Something to Chew on; Plate-Waste at an Ontario Veteran's Centre.

There is paucity of data assessing levels of food/beverage waste in long-term care (LTC) facilities, especially in Ontario. Observations in the Veteran's Centre (VC) at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Sunnybrook) indicated food/beverage waste may be high, potentially impacting sustainability efforts within our institution. Before proceeding with waste reduction efforts, we conducted a comprehensive 3-day waste-audit of food/beverage items provided to VC residents with the goal of understanding the extent of food/beverage waste at VC, items wasted, and any other factors that may inform future changes. Our results indicate that 28% of items served to residents were wasted. Lunch was the meal with greatest waste at 31% and waste of solid items was 12% higher than that of liquids. We observed a large variability in waste between residents and within each resident, with 15% of residents wasting >50% of items provided. This study provides a deeper insight into the magnitude of food/beverage waste in a LTC population and highlights the importance of considering individualized strategies to address waste to avoid negative impact on residents.

Quality management of nuchal translucency ultrasound measurement in Australia.

BACKGROUND: Nuchal translucency measurement has an established role in first trimester screening. Accurate measurement requires that technical guidelines are followed. Performance can be monitored by auditing the distribution of measurements obtained in a series of cases. AIMS: The primary aim is to develop an accessible, theory-based educational program for individuals whose distribution of measurements at audit falls outside an acceptable range, and assess operator performance following this intervention. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Operators whose nuchal translucency measurement distributions fall outside a normal range (38-65% above the median) were expected to undergo a teleconference tutorial. Accessible from anywhere in Australia, the one hour tutorials were run by a senior sonographer (to explain technical ultrasound aspects) and the audit program manager (to explain the audit process). RESULTS: In 2011, 83 operators attended the teleconference tutorials. Compared to a random comparison group of operators meeting standard in 2011, teleconference tutorial attendees were significantly more likely to: (i) operate in rural or regional, rather than metropolitan, centres (P = 0.001); (ii) be less experienced (P < 0.0005); and (iii) have lower annual scan numbers (P = 0.0012). Improvement in nuchal translucency measurement quality was seen after one audit cycle and was maintained over subsequent years. The mean percentage of the study cohort reaching standard over the five-year audit was 77.8% which was not statistically different from the average for the comparison cohort of all other audited operators (79.3%; P = 0.61). CONCLUSIONS: Teleconference tutorials are a convenient, accessible and effective way to obtain immediate and sustained improvement in operator performance.

Setting up and running a paediatric emergency department in a hospital in Malawi: 15 years on.

Paediatric emergency care is not recognised as a specialty in many countries in Africa but is being practised increasingly. Setting up a paediatric emergency care unit takes time and often involves trial and error. Here we describe the start of the paediatric emergency department in Blantyre, Malawi, a low-income country and how it has continued to evolve over 15 years, in the hope that our experience will inform and assist others who are already developing their own emergency unit or wishing to do so.

Tightrope walking towards maximising secondary uses of digitised health data: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Timely progress with attaining benefits from Health Information Technology (HIT) investments requires UK policymakers and others to negotiate challenges in developing structures and processes to catalyse the trustworthy secondary uses of HIT-derived data. AIMS: We aimed to uncover expert insights into perceived barriers and facilitators for maximising safe and secure secondary uses of HIT-derived data in the UK. METHODS: We purposively selected individuals from a range of disciplines in the UK and abroad to participate in a thematically analysed, semi-structured interview study. RESULTS: We identified a main theme of 'tightrope walking' from our interviews (n = 23), reflecting trying to balance different stakeholders' views and priorities, with sub-themes of 'a culture of caution', 'fuzzy boundaries' and 'cultivating the ground'. The public interest concept was fundamental to interviewees' support for secondary uses of HIT-derived data. Small scale and prior collaborative relationships facilitated progress. Involving commercial companies, improving data quality, achieving proportionate governance and capacity building remained challenges. CONCLUSIONS: One challenge will be scaling up data linkage successes more evident internationally with regional population datasets. Within the UK, devolved nations have the advantage that 'small scale' encompasses national datasets. Proportionate governance principles developed in Scotland could be more widely applicable, while lessons on public engagement might be learned from Western Australia. A UK policy focus now should be on expediting large-scale demonstrator projects and effectively communicating their findings and impact. Progress could be jeopardised if national data protection laws were superseded by any Europen Union-wide regulation governing personal data.

