book provides an overview of recent research on the relationship between noncognitive attributes (motivation, self efficacy, resilience) and academic outcomes (such as grades or test scores). We focus primarily on how these sets of attributes are measured and how they relate to important academic outcomes. Noncognitive attributes are those academically and occupationally relevant skills and traits that are not “cognitive”—that is, not specifically intellectual or analytical in nature. We examine seven attributes in depth and critique the measurement approaches used by researchers and talk about how they can be improved.Publishe

Sociology’s missed opportunity: John Stuart-Glennie’s lost theory of the moral revolution, also known as the axial age

In 1873, 75 years before Karl Jaspers published his theory of the Axial Age in 1949, unknown to Jaspers and to contemporary scholars today, Scottish folklorist John Stuart Stuart-Glennie elaborated the first fully developed and nuanced theory of what he termed “the Moral Revolution” to characterize the historical shift emerging roughly around 600 BCE in a variety of civilizations, most notably ancient China, India, Judaism, and Greece, as part of a broader critical philosophy of history. He continued to write on the idea over decades in books and articles and also presented his ideas to the fledgling Sociological Society of London in 1905, which were published the following year in the volume Sociological Papers, Volume 2. This article discusses Stuart-Glennie’s ideas on the moral revolution in the context of his philosophy of history, including what he termed “panzooinism”; ideas with implications for contemporary debates in theory, comparative history, and sociology of religion. It shows why he should be acknowledged as the originator of the theory now known as the axial age, and also now be included as a significant sociologist in the movement toward the establishment of sociology

Sequential Acquisition of T Cells and Antibodies to Nontyphoidal Salmonella in Malawian Children

Background Salmonella Typhimurium (STm) remain a prominent cause of bacteremia in sub-Saharan Africa. Complement-fixing antibodies to STm develop by 2 years of age. We hypothesized that STm-specific CD4+ T cells develop alongside this process. Methods Eighty healthy Malawian children aged 0–60 months were recruited. STm-specific CD4+ T cells producing interferon γ, tumor necrosis factor α, and interleukin 2 were quantified using intracellular cytokine staining. Antibodies to STm were measured by serum bactericidal activity (SBA) assay, and anti-STm immunoglobulin G antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Between 2006 and 2011, STm bacteremias were detected in 449 children <5 years old. STm-specific CD4+ T cells were acquired in infancy, peaked at 14 months, and then declined. STm-specific SBA was detectable in newborns, declined in the first 8 months, and then increased to a peak at age 35 months. Acquisition of SBA correlated with acquisition of anti–STm–lipopolysaccharide (LPS) immunoglobulin G (r = 0.329 [95% confidence interval, .552–.062]; P = .01) but not anti–STm–outer membrane protein or anti–STm-flagellar protein (FliC). Conclusions Acquisition of STm-specific CD4+ T cells in early childhood is consistent with early exposure to STm or cross-reactive protein antigens priming this T-cell development. STm-specific CD4+ T cells seem insufficient to protect against invasive nontyphoidal Salmonella disease, but sequential acquisition of SBA to STm LPS is associated with a decline in its incidence