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Biomedical subjects

Patricia O'Connor

Publications and source records attributed to Patricia O'Connor.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Taking aim at fall injury adverse events: best practices and organizational change.

Fall injuries represent a huge healthcare, social and financial burden to the Canadian population. In 2004, the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) was awarded recognition as a National Spotlight Organization for Implementation of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario Best Practice Guidelines (BPGs). That same year, the author and co-leader of the Best Practice Guideline Program began the CHSRF Executive Training in Research Application (EXTRA) Program with the goal of reducing falls injuries, one of the most common adverse events in the MUHC and in acute care in Canada. This demonstration project used multiple strategies to strengthen a culture of safety and improve performance relating to adverse events, including: pilot testing several evidence-based falls prevention interventions (autumn 2005), training teams of champions to work across multiple sites, developing an infrastructure to support organizational change, modifying existing quality indicators to become benchmarkable, conducting a cost analysis of falls prevention, evaluating pre- and post-pilot surveys of organizational climate and obtaining initial baseline measures of the safety climate within the organization. Positive patient, practitioner and organizational outcomes suggest that falls safety prevention is feasible in large, complex healthcare organizations--and that safety is both a moral and a financial imperative. Next stages of the BPG program include full rollout, and measuring sustainability via a formal outcome evaluation study.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed2005

Suicide: the unmet challenge of the trauma system.

HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that a significant number of injuries and deaths due to suicide occurred in patients undergoing psychiatric treatment. DESIGN: We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients who committed suicide and patients with intentional self-inflicted injury. SETTING: San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, Calif, and the San Francisco Violent Injury Reporting System. PATIENTS: We retrospectively reviewed the San Francisco General Hospital records for all attempted and fatal suicides during calendar years 2001 and 2002. Data were merged with suicide data collected by the San Francisco Violent Injury Reporting System. RESULTS: Two hundred thirty-five suicides occurred between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2002. One hundred thirty-two patients (56%) who committed suicide had a known mental health disorder at the time of their suicide. One hundred fifteen (87.1%) of those with a known mental health disorder had received psychiatric treatment at some point. Ninety-one patients (68.9%) with a known mental health disorder who committed suicide were receiving psychiatric treatment at the time of suicide. One hundred sixty-five (70%) of those who committed suicide had a traumatic mechanism of death. During the same 2-year period, 3106 trauma patients were admitted to San Francisco General Hospital. Fifty-five (2%) sustained intentional self-inflicted injuries. Ten (18%) of the 55 patients with intentional self-inflicted injury died after arrival at San Francisco General Hospital. CONCLUSION: Creation of a feedback mechanism between the trauma and mental health systems has the potential to improve psychiatric care and prevent injury and death.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Patient safety culture and leadership within Canada's Academic Health Science Centres: towards the development of a collaborative position paper.

Currently, the Academy of Canadian Executive Nurses (ACEN) is working with the Association of Canadian Academic Healthcare Organizations (ACAHO) to develop a joint position paper on patient safety cultures and leadership within Academic Health Science Centres (AHSCs). Pressures to improve patient safety within our healthcare system are gaining momentum daily. Because AHSCs in Canada are the key organizations that are positioned regionally and nationally, where service delivery is the platform for the education of future healthcare providers, and where the development of new knowledge and innovation through research occurs, leadership for patient safety logically must emanate from them. As a primer, ACEN provides an overview of current patient safety initiatives in AHSCs to date. In addition, the following six key areas for action are identified to ensure that AHSCs continue to be leaders in delivering quality, safe healthcare in Canada. These include: (1) strategic orientation to safety culture and quality improvement, (2) open and transparent disclosure policies, (3) health human resources integral to ensuring patient safety practices, (4) effective linkages between AHSCs and academic institutions, (5) national patient safety accountability initiatives and (6) collaborative team practice.

Academic Medical Centers↗