A systematic scoping review of the domains and innovations in secondary uses of digitised health-related data.

BACKGROUND: Substantial investments are being made in health -information -technology (HIT) based on assumptions that these systems will save costs through increased quality, safety and efficiency of care provision. Whilst -short-term -benefits have often proven difficult to demonstrate, there is increasing interest in achieving benefits in the medium and long term through secondary uses of -HIT-derived data. AIMS: We aimed to describe the range of secondary uses of HIT-derived data in the international literature and identify innovative developments of particular relevance to UK policymakers and managers. METHODS: We searched nine electronic databases to conduct a systematic scoping review of the international literature and augmented this by consulting a range of experts in the field. RESULTS: Reviewers independently screened 16,806 titles, resulting in 583 -eligible studies for inclusion. Thematic organisation of reported secondary uses was -validated during expert consultation (n = 23). A primary division was made between patient-identifiable data and datasets in which individuals were not identified. Secondary uses were then categorised under four domain headings of: i) research; ii) quality and safety of care provision; iii) financial management; and iv) healthcare professional education. We found that innovative developments were most -evident in research where, in particular, dataset linkage studies offered important -opportunities for exploitation. CONCLUSIONS: Distinguishing patient-identifiable data from aggregated, de-identified datasets gives greater conceptual clarity in secondary uses of HIT-derived data. Secondary uses research has substantial potential for realising future benefits through generating new medical knowledge from dataset linkage studies, developing precision medicine and enabling cross-sectoral, evidence-based policymaking to benefit population-level well-being.

Structuring and coding in health care records: a qualitative analysis using diabetes as a case study.

BACKGROUND: Globally, diabetes mellitus presents a substantial and increasing burden to individuals, health care systems and society. Structuring and coding of information in the electronic health record underpin attempts to improve sharing and searching for information. Digital records for those with long-term conditions are expected to bring direct and secondary uses benefits, and potentially to support patient self-management. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: We sought to investigate if how and why records for adults with diabetes were structured and coded and to explore a range of UK stakeholders' perceptions of current practice in the National Health Service. METHODS: We carried out a qualitative, theoretically informed case study of documenting health care information for diabetes in family practice and hospital settings in England, using semi-structured interviews, observations, systems demonstrations and documentary data. RESULTS: We conducted 22 interviews and four on-site observations. With respect to secondary uses - research, audit, public health and service planning - interviewees clearly articulated the benefits of highly structured and coded diabetes data and it was believed that benefits would expand through linkage to other datasets. Direct, more marginal, clinical benefits in terms of managing and monitoring diabetes and perhaps encouraging patient self-management were also reported. We observed marked differences in levels of record structuring and/or coding between family practices, where it was high, and the hospital. We found little evidence that structured and coded data were being exploited to improve information sharing between care settings. CONCLUSIONS: Using high levels of data structuring and coding in records for diabetes patients has the potential to be exploited more fully, and lessons might be learned from successful developments elsewhere in the UK. A first step would be for hospitals to attain levels of health information technology infrastructure and systems use commensurate with family practices.

The collection and utilisation of patient ethnicity data in general practices and hospitals in the United Kingdom: a qualitative case study.

