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1.
Diabetol Metab Syndr ; 16(1): 100, 2024 May 14.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38745178

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine whether leisure activities can help reduce years lived with disability and increase healthy life expectancy of diabetics aged 50 years and above. METHODS: Analysis was based on five waves of follow-up survey data (Taiwan Longitudinal Study of Aging, TLSA) from 1996 to 2011. A total of 5131 participants aged 50 years and above in 1996 were included in the analysis, and gender, leisure activity participation, and diabetes mellitus were used as primary variables to examine the variation trend in health status in the participants. The health status in the various waves of surveys was measured using the activities of daily living scale, and nondisabled was defined as healthy. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to calculate the life expectancy (LE) and healthy life expectancy (HLE) of the people aged 50 years and above. RESULTS: The diabetes older people with a high frequency of leisure activities have longer HLE than those with lower activity frequency. Using 50-year-old diabetic women as an example, the LE (HLE) of those with six or more leisure activities and those with three or fewer leisure activities was 30.40 (25.34) and 24.90 (20.87), respectively. The LE (HLE) of men with the same conditions was 24.79 (22.68) and 20.30 (18.45), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study used life expectancy and healthy life expectancy as markers to evaluate health benefits and provided evidence that leisure activities can help extend the life span and maintain the health status of middle-aged and older diabetics.

2.
Prev Med Rep ; 42: 102752, 2024 Jun.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38774518

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study used the Taiwan Longitudinal Study in Aging from 1996 to 2011 to investigate the effects of diabetes, hypertension, and healthy living behaviors of those aged over 50 years on the survival status in Taiwan. Methods: Among the 5,131 participants aged 50 years and above in the 1996 survey were included in this study. Cox's proportional hazards model was used to examine the incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and related mortality risk in those aged over 50 years. Results: After adjusting for age, gender, education level, diabetes, hypertension, health behavior, and leisure activity, results from the Cox model show that the elderly without diabetes have a lower mortality risk than those with diabetes. Regular exercise was associated with a lower risk of mortality. The hazard ratios of elderly with regular exercise were 0.78 (95 % CI: 0.64-0.96) for two times a week or less, 0.81 (95 % CI: 0.69-0.96) for 3-5 times a week, and 0.84 (95 % CI: 0.77-0.93) for 6 + times a week, respectively. On the other hand, leisure activity positively reduces mortality risk. For example, the hazard ratios of the elderly with watching TV and reading were 0.63 (95 % CI: 0.55-0.72) and 0.80 (95 % CI: 0.72-0.89), respectively. Moreover, smoking can increase mortality risk 23 % whether the elderly are with diabetes or hypertension or not. Conclusions: Regarding preventing and controlling chronic diseases in the future, continuously encouraging improvement in health behavior and engaging in leisure activities for the middle-aged and over should be considered essential markers.

3.
Healthcare (Basel) ; 12(3)2024 Feb 04.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38338290

ABSTRACT

The provision of efficient healthcare services is essential, driven by the increasing demand for healthcare resources and the need to optimize hospital operations. In this context, the motivation to innovate and improve services while addressing urgent concerns is critical. Hospitals face challenges in managing internal dispatch services efficiently. Outsourcing such services can alleviate the burden on hospital staff, reduce costs, and introduce professional expertise. However, the pressing motivation lies in enhancing service quality, minimizing costs, and exploring innovative approaches. With the rising demand for healthcare services, there is an immediate need to streamline hospital operations. Delays in internal transportation services can have far-reaching implications for patient care, necessitating a prompt and effective solution. Drawing upon dispatch data from a healthcare center in Taiwan, this study constructed a decision-making model to optimize the allocation of hospital service resources. Employing simulation techniques, we closely examine how hospital services are currently organized and how they work. In our research, we utilized dispatch data gathered from a healthcare center in Taichung, Taiwan, spanning from January 2020 to December 2020. Our findings underscore the potential of an intelligent dispatch strategy combined with deployment restricted to the nearest available workers. Our study demonstrates that for cases requiring urgent attention, delay rates that previously ranged from 5% to 34% can be notably reduced to a much-improved 3% to 18%. However, it is important to recognize that the realm of worker dispatch remains subject to a multifaceted array of influencing factors. It becomes evident that a comprehensive dispatching mechanism must be established as part of a broader drive to enhance the efficiency of hospital service operations.

