Assessment of the effectiveness of weight-adjusted antibiotic administration, for reduced duration, in surgical prophylaxis of primary hip and knee arthroplasty.

Background: Prophylactic antibiotics have significantly led to a reduction in the risk of post-operative surgical site infections (SSI) in orthopaedic surgery. The aim of using antibiotics for this purpose is to achieve serum and tissue drug levels that exceed, for the duration of the operation, the minimum inhibitory concentration of the likely organisms that are encountered. Prophylactic antibiotics reduce the rate of SSIs in lower limb arthroplasty from between 4% and 8% to between 1% and 3%.

What are we missing? The quality of intraoperative handover before and after introduction of a checklist.

Purpose: Intraoperative handovers are common in anesthesia practice and are associated with increased patient morbidity and mortality. Checklists may improve transfer of information during handovers. This before-and-after study sought to examine the effect of a checklist on intraoperative handover.

Incident Management in Health Care: A Pan-Canadian Perspective.

Background: Nearly 10% of patients experience a harmful patient safety incident in the hospital setting. Current evidence focuses on incident reporting, whereas little is known about how incidents are managed within organizations.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore processes, tools, and resources for incident management in Canadian health care organizations.