BACKGROUND: Although the collection of patient ethnicity data is a requirement of publicly funded healthcare providers in the UK, recording of ethnicity is sub-optimal for reasons that remain poorly understood. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: We sought to understand enablers and barriers to the collection and utilisation of ethnicity data within electronic health records, how these practices have developed and what benefit this information provides to different stakeholder groups. METHODS: We undertook an in-depth, qualitative case study drawing on interviews and documents obtained from participants working as academics, managers and administrators within the UK. RESULTS: Information regarding patient ethnicity was collected and coded as administrative patient data, and/or in narrative form within clinical records. We identified disparities in the classification of ethnicity, approaches to coding and levels of completeness due to differing local, regional and national policies and processes. Most participants could not identify any clinical value of ethnicity information and many did not know if and when data were shared between services or used to support quality of care and research. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlighted substantial variations in data classification, and practical challenges in data collection and usage that undermine the integrity of data collected. Future work needs to focus on explaining the uses of these data to frontline clinicians, identifying resources that can support busy professionals to collect standardised data and then, once collected, maximising the utility of these data.

A qualitative exploration of workarounds related to the implementation of national electronic health records in early adopter mental health hospitals.

AIMS: To investigate the perceptions and reported practices of mental health hospital staff using national hospital electronic health records (EHRs) in order to inform future implementations, particularly in acute mental health settings. METHODS: Thematic analysis of interviews with a wide range of clinical, information technology (IT), managerial and other staff at two early adopter mental health National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in London, UK, implementing national EHRs. RESULTS: We analysed 33 interviews. We first sought out examples of workarounds, such as delayed data entry, entering data in wrong places and individuals using the EHR while logged in as a colleague, then identified possible reasons for the reported workarounds. Our analysis identified four main categories of factors contributing to workarounds (i.e., operational, cultural, organisational and technical). Operational factors included poor system integration with existing workflows and the system not meeting users' perceived needs. Cultural factors involved users' competence with IT and resistance to change. Organisational factors referred to insufficient organisational resources and training, while technical factors included inadequate local technical infrastructure. Many of these factors, such as integrating the EHR system with day-to-day operational processes, staff training and adequate local IT infrastructure, were likely to apply to system implementations in various settings, but we also identified factors that related particularly to implementing EHRs in mental health hospitals, for example: EHR system incompatibility with IT systems used by mental health-related sectors, notably social services; the EHR system lacking specific, mental health functionalities and options; and clinicians feeling unable to use computers while attending to distressed psychiatric patients. CONCLUSIONS: A better conceptual model of reasons for workarounds should help with designing, and supporting the implementation and adoption of, EHRs for use in hospital mental health settings.

Evaluation of medium-term consequences of implementing commercial computerized physician order entry and clinical decision support prescribing systems in two 'early adopter' hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: To understand the medium-term consequences of implementing commercially procured computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and clinical decision support (CDS) systems in 'early adopter' hospitals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In-depth, qualitative case study in two hospitals using a CPOE or a CDS system for at least 2 years. Both hospitals had implemented commercially available systems. Hospital A had implemented a CPOE system (with basic decision support), whereas hospital B invested additional resources in a CDS system that facilitated order entry but which was integrated with electronic health records and offered more advanced CDS. We used a combination of documentary analysis of the implementation plans, audiorecorded semistructured interviews with system users, and observations of strategic meetings and systems usage. RESULTS: We collected 11 documents, conducted 43 interviews, and conducted a total of 21.5 h of observations. We identified three major themes: (1) impacts on individual users, including greater legibility of prescriptions, but also some accounts of increased workloads; (2) the introduction of perceived new safety risks related to accessibility and usability of hardware and software, with users expressing concerns that some problems such as duplicate prescribing were more likely to occur; and (3) realizing organizational benefits through secondary uses of data. CONCLUSIONS: We identified little difference in the medium-term consequences of a CPOE and a CDS system. It is important that future studies investigate the medium- and longer-term consequences of CPOE and CDS systems in a wider range of hospitals.

Investigating the effectiveness of the Mediterranean diet in pregnant women for the primary prevention of asthma and allergy in high-risk infants: protocol for a pilot randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Over recent decades there has been a substantial increase in asthma and allergic disease especially in children. Given the high prevalence, and the associated high disease burden and costs, there is a need to identify effective strategies for the primary prevention of asthma and allergy. A recent systematic review of the literature found strong supportive epidemiological evidence for a protective role of the Mediterranean diet, which now needs to be confirmed through formal experimental studies. This pilot trial in pregnant women aims to establish recruitment, retention and acceptability of a dietary intervention, and to assess the likely impact of the intervention on adherence to a Mediterranean diet during pregnancy. METHODS/DESIGN: This study was a pilot, two-arm, randomised controlled trial in a sample population of pregnant women at high risk of having a child who will develop asthma or allergic disease. DISCUSSION: The work ultimately aims to contribute to improving health outcomes through seeking to reduce the incidence of asthma and allergic problems. This pilot trial will prove invaluable in informing the subsequent planned large-scale, parallel group, randomised controlled trial.

