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Biomedical subjects

Liam Donaldson

Publications and source records attributed to Liam Donaldson.

18 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

'Clean Care is Safer Care': the Global Patient Safety Challenge 2005-2006.

BACKGROUND: Each year the treatment and care of hundreds of millions of patients worldwide is complicated by infections acquired during healthcare. The impact of healthcare-associated infection may imply prolonged stays in hospital, long-term disability, massive additional financial burden, and deaths. ACTION: Patient safety is a global issue that affects both developed and developing countries. In October 2004, the World Health Organization launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety to co-ordinate and accelerate improvements in patient safety internationally. A core element of the Alliance is the identification of a topic to be addressed as a Global Patient Safety Challenge over a two-year cycle. The first topic chosen for 2005-2006 is healthcare-associated infection. PERSPECTIVES: The Challenge aims at implementing several actions to tackle healthcare-associated infections worldwide, regardless of the level of development of healthcare systems and the availability of resources. Implementation strategies include the integration in different healthcare settings of multiple interventions in the areas of blood safety, injection safety, and clinical procedure safety, as well as water, sanitation, and waste management, with the promotion of hand hygiene in healthcare as the cornerstone.

Blood Transfusion↗
PubMed2006

Challenging the world: patient safety and health care-associated infection.

Improving the safety of patient care is an issue which affects health systems in both developed and developing countries. To co-ordinate and accelerate improvements in patient safety, the World Health Organization (WHO) has supported the creation of the World Alliance for Patient Safety which was launched in October 2004. The six action areas of the Alliance are Patients for Patient Safety, Taxonomy, Research, Solutions for Patient Safety, Reporting and Learning, and a biennial Global Patient Safety Challenge. The first Challenge covering 2005-2006 was launched in October 2005 under the banner 'Clean Care is Safer Care'. The Challenge addresses health care-associated infection, a major, patient safety problem affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Cross Infection↗
PubMed2006

Skin reactions related to hand hygiene and selection of hand hygiene products.

BACKGROUND: In October 2004, The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety. Within the alliance, the first priority of the Global Patient Safety Challenge is to reduce health care-associated infection. A key action within the challenge is to promote hand hygiene in health care globally as well as at the country level through the campaign "Clean Care is Safer Care." As a result, the WHO is developing Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care, designed to be applicable throughout the world. METHODS: This paper summarizes one component of the global WHO guidelines related to the impact of hand hygiene on the skin of health care personnel, including a discussion of types of skin reactions associated with hand hygiene, methods to reduce adverse reactions, and factors to consider when selecting hand hygiene products. RESULTS: Health care professionals have a higher prevalence of skin irritation than seen in the general population because of the necessity for frequent hand hygiene during patient care. CONCLUSION: Ways to minimize adverse effects of hand hygiene include selecting less irritating products, using skin moisturizers, and modifying certain hand hygiene practices such as unnecessary washing. Institutions need to consider several factors when selecting hand hygiene products: dermal tolerance and aesthetic preferences of users as well as practical considerations such as convenience, storage, and costs.

Anti-Infective Agents, Local↗
PubMed2006

Evidence-based model for hand transmission during patient care and the role of improved practices.

Hand cleansing is the primary action to reduce health-care-associated infection and cross-transmission of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Patient-to-patient transmission of pathogens via health-care workers' hands requires five sequential steps: (1) organisms are present on the patient's skin or have been shed onto fomites in the patient's immediate environment; (2) organisms must be transferred to health-care workers' hands; (3) organisms must be capable of surviving on health-care workers' hands for at least several minutes; (4) handwashing or hand antisepsis by the health-care worker must be inadequate or omitted entirely, or the agent used for hand hygiene inappropriate; and (5) the caregiver's contaminated hand(s) must come into direct contact with another patient or with a fomite in direct contact with the patient. We review the evidence supporting each of these steps and propose a dynamic model for hand hygiene research and education strategies, together with corresponding indications for hand hygiene during patient care.

Education↗
PubMed2006

A pandemic on the horizon.

A pandemic of human influenza is on the horizon: the question is not whether it will arrive but when. Knowing that a pandemic is coming provides an opportunity to plan ahead to mitigate against its impact. However, there are inevitably many uncertainties and managing these, under a constant media spotlight, is an additional and novel challenge.

Disease Outbreaks↗
PubMed2002

The impact of recurrent throat infection on children and their families.

BACKGROUND: Recurrent throat problems in children are common and have an impact on the family. The appropriateness of surgery will depend on both clinical and social factors. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess the impact on the whole family when a child is suffering from recurrent throat problems, and investigate related parental attitudes. METHODS: A total of 1190 parents of children in northern England for whom tonsillectomy or adeno-tonsillectomy was a possible treatment option were sent a questionnaire covering social and clinical issues such as children's symptoms, the impact on family life and parental attitudes. RESULTS: The majority of children had experienced more than four episodes in the previous year, had their sleep affected and time off school. Most parents were worried and reported disruption to the family, including taking time off work and cross-infection. Parental disruption, worry and eagerness for surgery were significantly associated with the duration of episodes of throat problems and the number of episodes in the previous year, but not with duration of tonsillitis. Time off school, or parental time off work was significantly associated with parental worry and disruption, but not with eagerness for surgery. CONCLUSION: This work highlights the impact of recurrent throat problems and related parental attitudes, and will aid in striking a balance between clinical requirements and the needs and wishes of the family.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

An organisation with a memory.

Patient safety has been an under-recognised and under-researched concept until recently. It is now high on the healthcare quality agenda in many countries of the world including the UK. The recognition that human error is inevitable in a highly complex and technical field like medicine is a first step in promoting greater awareness of the importance of systems failure in the causation of accidents. Plane crashes are not usually caused by pilot error per se but by an amalgam of technical, environmental, organisational, social and communication factors which predispose to human error or worsen its consequences. In healthcare, the systematic investigation of error in the administration of medication will often reveal similarly complex causation. Experience and research from other sectors, in particular the airline industry, show that the impact of human error can be reduced if the necessary work is put in to detect and then remove weaknesses and vulnerabilties in the system. The NHS is putting in place a comprehensive programme to learn more effectively from adverse events and near misses. This aims to reduce the burden of the estimated 850,000 adverse events which occur in hospitals each year as well as targeting high risk areas such as medication error.

Awareness↗