Failure mode and effect analysis for delivery of lung stereotactic body radiation therapy.

PURPOSE: To improve the quality and safety of our practice of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), we analyzed the process following the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) method. METHODS: The FMEA was performed by a multidisciplinary team. For each step in the SBRT delivery process, a potential failure occurrence was derived and three factors were assessed: the probability of each occurrence, the severity if the event occurs, and the probability of detection by the treatment team. A rank of 1 to 10 was assigned to each factor, and then the multiplied ranks yielded the relative risks (risk priority numbers). The failure modes with the highest risk priority numbers were then considered to implement process improvement measures. RESULTS: A total of 28 occurrences were derived, of which nine events scored with significantly high risk priority numbers. The risk priority numbers of the highest ranked events ranged from 20 to 80. These included transcription errors of the stereotactic coordinates and machine failures. CONCLUSION: Several areas of our SBRT delivery were reconsidered in terms of process improvement, and safety measures, including treatment checklists and a surgical time-out, were added for our practice of gantry-based image-guided SBRT. This study serves as a guide for other users of SBRT to perform FMEA of their own practice.

Nurse staffing and patient perceptions of nursing care.

UNLABELLED: OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between nurse staffing and patient perceptions of nursing care in a convenience sample of 40 California hospitals. BACKGROUND: Growing concern about the adequacy of nurse staffing has led to an increased emphasis on research exploring the relationships between nurse staffing and patient outcomes. Patient satisfaction with nursing care is one of the 21 indicators identified by the American Nurses Association as having a strong "theoretical link to the availability and quality of professional nursing services in hospital settings." This prospective study examined the relationship between nurse staffing and patient perceptions of nursing care in multiple hospitals using common definitions of both nurse staffing and patient perceptions of care. METHODS: Nurse staffing (structural variables) and patient perceptions of nursing care (outcome variables) from hospitals participating in both the ongoing California Nursing Outcomes Coalition statewide database project and the statewide Patients' Evaluation of Performance in California project, with data available on both measures for the same time periods, were examined. Analytic methods included both descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: Hospitals with wide ranges of staffing levels showed similar results in patient perceptions of nursing care. Regression analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship between nursing hours per patient day, and 1 of the 6 dimensions of care measured ("respect for patient's values, preferences, and expressed needs"). CONCLUSIONS: Nurse staffing alone showed a significant but weak relationship to patient perceptions of their care, indicating that staffing is likely only one of several relevant variables influencing patient perceptions of their nursing care. This research contributes data to the body of knowledge regarding nurse staffing. It is essential that nurse executives integrate results from this and other studies in developing strategic and tactical staffing plans that yield positive patient care outcomes.