Qualitative content analysis: A framework for the substantive review of hospital incident reports.

For decades, incident reports have been utilized as a part of comprehensive healthcare risk management and patient safety programs. As the roles of healthcare risk managers and patient safety professionals become more complex, it is essential that standard tools and strategies used by these professionals, like incident report analysis, be standardized to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Qualitative content analysis provides a structured framework that can be successfully used to describe the categories and themes of incidents, so that, they can be used to develop individual and organizational learning.

State of the science: beta-blockers and reduction of perioperative cardiac events.

This article evaluates the current literature concerning the use of perioperative beta-blockade to reduce cardiac events in hopes that it may provide direction to clinicians or demonstrate gaps in medical knowledge, thus revealing areas suitable for future study. The current standard of practice for the use of perioperative beta-blockade in preoperative patients is outlined in the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines. Findings differ as to the risk and benefit of using beta-blockers perioperatively to reduce cardiac events.