Changes in health promotion practice in hospitals across England: the National Health Promotion in Hospital Audit 2009 and 2011.

Background: There is increasing focus on hospitals to provide health promotion (HP) to patients who smoke, misuse alcohol, are obese or physically inactive, yet there is little published literature on assessment and HP in English hospitals.

Methods: Thirty hospitals participated in national audits, both in 2009 and 2011, to assess HP in hospitalized patients. Random samples of 100 patients were selected per hospital per year.

An audit of health education services within UK hospitals.

Rationale, Aims And Objective: UK public health policy requires hospitals to deliver health promotion services to patients for healthy lifestyles (i.e. health education), but there are currently few data on the health education delivered within hospitals.

Audit of health promotion practice within a UK hospital: results of a pilot study.

Introduction And Aim: There is clear evidence that modifiable risk factors--smoking, alcohol misuse, poor diet, lack of exercise and obesity--are detrimental to health. UK public health policy now requires hospitals to have in-place health promotion programmes to empower patients to swap risky for healthy behaviours. This audit aimed to determine a baseline level of health promotion practice for modifiable risk factors in a UK hospital.

A comparison of patients' perceptions and an audit of health promotion practice within a UK hospital.

Background: UK hospitals are required to monitor the health promotion services they provide for patients. We compared the use of audit and patient questionnaires as appropriate tools for monitoring whether patients are screened for modifiable risk factors (smoking, alcohol use, obesity, diet, and physical activity), whether staff correctly identify risk factor presence and deliver health promotion when a risk factor is identified.

Methods: We sent a questionnaire post-discharge to 322 hospitalised adult patients discharged alive between January and March 2006, and audited their hospital case notes for evidence of screening for risk factors, identification of risk factors, and delivery of health promotion to change risk factors.

Legal and ethical considerations in processing patient-identifiable data without patient consent: lessons learnt from developing a disease register.

The legal requirements and justifications for collecting patient-identifiable data without patient consent were examined. The impetus for this arose from legal and ethical issues raised during the development of a population-based disease register. Numerous commentaries and case studies have been discussing the impact of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA1998) and Caldicott principles of good practice on the uses of personal data.

George Herbert Mead and the Allen controversy at the University of Wisconsin.

This essay uses previously unpublished correspondence of George Herbert Mead to tell the story of his involvement in the aftermath of a political dispute that took place at the University of Wisconsin during the years 1914-1915. It seeks thereby to clarify the historical significance of an article he published on this controversy in late 1915. Taken together with relevant information about the educational activities of William H.

Experience of wrong site surgery and surgical marking practices among clinicians in the UK.

Background: Little is known about the incidence of "wrong site surgery", but the consequences of this type of medical error can be severe. Guidance from both the USA and more recently the UK has highlighted the importance of preventing error by marking patients before surgery.

Objective: To investigate the experiences of wrong site surgery and current marking practices among clinicians in the UK before the release of a national Correct Site Surgery Alert.

Factors influencing emergency medical readmission risk in a UK district general hospital: A prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Over recent years increased emphasis has been given to performance monitoring of NHS hospitals, including overall number of hospital readmissions, which however are often sub-optimally adjusted for case-mix. We therefore conducted a study to examine the effect of various patient and disease factors on the risk of emergency medical readmission. METHODS: The study setting was a District General Hospital in Greater Manchester and the study period was 4.

Assessing the impact of heart failure specialist services on patient populations.

Background: The assessment of the impact of healthcare interventions may help commissioners of healthcare services to make optimal decisions. This can be particularly the case if the impact assessment relates to specific patient populations and uses timely local data. We examined the potential impact on readmissions and mortality of specialist heart failure services capable of delivering treatments such as b-blockers and Nurse-Led Educational Intervention (N-LEI).