4.
Resuscitation ; 196: 110120, 2024 Mar.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38266768

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Early recognition of cardiac arrest and early initiation of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation can increase the survival of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We compared dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DACPR) effectiveness before and after using different communication models in the dispatching center. METHOD: We analyzed dispatch recordings of non-trauma origin OHCA cases received by the Taichung dispatch center between May 1 to September 30, 2021, and November 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022. The dispatchers underwent an 8-hour training intervention consisting of targeted education using a new communication model for DACPR. Several outcome measures were evaluated, including the sustained return of spontaneous circulation and the time to first chest compression. RESULTS: We included 640 cases in the preintervention group and 580 cases in the postintervention group. The return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) rate, the time to first chest compression, and good neurological outcome were significantly improved in the postintervention group (20.9% vs. 31.0%, p < 0.001;168 seconds vs. 151 seconds, p = 0.004; 2.8% vs. 5.3%, p = 0.024, respectively). In subgroup analyses, the intervention was related to a statistical improvement in ROSC rate among patients whose caller was a family member (18.7% vs. 31.4%, p < 0.001). Among patients whose caller was female, both ROSC and good neurological outcome significantly improved after the intervention (19.8% vs. 36.6%, p < 0.001; 2.7% vs. 7.5%, p = 0.006, respectively). There was a statistical difference between the pre-intervention and post-intervention group with respect to ROSC rate among patients whose caller was family (the adjusted odds ratio:1.78, 95% CI: 0.59-1.25], p < 0.001.) or female (the adjusted odds ratio:3.18,95% CI: 1.77-5.70], p = 0.008.) in the multivariable regression model. CONCLUSION: The new communication model has enhanced the effectiveness of DACPR in terms of the ROSC rate, particularly when the caller was a family member or female, leading to improved rates of ROSC and favorable neurological outcomes.


Subject(s)
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation , Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest , Humans , Female , Persuasive Communication , Communication , Cognition , Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest/therapy
5.
Healthcare (Basel) ; 10(12)2022 Dec 02.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36553963

ABSTRACT

(1) Background: Due to rapidly increasing average age of Taiwan's population, it is very important to analyze the factors affecting the survival of older adults. (2) Methods: In this study, the 1989 Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging, which lasted 22 years and consisted of seven surveys, was used. Furthermore, Cox and Aalen's time-dependent frailty models were used to analyze factors that affect the survival of older adults. (3) Results: Based on past literature, we selected 15 important factors that were closely associated with the survival of older adults and constructed six models based on these factors. The study results showed that, in addition to background characteristics, physical and mental conditions, activities of daily living (ADL), physical performance, and self-rated health had a huge association with the survival of older adults. (4) Conclusions: We selected ten variables (age, gender, population, education level, ADL status, physical performance, self-rated health, smoking, chewing betel nut, and the presence of a spouse), and their combinations were used to generate reduced models, which could be considered as important markers that affect and predict the survival of older adults.

7.
Healthcare (Basel) ; 10(6)2022 May 28.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35742054

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the risks of rehospitalization caused by acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or stroke would have significant differences between diabetic and non-diabetic patients from ACS. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of 364 inpatients with ACS from 2017 to 2019. Logistic regression models included gender, age group, and the principal diagnosis of hospitalization as controlling variables which were used to analyze the dataset. RESULTS: About 10% of patients are hospitalized after recovery. Moreover, regardless of suffering from diabetes, the risk of rehospitalization does not appear to show a significant difference. In comparison with non-diabetic patients, the odds ratio of rehospitalization of diabetic patients was 0.94 (95% CI: 0.46-1.93, p-value = 0.8639) after controlling for the effects of gender, age group, and the principal diagnosis of hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetic patients seem to perform well in controlling LDL-C (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol) after ACS recoveries.

8.
Inquiry ; 59: 469580221095797, 2022.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35505594

ABSTRACT

Long patient waiting time is one of the major problems in the healthcare system and it would decrease patient satisfaction. Previous studies usually investigated how to improve the treatment flow in order to reduce patient waiting time or length of stay. The studies on blood collection counters have received less attention. Therefore, the objective of this study is to reduce the patient waiting time at outpatient clinics for metabolism and nephrology outpatients. A discrete-event simulation is used to analyze the four different strategies for blood collection counter resource allocation. Through analyzing four different strategic settings, the experimental results revealed that the maximum number of patients waiting before the outpatient clinics was reduced from 41 to 33 (20%); the maximum patient waiti-ng time at the outpatient clinics was decreased from 201.6 minutes to 83 minutes (59%). In this study, we found that adjusting the settings of blood collection counters would be beneficial. Assigning one exclusive blood collection counter from 8 to 10 am is the most suitable option with the least impact on the operational process for hospital staff. The results provide managerial insight regarding the cost-effective strategy selection for the hospital operational strategy.


