Computer-assisted textual analysis of free-text comments in the Swiss Cancer Patient Experiences (SCAPE) survey.

Background: Patient experience surveys are increasingly conducted in cancer care as they provide important results to consider in future development of cancer care and health policymaking. These surveys usually include closed-ended questions (patient-reported experience measures (PREMs)) and space for free-text comments, but published results are mostly based on PREMs. We aimed to identify the underlying themes of patients' experiences as shared in their own words in the Swiss Cancer Patient Experiences (SCAPE) survey and compare these themes with those assessed with PREMs to investigate how the textual analysis of free-text comments contributes to the understanding of patients' experiences of care.

Assessment of Avoidable Readmissions in a Visceral Surgery Department with an Algorithm: Methodology, Analysis and Measures for Improvement.

Background: Standardized quality indicators assessing avoidable readmission become increasingly important in health care. They can identify improvements area and contribute to enhance the care delivered. However, the way of using them in practice was rarely described.

Effectiveness of a transition plan at discharge of patients hospitalized with heart failure: a before-and-after study.

Aims: We evaluated the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary transition plan to reduce early readmission among heart failure patients.

Methods And Results: We conducted a before-and-after study in a tertiary internal medicine department, comparing 3 years of retrospective data (pre-intervention) and 13 months of prospective data (intervention period). Intervention was the introduction in 2013 of a transition plan performed by a multidisciplinary team.

Prediction of potentially avoidable readmission risk in a division of general internal medicine.

Introduction: The 30-day post-discharge readmission rate is a quality indicator that may reflect suboptimal care. The computerised algorithm SQLape® can retrospectively identify a potentially avoidable readmission (PARA) with high sensitivity and specificity. We retrospectively analysed the hospital stays of patients readmitted to the Department of Internal Medicine of the CHUV (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois) in order to quantify the proportion of PARAs and derive a risk prediction model.

Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Implementation of an Enhanced Recovery Program in Liver Surgery.

Background: Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programs have been shown to ease the postoperative recovery and improve clinical outcomes for various surgery types. ERAS cost-effectiveness was demonstrated for colorectal surgery but not for liver surgery. The present study aim was to analyze the implementation costs and benefits of a specific ERAS program in liver surgery.

The impact of an enhanced recovery pathway on nursing workload: A retrospective cohort study.

Background & Aims: The importance of nursing for surgical patients has been frequently underestimated. The success of enhanced recovery programs after surgery (ERAS) depends on preferably complete fulfillment of the protocol and nurses are an important part of it. Due to the additional nursing action required, such protocols are suspected to increase the nursing workload.

[Inter-hospital CHUV-HUG medical consensus of back pain management. Its application in care pathways within CHUV of Lausanne].

Back pain is a considerable economical burden in industrialised countries. Its management varies widely across countries, including Switzerland. Thus, the University Hospital and University of Lausanne (CHUV) recently improved intern processes of back pain care.

Collaborative quality improvement to manage pain in acute care hospitals.

Objective: Collaborative quality improvement programs have been successfully used to manage chronic diseases in adults and acute lung complications in premature infants. Their effectiveness to improve pain management in acute care hospitals is currently unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a collaborative quality improvement program implemented at hospital level could improve pain management and overall pain relief.

Work related characteristics of back and neck pain among employees of a Swiss University Hospital.

Objectives: 1) To explore the staff- and work-related risk factors for spinal pain among hospital employees, 2) to investigate the effect of staff- and work-related variables on the consequences of spinal pain, such as doctor visits and sick leave.

Methods: A mailed survey was carried out in a random sample of 2700 employees stratified for occupational categories (administration staff, nurses, nurse assistants, physicians, support staff and allied health professionals). The questionnaire measured self-reported spinal pain, consequences of pain, and work characteristics.

Factors influencing emergency delays in acute stroke management.

Objective: Early admission to hospital with minimum delay is a prerequisite for successful management of acute stroke. We sought to determine our local pre- and in-hospital factors influencing this delay.

Patients And Methods: Time from onset of symptoms to admission (admission time) was prospectively documented during a 6-month period (December 2004 to May 2005) in patients consecutively admitted for an acute focal neurological deficit presented at arrival and of presumed vascular origin.

[Collaboration patients-health care providers].

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Daily suffering of patients and their relatives is often ignored or underestimated. Scientific advances focus on medical treatments and survival and very little on the psychosocial impact of the disease.