View clinical trials related to Medical Errors.
Filter by:This study aims to determine whether the use of two sterile towels for drying after surgical handwashing results in fewer contamination events compared to the use of only one towel among healthcare personnel. This randomized, multicenter, superiority-controlled trial will enroll up to 72 healthcare workers and surgical residents from three hospitals in Bogotá, Colombia. A fluorescent product will simulate bacteria, and contamination will be assessed by evaluating the presence of fluorescent cream after hand drying technique with either two or one surgical sterile towel. Data will be collected through REDCap and deidentified. Differences in the proportion of contamination between the two groups will be assessed using an exact Fischer test, and confounding variables will be included in the analysis through logistic multivariate regression, with a significance level set a priori at 0.05. Results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
The investigators plan to perform an observational study to evaluate the prevalence of burnout, depression and medical errors in a designated exclusive Covid-19 patients hospital in Malaysia, during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, the relationship between burnout and depression with medical errors will be assessed. The population studied will be the nurses working in the Intensive Care Unit, who are at higher risk due to the nature of their work at the frontlines of the pandemic.
We plan to perform an observational study to evaluate the prevalence of burnout, depression and medical errors in a designated exclusive Covid-19 patients hospital in Malaysia, during the Covid-19 pandemic. We also seek to assess the relationship between burnout and depression with medical errors. The population studied will be the anaesthesiology fraternity, who are at higher risk to the nature of their work at the frontlines of the pandemic.
Newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) are at high risk for wrong-patient errors. Effective 2019, The Joint Commission requires that health systems adopt distinct methods of newborn identification as part of its National Patient Safety Goals. Displaying patient photographs in the electronic health record (EHR) is a promising strategy to improve identification of children and adults, but is unlikely to be effective for identifying newborns. This study assesses the use of Pictographs as a "photo equivalent" for improving identification of newborns in the NICU. This multi-site, two-arm, parallel group, cluster randomized controlled trial will test the effectiveness of Pictographs for preventing wrong-patient order errors in the NICU. Pictographs consist of three elements: 1) pictorial symbols of easy-to-remember objects (e.g., rainbow, lion); 2) the infant's given name (when available); and 3) a color-coded border indicating the infant's sex. The study will be conducted at three academic medical centers that utilize Epic EHR. All parents or guardians will be asked to select a unique Pictograph for each infant admitted to the NICU to be displayed on the isolette and in the EHR for the duration of the infant's hospital stay. All clinicians with the authority to place electronic orders in the study NICUs will be randomly assigned to either the intervention arm (Pictographs displayed in the EHR) or the control arm (no Pictographs displayed in the EHR). The main hypothesis is that clinicians assigned to view Pictographs in the EHR will have a significantly lower rate of wrong-patient order errors in the NICU versus clinicians assigned to no Pictographs. The primary outcome is wrong-patient order sessions, defined as a series of orders placed for a single patient by a single clinician that contains at least one wrong-patient order. The Wrong-Patient Retract-and-Reorder (RAR) measure, a validated, reliable, and automated method for identifying wrong-patient orders, will be used as the primary outcome measure. The Wrong-Patient RAR measure identifies one or more orders placed for a patient that are retracted within 10 minutes, and then reordered by the same clinician for a different patient within the next 10 minutes. In the validation study conducted at a large academic medical center, real-time telephone interviews with clinicians confirmed that 76.2% of RAR events were correctly identified by the measure as wrong-patient orders.