Subject(s)
Outpatients , Waiting Lists , Ambulatory Care Facilities , Computer Simulation , Humans , Time Factors
9.
J Patient Saf ; 18(3): e601-e605, 2022 Apr 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34406988

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To provide comprehensive patient-centered care, we need multidisciplinary teams to face challenges of advanced and complex care. The Taichung Veterans General Hospital has had a ward-based multidisciplinary team system in each ward for 10 years. This study aimed to investigate whether better team performance results in a more positive response in patient safety culture (PSC). DESIGN/SETTING: From 2014 to 2017, there were 21 ward-based multidisciplinary teams. We organized an evaluation panel to assess the performance of the teams. Those teams were divided into 3 groups: high, medium, and low according to their annual performance scores. The Taichung Veterans General Hospital used annual Safety Attitude Questionnaire-based surveys concerning patient safety issues. We used the generalized estimating equation to analyze the dataset over 4 years. All analyses were carried out using SAS Version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). RESULTS: Taking the trend effects from 2014 to 2017 into account, we found that teamwork climate, safety climate, and perception of management were significantly better in the high and medium groups of the ward-based multidisciplinary teams. There was no significant difference in the dimensions of job satisfaction, stress recognition, and working conditions, which suggests that all staff had the same degree of stress or work loading. CONCLUSIONS: Our ward-based multidisciplinary team system had a positive effect on PSC, which demonstrates the following: when team performance is better, patient safety climate is also better. We should keep the ward-based multidisciplinary team system, improve its performance, and maximize positive attitudes about PSC among our staff.


Subject(s)
Hospitals, General , Patient Safety , Attitude of Health Personnel , Humans , Job Satisfaction , Organizational Culture , Patient Care Team , Patient-Centered Care , Safety Management , Surveys and Questionnaires
10.
Health Care Manag Sci ; 25(2): 208-221, 2022 Jun.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34633589

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we consider a stochastic optimization model for a surgical scheduling problem with a single operating room. The goal is to determine the optimal start times of multiple elective surgeries within a single day. The term "optimal" is defined as the largest surgically related utility value while achieving a given threshold defined by the performance variation of a reference solution. The optimization problem is analytically intractable because it involves quantities such as expectation and variance formulations. This implies that traditional mathematical programming techniques cannot be directly applied. We propose a decision support algorithm, which is a fully sequential procedure using variance screening in the first phase, and then employing multiple attribute utility theory to select the best solution in the second phase. The numerical experiments show that the proposed algorithm can find a promising solution in a reasonable amount of time.


Subject(s)
Models, Theoretical , Personnel Staffing and Scheduling , Algorithms , Humans , Operating Rooms , Time Factors
11.
J Patient Saf ; 18(2): e528-e533, 2022 Mar 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34009872

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT: How to develop a better patient safety culture has been an important goal for healthcare organizations, but the effects of safety culture on psychosocial factors, such as emotional exhaustion and stress, have not been fully addressed. This study aimed to reconfigure important dimensions affecting safety culture and examine the associations between safety culture and psychosocial factors (emotional exhaustion and work-life balance). The partial least squaring technique was used to analyze the data, showing that job satisfaction (ß = 0.320, P < 0.001), working conditions (ß = 0.307, P < 0.001), and perception of management (ß = 0.282, P < 0.001) positively affected the safety climate. The safety climate and work-life balance could reduce the occurrence of emotional exhaustion, whereas a high-stress environment would cause a higher level of emotional exhaustion. Given these findings, hospitals should endeavor to help employees feel safe and not threatened, reduce stress, and advise them to maintain a good work-life balance.


Subject(s)
Burnout, Professional , Workplace , Delivery of Health Care , Humans , Job Satisfaction , Organizational Culture , Surveys and Questionnaires
12.
Ther Adv Musculoskelet Dis ; 13: 1759720X211030809, 2021.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34471426

