Building a Foundation for High-Quality Health Data: Multihospital Case Study in Belgium.

Background: Data quality is fundamental to maintaining the trust and reliability of health data for both primary and secondary purposes. However, before the secondary use of health data, it is essential to assess the quality at the source and to develop systematic methods for the assessment of important data quality dimensions.

Objective: This case study aims to offer a dual aim-to assess the data quality of height and weight measurements across 7 Belgian hospitals, focusing on the dimensions of completeness and consistency, and to outline the obstacles these hospitals face in sharing and improving data quality standards.

The optimal threshold for prompt clinical review: An external validation study of the national early warning score.

Aims And Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the optimal threshold for national early warning score in clinical practice.

Background: The national early warning score is an aggregate early warning score aiming to predict patient mortality. Studies validating national early warning score did not use standardised patient outcomes or did not always include clinical workload in their results.

The impact of nurse staffing levels and nurse's education on patient mortality in medical and surgical wards: an observational multicentre study.

Background: Growing evidence indicates that improved nurse staffing in acute hospitals is associated with lower hospital mortality. Current research is limited to studies using hospital level data or without proper adjustment for confounders which makes the translation to practice difficult.

Method: In this observational study we analysed retrospectively the control group of a stepped wedge randomised controlled trial concerning 14 medical and 14 surgical wards in seven Belgian hospitals.

An intervention including the national early warning score improves patient monitoring practice and reduces mortality: A cluster randomized controlled trial.

Aims: To investigate the impact of the national early warning score on the frequency and the quality of vital sign registration and to study the association between protocol compliance and patient mortality.

Design: We conducted a post hoc data analysis of a stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) in six hospitals.

Methods: All adult, non-pregnant patients admitted to 24 wards were included.

The introduction of a rapid response system in acute hospitals: A pragmatic stepped wedge cluster randomised controlled trial.

Aim: Deterioration of hospitalised patients is often missed, misinterpreted, and mismanaged. Rapid Response Systems (RRSs) have been proposed to solve this problem. This study aimed to investigate the effect of an RRS on the incidence of unexpected death, cardiac arrest with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and unplanned intensive care unit (ICU) admission.

Six-day postoperative impact of a standardized nurse observation and escalation protocol: a preintervention and postintervention study.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of a standardized nurse observation and escalation protocol on observation frequency, the measurement of vital signs, and the incidence of in-hospital mortality and resurgery.

Methods: This is a preintervention and postintervention study by analysis of patient records for a 6-day postoperative period of all adult patients hospitalized in 4 hospital wards after surgery during a preintervention (November 2010 to March 2011; n = 2359) and postintervention (November 2011 to March 2012; n = 1888) period implementing a standardized nurse observation and escalation protocol including the Modified Early Warning Score.

Results: The mean patient observation frequency per nursing shift increased from 0.

In-hospital mortality after serious adverse events on medical and surgical nursing units: a mixed methods study.

Aims And Objectives: To investigate the circumstances of nursing care eight hours before serious adverse events (=SAE's) on medical and surgical nursing units with subsequent in-hospital mortality in order to identify the extent to which these SAE's were potentially preventable.

Background: The prevention of SAE 's in acute care is coming under increasing scrutiny, while the role nursing care plays in the prevention of acute critical deterioration of patients is unclear.

Methods: Retrospective review of patient records of 63 SAE's in a Belgian teaching hospital where death was the final outcome following a cardiac arrest team call or unplanned ICU admission from an acute care unit.

Segment and joint angles of hind limb during bipedal and quadrupedal walking of the bonobo (Pan paniscus).

We describe segment angles (trunk, thigh, shank, and foot) and joint angles (hip, knee, and ankle) for the hind limbs of bonobos walking bipedally ("bent-hip bent-knee walking," 17 sequences) and quadrupedally (33 sequences). Data were based on video recordings (50 Hz) of nine subjects in a lateral view, walking at voluntary speed. The major differences between bipedal and quadrupedal walking are found in the trunk, thigh, and hip angles.