Electronic error-reporting systems: a case study into the impact on nurse reporting of medical errors.

Background: Underreporting of errors in hospitals persists despite the claims of technology companies that electronic systems will facilitate reporting. This study builds on previous analyses to examine error reporting by nurses in hospitals using electronic media.

Purpose: This research asks whether the electronic media creates additional barriers to error reporting, and, if so, what practical steps can all hospitals take to reduce these barriers.

One hundred tasks an hour: an observational study of emergency department consultant activities.

Objective: To determine work activity patterns undertaken by ED consultants.

Methods: A single observer time-motion study of consultants rostered to clinical shifts: primarily administrative (Duty) or clinical (Resuscitation). Direct observation of 130 h was undertaken using purpose developed time-stamping software.

The effect of compliance-improving interventions on the cognitive-behavioural treatment of pathological gambling.

This exploratory study investigated the effect of interventions designed to improve compliance and reduce dropout rates during the outpatient treatment of pathological gambling at a University-based gambling treatment clinic. Forty subjects (29 males, 11 females, mean age = 37.6) meeting DSM-IV criteria (APA, 1994) for pathological gambling were randomly assigned to either a cognitive-behavioural treatment or a cognitive-behavioural treatment combined with interventions designed to improve treatment compliance.