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To investigate factors associated with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: We conducted a nationwide, population-based, case-control study using Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database for 2003-2013. From 2004 to 2012, we identified 108,319 newly diagnosed RA patients without previous MACEs, of whom 7,580 patients (7.0%) developed MACEs during follow-up. From these incident RA patients, we included 5,994 MACE cases and 1:4 matched 23,976 non-MACE controls for analysis. The associations of MACEs with comorbidities and use of anti-rheumatic medications within 1 year before the index date were examined using conditional logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Using multivariable conditional logistic regression analysis, the risk of MACE in RA patients was associated with use of golimumab [odd's ratio (OR), 0.09; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.01-0.67], abatacept (OR, 0.13; 95% CI, 0.02-0.93), hydroxychloroquine (OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.82-0.99), methotrexate (OR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.64-0.81), cyclosporin (OR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.07-1.91), nonsteroidal anti-inflammation drugs (NSAIDs) (OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.27-1.46), antiplatelet agent (OR, 2.47; 95% CI, 2.31-2.63), hypertension (without anti-hypertensive agents: OR, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.96-1.12; with anti-hypertensive agents: OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.36-1.59), diabetes (OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.18-1.37), hyperlipidemia without lipid-lowering agents (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.01-1.17), ischemic heart disease (OR, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.10-1.31), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.03-1.23) in the parsimonious model. The risk of MACE in RA patients also increased markedly in participants younger than 65 years with some comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS: This population-based case-control study revealed that the use of golimumab, abatacept, hydroxychloroquine, and methotrexate were associated with a decreased risk of MACE development in newly diagnosed RA patients, while the use of cyclosporin, NSAIDs, and antiplatelet agents, and comorbidities, including hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia without lipid-lowering agent therapy, ischemic heart disease, and COPD, were associated with an increased risk of MACE development in RA patients.

13.
Healthcare (Basel) ; 8(3)2020 Jul 29.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32751283

ABSTRACT

Study Objective: to investigate the factors related to diabetes mellitus in the middle-aged and over in Taiwan. Method: data from seven surveys (in 1989-2011) from the "Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging" (TLSA), among cohort B (above the age 60 in 1989), cohort A (aged 50-66 in 1996), and cohort C (aged 50-66 in 2003), were analyzed by the interval-censored Cox model. Results: in the early aging stage (aged 60-64), diabetes mellitus prevalence among the same age appeared the lowest in cohort B, followed by cohort A; cohort C reveals the highest than the young generation. Moreover, suffering from hypertension and kidney diseases are closely related to diabetes mellitus, with the diabetes mellitus suffering hazard ratio of 2.53 (95%: 2.35, 2.73) and 1.26 (95%: 1.11, 1.44) times, respectively. For people with fair and poor self-rated health, the risk of suffering from diabetes mellitus is 1.16 (95%: 1.07, 1.27) and 1.50 (95%: 1.35, 1.67) times compared to people with good self-rated health, respectively. Conclusions: in this study, it is considered that an advanced interval censoring model analysis could more accurately grasp the characteristics of factors in people who are middle-aged and over suffering from diabetes mellitus in Taiwan.

14.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32570985

ABSTRACT

(1) Introduction: This study aims to investigate the disparity in the healthy life expectancy of the elderly with hypertension and diabetes mellitus. (2) Materials and Methods: This study used survey data collected in five waves (1996, 1999, 2003, 2007, and 2011) of the "Taiwan Longitudinal Study on Aging" (TLSA) to estimate the life expectancy and healthy life expectancy of different age groups. The activities of daily living, the health condition of hypertension and diabetes and the survival statuses of these cases were analyzed by the IMaCh (Interpolated Markov Chain) and logistic regression model. (3) Results: As regards the elderly between age 50 and 60 with hypertension and diabetes, women with hypertension only exhibited the longest life expectancy, and the healthy life expectancy and the percentage of remaining life with no functional incapacity were 33.74 years and 87.11%, respectively. In contrast, men with diabetes only showed the shortest life expectancy, and the healthy life expectancy and the percentage of remaining life with no functional incapacity were 22.51 years and 93.16%, respectively. We also found that people with diabetes showed a lower percentage of remaining life with no functional incapacity. (4) Conclusions: We suggest that policymakers should pay special attention to publicizing the importance of health control behavior in order to decrease the risk of suffering diseases and to improve the elderly's quality of life.


