Post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage: cost-benefit analysis of prolonged hospitalization.

Prolonged hospitalization after tonsillectomy up to three nights was implemented to decrease mortality due to post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage. To assess if extension of postoperative inpatient observation time from one to three nights results in potential benefits following tonsillectomy. Patients who stayed only one night post-tonsillectomy between 1994 and 2006 (Group A) were compared to 1570 patients who stayed three nights postoperatively between 2008 and 2016 (Group B).

Soft Factors, Smooth Transport? The role of safety climate and team processes in reducing adverse events during intrahospital transport in intensive care.

Background: Intrahospital patient transports (IHTs) in intensive care involve an appreciable risk of adverse events (AEs). Research on determinants of AE occurrence during IHT has hitherto focused on patient, transport, and intensive care unit (ICU) characteristics. By contrast, the role of "soft" factors, although arguably relevant for IHTs and a topic of interest in general health care settings, has not yet been explored.

Two sides of the safety coin?: How patient engagement and safety climate jointly affect error occurrence in hospital units.

Background: Safety climate (SC) and more recently patient engagement (PE) have been identified as potential determinants of patient safety, but conceptual and empirical studies combining both are lacking.

Purposes: On the basis of extant theories and concepts in safety research, this study investigates the effect of PE in conjunction with SC on perceived error occurrence (pEO) in hospitals, controlling for various staff-, patient-, and hospital-related variables as well as the amount of stress and (lack of) organizational support experienced by staff. Besides the main effects of PE and SC on error occurrence, their interaction is examined, too.

A national survey of defensive medicine among orthopaedic surgeons, trauma surgeons and radiologists in Austria: evaluation of prevalence and context.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Defensive medical practice represents an increasing concern in European countries and is reported to account for rising health care expenditures. Malpractice liability, current jurisdiction and the increasing claim for accountability appear to result in additional diagnostic requests with marginal clinical benefit. Investigations that evaluate the national Austrian prevalence and contextual principles and consequences of defensive medicine are lacking so far.

Safety climate reduces medication and dislodgement errors in routine intensive care practice.

Purpose: To assess the frequency and contributing factors of medication and dislodgement errors attributable to common routine processes in a cohort of intensive care units, with a special focus on the potential impact of safety climate.

Methods: A prospective, observational, 48 h cross sectional study in 57 intensive care units (ICUs) in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, with self-reporting of medical errors by ICU staff and concurrent assessment of safety climate, workload and level of care.

Results: For 795 observed patients, a total of 641 errors affecting 269 patients were reported.

Attitude is everything? The impact of workload, safety climate, and safety tools on medical errors: a study of intensive care units.

Background: Hospitals face an increasing pressure toward efficiency and cost reduction while ensuring patient safety. This warrants a closer examination of the trade-off between production and protection posited in the literature for a high-risk hospital setting (intensive care).

Purposes: On the basis of extant literature and concepts on both safety management and organizational/safety culture, this study investigates to which extent production pressure (i.

Development and validation of a patient safety culture questionnaire in acute geriatric units.

Background: Older patients (≥65 years) are exposed to more harm resulting from adverse events in hospitals than younger patients. Theoretical considerations and empirical findings suggest that safety culture is the key to improving the quality of health care.

Objective: To describe the development of a German-language instrument for assessing patient safety culture (PSC) and its reliability and validity; to verify criterion validity by means of a cross-sectional analysis of the impact of PSC on clinical quality that compares acute geriatric units with a sample from intensive care, surgery and trauma surgery departments, and to report variations in the PSC profile between these groups.