Introduction: Errors in communication, and during transfers of information and medical responsibility, are frequent and risky. Objectives: Primary: To evaluate the effect of the implementation of the I-PASS® transfer program on the reduction in the frequency of medical attention errors in intensive pediatric therapies in the public hospitals setting. Secondary: 1) Measure the effect of the intervention in increasing the frequency of use of key elements of high quality verbal and written communication during the transfer of patients by health professionals. 2) To explore the effect of the intervention on the culture of patient safety among health professionals who assist pediatric patients in areas of clinical hospitalization. Material and Methods: Design: Staged clinical trial (Stepped Wedge) Duration: 9 months (progressive enrollment of 2 participating units every 2 months). Scope: Pediatric Intensive Care Units Subjects: health professionals involved in transfers in each institution. Intervention: Implementation of a multi-faceted evidence-based transfer package (I-PASS®) that has already been adapted for use in Argentina. The program includes multiple components, including educational training, implementation of a mnemonic verbal and written delivery rule I-PASS®, live observations of transfers to drive continuous improvement of the quality of intervention, through the feedback and a campaign of visual reinforcement materials to ensure sustainability. Events of interest: acceptance of the intervention. Frequency of preventable damages associated with medical care measured with GAPPS® as screening tools. Safety culture survey. Length of the transfer before and after the intervention.
This is a multi-site, cluster-randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of patient photographs displayed in electronic health record (EHR) systems to prevent wrong-patient order errors. The study will be conducted at three academic medical centers that utilize two different EHR systems. Because EHR systems have different functionality for displaying patient photographs, two different study designs will be employed. In Allscripts EHR, a 2-arm randomized trial will be conducted in which providers are randomized to view order verification alerts with versus without patient photographs when placing electronic orders. In Epic EHR, a 2x2 factorial trial will be conducted in which providers are randomized to one of four conditions: 1) no photograph; 2) photograph displayed in the banner only; 3) photograph displayed in a verification alert only; or 4) photograph displayed in the banner and verification alert. The main hypothesis of this study is that displaying patient photographs in the EHR will significantly reduce the frequency of wrong-patient order errors, providing health systems with the evidence needed to adopt this safety practice. We will use the Wrong-Patient Retract-and-Reorder (RAR) measure, a valid, reliable, and automated method for identifying wrong-patient orders, as the primary outcome measure. The RAR measure identifies orders placed for a patient that are retracted within 10 minutes, and then reordered by the same provider for a different patient within the next 10 minutes. These are near-miss errors, self-caught by the provider before they reach the patient and cause harm. In one study, the RAR measure identified more than 5,000 wrong-patient orders in 1 year, with a rate of 58 wrong-patient errors per 100,000 orders. Real-time telephone interviews with clinicians determined that the RAR measure correctly identified near-miss errors in 76.2% of cases. Thus, the RAR measure provides sufficient valid and reliable outcome data for this study.
Preventing contextual errors requires heightening clinician responsiveness to clues that there are contextual factors during the clinical encounter, in real time. These clues, termed contextual red flags are evident in two sources: the medical record and from patients directly. An effective intervention would prompt clinicians to determine whether there are underlying contextual factors that could be addressed in the care plan, averting contextual error. This desirable process is termed contextual probing. While clinical decision support (CDS) has been used to provide physicians with timely biomedical information at the point of care to prevent errors and promote appropriate care, this technology also affords an opportunity to draw physician attention to both contextual red flags and contextual factors in order to avert contextual errors. This study assesses the potential of "contextualized CDS" to improve contextualization of care through a randomized controlled intervention trial, with assessment measures of both patient health care outcomes and averted costs associated with overuse and misuse of medical services. The three hypotheses are that CDS: 1. Reduces contextual error: CDS tools that inform clinicians of contextual factors and prompt them to explore contextual red flags should result in a reduction in contextual error. 2. Improve health care outcomes: Contextualized CDS predicts improved health care outcomes defined as a partial or full resolution of the contextual red flag (e.g. elevated HgB A1c) after the index visit. 3. Reduces avoidable health care costs: Contextualized CDS is associated with a reduction in misuse and overuse of inappropriate or unnecessary medical services.
The investigators propose to test the hypothesis that implementation of a comprehensive handoff program (CHP) - i.e., implementation of a computerized handoff tool along with teamwork training for internal medicine residents on inpatient units at Walter Reed and Madigan Army Medical Centers - will lead to reductions in resident miscommunications / medical errors and improvements in workflow and experience on the wards.