Subject(s)
Diabetes Mellitus , Hypertension , Life Expectancy , Activities of Daily Living , Aged , Diabetes Mellitus/mortality , Female , Health Status Disparities , Humans , Hypertension/mortality , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Middle Aged , Quality of Life , Taiwan/epidemiology
15.
Healthcare (Basel) ; 8(2)2020 Mar 28.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32231146

ABSTRACT

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Overcrowding in emergency departments (ED) is an increasingly common problem in Taiwanese hospitals, and strategies to improve efficiency are in demand. We propose a bed resource allocation strategy to overcome the overcrowding problem. METHOD: We investigated ED occupancy using discrete-event simulation and evaluated the effects of suppressing day-to-day variations in ED occupancy by adjusting the number of empty beds per day. Administrative data recorded at the ED of Taichung Veterans General Hospital (TCVGH) in Taiwan with 1500 beds and an annual ED volume of 66,000 visits were analyzed. Key indices of ED quality in the analysis were the length of stay and the time in waiting for outward transfers to in-patient beds. The model is able to analyze and compare several scenarios for finding a feasible allocation strategy. RESULTS: We compared several scenarios, and the results showed that by reducing the allocated beds for the ED by 20% on weekdays, the variance of daily ED occupancy was reduced by 36.25% (i.e., the percentage of reduction in standard deviation). CONCLUSIONS: This new allocation strategy was able to both reduce the average ED occupancy and maintain the ED quality indices.

16.
PLoS One ; 15(4): e0231458, 2020.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32310965

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relative risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring dialysis among treated ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients compared with non-AS individuals. METHODS: We used claims data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database obtained between 2003 and 2012, and enrolled 37,070 newly treated AS patients and randomly selected 370,700 non-AS individuals matched (1:10) for age, sex and year of index date. Those with a history of chronic renal failure or dialysis were excluded. After adjusting for age, sex, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, IgA nephropathy, frequency of serum creatinine examinations, use of methotrexate, sulfasalazine, ciclosporis, corticosteroid, aminoglycoside, amphotericin B, cisplatin, contrast agents and annual cumulative defined daily dose (cDDD) of traditional NSAIDs, selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors (COX-2i) and preferential COX-2i, we calculated the adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) with 95% confidence intervals using the Cox proportional hazard model to quantify the risk of ESRD in AS patients. We re-selected 6621 AS patients and 6621 non-AS subjects by further matching (1:1) for cDDDs of three groups of NSAIDs to re-estimate the aHRs for ESRD. RESULTS: Fifty-one (0.14%) of the 37,070 AS patients and 1417 (0.38%) of the non-AS individuals developed ESRD after a follow-up of 158,846 and 1,707,757 person-years, respectively. The aHR for ESRD was 0.59 (0.42-0.81) in AS patients compared with non-AS individuals. However, after further matching for cDDD of NSAIDs, the aHR of ESRD was 1.02 (0.41-2.53). Significant risk factors included hypertension, IgA nephropathy and use of COX-2i. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of ESRD was not significantly different between treated AS patients and non-AS individuals matched for age, sex, year of index date and dose of NSAID.


Subject(s)
Kidney Failure, Chronic/physiopathology , Renal Dialysis/statistics & numerical data , Spondylitis, Ankylosing/complications , Case-Control Studies , Female , Hematinics/therapeutic use , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Proportional Hazards Models , Prospective Studies , Risk Assessment/methods , Risk Factors , Spondylitis, Ankylosing/drug therapy
17.
Artif Intell Med ; 103: 101806, 2020 03.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32143803

ABSTRACT

After admission to emergency department (ED), patients with critical illnesses are transferred to intensive care unit (ICU) due to unexpected clinical deterioration occurrence. Identifying such unplanned ICU transfers is urgently needed for medical physicians to achieve two-fold goals: improving critical care quality and preventing mortality. A priority task is to understand the crucial rationale behind diagnosis results of individual patients during stay in ED, which helps prepare for an early transfer to ICU. Most existing prediction studies were based on univariate analysis or multiple logistic regression to provide one-size-fit-all results. However, patient condition varying from case to case may not be accurately examined by such a simplistic judgment. In this study, we present a new decision tool using a mathematical optimization approach aiming to automatically discover rules associating diagnostic features with high-risk outcome (i.e., unplanned transfers) in different deterioration scenarios. We consider four mutually exclusive patient subgroups based on the principal reasons of ED visits: infections, cardiovascular/respiratory diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, and neurological/other diseases at a suburban teaching hospital. The analysis results demonstrate significant rules associated with unplanned transfer outcome for each subgroups and also show comparable prediction accuracy (>70%) compared to state-of-the-art machine learning methods while providing easy-to-interpret symptom-outcome information.


