General practitioners' and primary care nurses' care for people with disabilities: quality of communication and awareness of supportive services.

Background: General practitioners (GPs) and primary-care nurses (PCNs) often feel inexperienced or inadequately educated to address unmet needs of people with disabilities (PDs). In this research, GPs' and PCNs' communication with PDs and health care professionals, as well as their awareness of supportive measures relevant to PDs (sensory disabilities excluded), was examined.

Materials And Methods: An electronic questionnaire was sent out to 545 GPs and 1,547 PCNs employed in Limburg (Belgium).

Prevalence of inappropriate medication use in residential long-term care facilities for the elderly: A systematic review.

Background: Multi-morbidity and polypharmacy of the elderly population enhances the probability of elderly in residential long-term care facilities experiencing inappropriate medication use.

Objectives: The aim is to systematically review literature to assess the prevalence of inappropriate medication use in residential long-term care facilities for the elderly.

Methods: Databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE) were searched for literature from 2004 to 2016 to identify studies examining inappropriate medication use in residential long-term care facilities for the elderly.

A multicenter record review of in-hospital adverse drug events requiring a higher level of care.

Objective: Adverse drug events (ADEs) are a worldwide concern, particularly when leading to a higher level of care. This study defines a higher level of care as an unplanned (re)admission to an intensive care unit or an intervention by a Medical Emergency Team. The objectives are to describe the incidence and preventability of ADEs leading to a higher level of care, to assess the types of drug involved, and to identify the risk factors.

Incidence and outcome of inappropriate in-hospital empiric antibiotics for severe infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: The aims of this study were to explore the incidence of in-hospital inappropriate empiric antibiotic use in patients with severe infection and to identify its relationship with patient outcomes.

Methods: Medline (from 2004 to 2014) was systematically searched by using predefined inclusion criteria. Reference lists of retrieved articles were screened for additional relevant studies.

One fourth of unplanned transfers to a higher level of care are associated with a highly preventable adverse event: a patient record review in six Belgian hospitals.

Objective: The objectives of this study are to determine the prevalence and preventability of adverse events requiring an unplanned higher level of care, defined as an unplanned transfer to the ICU or an in-hospital medical emergency team intervention, and to assess the type and the level of harm of each adverse event.

Design: A three-stage retrospective review process of screening, record review, and consensus judgment was performed.

Setting: Six Belgian acute hospitals.