Priority setting of ICU resources in an influenza pandemic: a qualitative study of the Canadian public's perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Pandemic influenza may exacerbate existing scarcity of life-saving medical resources. As a result, decision-makers may be faced with making tough choices about who will receive care and who will have to wait or go without. Although previous studies have explored ethical issues in priority setting from the perspective of clinicians and policymakers, there has been little investigation into how the public views priority setting during a pandemic influenza, in particular related to intensive care resources. METHODS: To bridge this gap, we conducted three public town hall meetings across Canada to explore Canadian's perspectives on this ethical challenge. Town hall discussions group discussions were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Six interrelated themes emerged from the town hall discussions related to: ethical and empirical starting points for deliberation; criteria for setting priorities; pre-crisis planning; in-crisis decision-making; the need for public deliberation and input; and participants' deliberative struggle with the ethical issues. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underscore the importance of public consultation in pandemic planning for sustaining public trust in a public health emergency. Participants appreciated the empirical and ethical uncertainty of decision-making in an influenza pandemic and demonstrated nuanced ethical reasoning about priority setting of intensive care resources in an influenza pandemic. Policymakers may benefit from a better understanding the public's empirical and ethical 'starting points' in developing effective pandemic plans.

Implementation and adoption of nationwide electronic health records in secondary care in England: final qualitative results from prospective national evaluation in "early adopter" hospitals.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the implementation and adoption of the NHS detailed care records service in "early adopter" hospitals in England. DESIGN: Theoretically informed, longitudinal qualitative evaluation based on case studies. SETTING: 12 "early adopter" NHS acute hospitals and specialist care settings studied over two and a half years. DATA SOURCES: Data were collected through in depth interviews, observations, and relevant documents relating directly to case study sites and to wider national developments that were perceived to impact on the implementation strategy. Data were thematically analysed, initially within and then across cases. The dataset consisted of 431 semistructured interviews with key stakeholders, including hospital staff, developers, and governmental stakeholders; 590 hours of observations of strategic meetings and use of the software in context; 334 sets of notes from observations, researchers' field notes, and notes from national conferences; 809 NHS documents; and 58 regional and national documents. RESULTS: Implementation has proceeded more slowly, with a narrower scope and substantially less clinical functionality than was originally planned. The national strategy had considerable local consequences (summarised under five key themes), and wider national developments impacted heavily on implementation and adoption. More specifically, delays related to unrealistic expectations about the capabilities of systems; the time needed to build, configure, and customise the software; the work needed to ensure that systems were supporting provision of care; and the needs of end users for training and support. Other factors hampering progress included the changing milieu of NHS policy and priorities; repeatedly renegotiated national contracts; different stages of development of diverse NHS care records service systems; and a complex communication process between different stakeholders, along with contractual arrangements that largely excluded NHS providers. There was early evidence that deploying systems resulted in important learning within and between organisations and the development of relevant competencies within NHS hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of the NHS Care Records Service in "early adopter" sites proved time consuming and challenging, with as yet limited discernible benefits for clinicians and no clear advantages for patients. Although our results might not be directly transferable to later adopting sites because the functionalities we evaluated were new and untried in the English context, they shed light on the processes involved in implementing major new systems. The move to increased local decision making that we advocated based on our interim analysis has been pursued and welcomed by the NHS, but it is important that policymakers do not lose sight of the overall goal of an integrated interoperable solution.

The case study approach.