Subject(s)
Critical Illness/therapy , Emergency Service, Hospital/organization & administration , Intensive Care Units/organization & administration , Machine Learning , Patient Transfer/organization & administration , Age Factors , Emergency Service, Hospital/standards , Hospitals, Teaching , Humans , Intensive Care Units/standards , Logistic Models , Models, Theoretical , Patient Transfer/standards , Quality Improvement/organization & administration , Severity of Illness Index , Time Factors
18.
Resuscitation ; 146: 96-102, 2020 01 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31756360

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DACPR) could improve the survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, the efficiency of DACPR varies. Our study compared the effectiveness of DACPR instructed via landline calls, mobile calls, and landline calls transferred to mobiles. METHOD: This prospective cohort study enrolled patients with OHCA between 1 July 2017 and 30 November 2018 in Taichung. Patients were divided into a mobile group and a landline group according to device used to call emergency medical services (EMS). The landline group was subdivided according to whether the call was transferred to a mobile. We compared the DACPR rate and call to chest compression time between groups. RESULTS: The study comprised 2404 cases after exclusion: 934 cases of DACPR via mobile and 1470 via landline. In the mobile group, DACPR rate (54% vs. 47.5%, P <  0.001) was higher and call to chest compression time (median: 156 s vs. 174 s P < 0.001) was shorter than in the landline group. In the transferred group, DACPR rate (72.7% vs. 28.8%, P <  0.001) was higher than in the non-transferred group, but no difference was observed in call to chest compression time (median: 173 s vs. 177 s, P = 0.69). CONCLUSION: According to this city-based prospective clinical study, communication over mobiles resulted in higher DACPR rate and shorter call to chest compression time than that over landlines. Transferring calls from a landline to a mobile could increase the DACPR rate without delaying the initiation of chest compression.


Subject(s)
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation , Distance Counseling/organization & administration , Emergency Medical Dispatch , Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems/organization & administration , Heart Massage , Aged , Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation/methods , Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation/statistics & numerical data , Cohort Studies , Emergency Medical Dispatch/methods , Emergency Medical Dispatch/statistics & numerical data , Female , Heart Massage/methods , Heart Massage/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Male , Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest/diagnosis , Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest/mortality , Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest/therapy , Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care , Prospective Studies , Survival Analysis , Taiwan/epidemiology , Telecommunications/instrumentation , Telecommunications/statistics & numerical data , Time-to-Treatment/statistics & numerical data
19.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31739429

ABSTRACT

Emergency department crowding has been one of the main issues in the health system in Taiwan. Previous studies have usually targeted the process improvement of patient treatment flow due to the difficulty of collecting Emergency Department (ED) staff data. In this study, we have proposed a hybrid model with Discrete Event Simulation, radio frequency identification applications, and activity-relationship diagrams to simulate the nurse movement flows and identify the relationship between different treatment sections. We used the results to formulate four facility layouts. Through comparing four scenarios, the simulation results indicated that 2.2 km of traveling distance or 140 min of traveling time reduction per nurse could be achieved from the best scenario.


Subject(s)
Appointments and Schedules , Crowding , Efficiency, Organizational , Emergency Service, Hospital/organization & administration , Radio Frequency Identification Device/statistics & numerical data , Radio Frequency Identification Device/standards , Workflow , Humans , Taiwan
20.
BMC Health Serv Res ; 18(1): 919, 2018 Dec 03.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30509281

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study aims to provide insights on how to incorporate the work experience of medical staff into safety climate management based on the relationships among several safety-related constructs such as teamwork climate, working condition, and job satisfaction. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a regional hospital in Taichung City, Taiwan using a Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ)-based questionnaire. The relationships among the constructs were modeled by a structural equation model, and a multi-group analysis was performed. Among the employees participating in the survey, only physicians and nurses were considered in the analysis, accounting for 1596 out of 2277 responses. The key measures were the difference between the unconstrained and fully constrained structural models, the statistically different coefficients, and their strengths across the high and low-experience groups. RESULTS: Our multi-group analysis showed that the effects of management leadership on job satisfaction and of teamwork climate on safety climate were statistically stronger for low-experience medical staff, whereas the effect of working conditions on safety climate was statistically stronger for high-experience medical staff. CONCLUSIONS: The findings demonstrate how to incorporate the work experience of medical staff into safety climate management. In summary, by focusing on different safety constructs for the less and more experienced staff-job satisfaction and teamwork climate for the less experienced, working conditions for the more experienced-management may be able to improve the organizational safety climate. Our suggestions in this study can be leveraged, should management implement the initiatives and action plans for safety climate improvement.


Subject(s)
Medical Staff , Patient Safety , Safety Management/organization & administration , Adult , Attitude of Health Personnel , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Job Satisfaction , Leadership , Male , Middle Aged , Patient Care Team , Surveys and Questionnaires , Taiwan
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