The case study approach allows in-depth, multi-faceted explorations of complex issues in their real-life settings. The value of the case study approach is well recognised in the fields of business, law and policy, but somewhat less so in health services research. Based on our experiences of conducting several health-related case studies, we reflect on the different types of case study design, the specific research questions this approach can help answer, the data sources that tend to be used, and the particular advantages and disadvantages of employing this methodological approach. The paper concludes with key pointers to aid those designing and appraising proposals for conducting case study research, and a checklist to help readers assess the quality of case study reports.

Cancer-related psychosocial research: what are the perspectives of cancer care centre users on participation?

PURPOSE: To explore the perspectives of cancer care centre users on participation in psychosocial research to inform research design and ethics. METHODS: The study is based on a qualitative research design. Fourteen semistructured interviews were carried in people diagnosed with cancer and carers. The interview included four main questions about practical barriers to participation, types of research design, motivating factors and the conduct of research in a cancer care support setting. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: Interviewees demonstrated a willingness to participate in psychosocial research within certain circumstances. There were no practical barriers identified, although they considered payment for research-related travel important. The most acceptable research design was the face-to-face interview and the least preferred was the randomised control trial. The factors that motivated participation were altruism, valuing research, and making a contribution to the centre. Interviewees supported the conduct of research in cancer care support centres conditional upon delaying recruitment during the initial months of users' visits and its need to be discreet to avoid deterring visitors from accessing the centre. CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes that the personal interaction between participants and researchers is the most important feature of decision-making by patients/carers to join studies. Taking into account the perspectives of people affected by cancer during the early stages of research design may enhance recruitment and retention and can contribute to the development of research protocols and ethics.

Anything but engaged: user involvement in the context of a national electronic health record implementation.

BACKGROUND: The absence of meaningful end user engagement has repeatedly been highlighted as a key factor contributing to 'failed' implementations of electronic health records (EHRs), but achieving this is particularly challenging in the context of national scale initiatives. In 2002, the National Health Service (NHS) embarked on a so-called 'top-down' national implementation strategy aimed at introducing commercial, centrally procured, EHRs into hospitals throughout England. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine approaches to, and experiences of, user engagement in the context of a large-scale EHR implementation across purposefully selected hospital care providers implementing early versions of nationally procured software. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative, case-study based, socio-technically informed, longitudinal investigation, purposefully sampling and collecting data from four hospitals. Our data comprised a total of 123 semi-structured interviews with users and managers, 15 interviews with additional stakeholders, 43 hours of non-participant observations of meetings and system use, and relevant organisation-specific documents from each case study site. Analysis was thematic, building on an existing model of user engagement that was originally developed in the context of studying the implementation of relatively simple technologies in commercial settings. NVivo8 software was used to facilitate coding. RESULTS: Despite an enduring commitment to the vision of shared EHRs and an appreciation of their potential benefits, meaningful end user engagement was never achieved. Hospital staff were not consulted in systems choice, leading to frustration; they were then further alienated by the implementation of systems that they perceived as inadequately customised. Various efforts to achieve local engagement were attempted, but these were in effect risk mitigation strategies. We found the role of clinical champions to be important in these engagement efforts, but progress was hampered by the hierarchical structures within healthcare teams. As a result, engagement efforts focused mainly on clinical staff with inadequate consideration of management and administrative staff. CONCLUSIONS: This work has allowed us to further develop an existing model of user engagement from the commercial sector and adapt it to inform user engagement in the context of large-scale eHealth implementations. By identifying key points of possible engagement, disengagement and re-engagement, this model will we hope both help those planning similar large-scale EHR implementation efforts and act as a much needed catalyst to further research in this neglected field of enquiry.

Auditing ultrasound assessment of fetal nuchal translucency thickness: a review of Australian National Data 2002-2008.

BACKGROUND: Nuchal translucency (NT) measurement is the ultrasound component of first trimester combined screening for Down syndrome. In 2002, a NT ultrasound education and monitoring program was established in Australia. Between 2002 and 2008, a total of 728,502 NT scans were audited through this process. OVERALL AIM: To audit the availability and performance of certified operators measuring NT following implementation of the Australian education and monitoring program in 2002. METHODS: Retrospective review of the central database that is used to monitor performance of individuals and practices performing NT scans in both public and private practice settings throughout Australia between 2002 and 2008. The performance of operators was assessed by a widely used international standard - that 40-60% of NT measurements should be above the median value for gestational age. RESULTS: The number of certified operators has increased (from 184 in 2002 to 477 in 2008). There is wide variation between states in the number of operators per birth. The percentage of certified operators with a measurement distribution meeting the international standard has increased from 40% in 2002 to 55% in 2008. Greatest improvement has been seen in operators performing 30-199 scans per year. There has been no overall improvement in performance over the last three audit cycles. CONCLUSIONS: The number of operators certified to perform the NT scan has increased since 2002, although availability in some states remains low. An initial improvement in performance of operators appears to have reached a plateau. It is time to become more proactive in engaging operators in the audit cycle.

Implementation and adoption of nationwide electronic health records in secondary care in England: qualitative analysis of interim results from a prospective national evaluation.

OBJECTIVES: To describe and evaluate the implementation and adoption of detailed electronic health records in secondary care in England and thereby provide early feedback for the ongoing local and national rollout of the NHS Care Records Service. DESIGN: A mixed methods, longitudinal, multisite, socio-technical case study. SETTING: Five NHS acute hospital and mental health trusts that have been the focus of early implementation efforts and at which interim data collection and analysis are complete. Data sources and analysis Dataset for the evaluation consists of semi-structured interviews, documents and field notes, observations, and quantitative data. Qualitative data were analysed thematically with a socio-technical coding matrix, combined with additional themes that emerged from the data. Main results Hospital electronic health record applications are being developed and implemented far more slowly than was originally envisioned; the top-down, standardised approach has needed to evolve to admit more variation and greater local choice, which hospital trusts want in order to support local activity. Despite considerable delays and frustrations, support for electronic health records remains strong, including from NHS clinicians. Political and financial factors are now perceived to threaten nationwide implementation of electronic health records. Interviewees identified a range of consequences of long term, centrally negotiated contracts to deliver the NHS Care Records Service in secondary care, particularly as NHS trusts themselves are not party to these contracts. These include convoluted communication channels between different stakeholders, unrealistic deployment timelines, delays, and applications that could not quickly respond to changing national and local NHS priorities. Our data suggest support for a "middle-out" approach to implementing hospital electronic health records, combining government direction with increased local autonomy, and for restricting detailed electronic health record sharing to local health communities. CONCLUSIONS: Experiences from the early implementation sites, which have received considerable attention, financial investment and support, indicate that delivering improved healthcare through nationwide electronic health records will be a long, complex, and iterative process requiring flexibility and local adaptability both with respect to the systems and the implementation strategy. The more tailored, responsive approach that is emerging is becoming better aligned with NHS organisations' perceived needs and is, if pursued, likely to deliver clinically useful electronic health record systems.

Improved triage and emergency care for children reduces inpatient mortality in a resource-constrained setting.

PROBLEM: Early assessment, prioritization for treatment and management of sick children attending a health service are critical to achieving good outcomes. Many hospitals in developing countries see large numbers of patients and have few staff, so patients often have to wait before being assessed and treated. APPROACH: We present the example of a busy Under-Fives Clinic that provided outpatient services, immunizations and treatment for medical emergencies. The clinic was providing an inadequate service resulting in some inappropriate admissions and a high case-fatality rate. We assessed the deficiencies and sought resources to improve services. LOCAL SETTING: A busy paediatric outpatient clinic in a public tertiary care hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. RELEVANT CHANGES: The main changes we made were to train staff in emergency care and triage, improve patient flow through the department and to develop close cooperation between inpatient and outpatient services. Training coincided with a restructuring of the physical layout of the department. The changes were put in place when the department reopened in January 2001. LESSONS LEARNED: Improvements in the process and delivery of care and the ability to prioritize clinical management are essential to good practice. Making the changes described above has streamlined the delivery of care and led to a reduction in inpatient mortality from 10-18% before the changes were made (before 2001) to 6-8% after.