Professionalism of Admitting and Consulting Services and Trauma Patient Outcomes.

Objective: To determine whether trauma patients managed by an admitting or consulting service with a high proportion of physicians exhibiting patterns of unprofessional behaviors are at greater risk of complications or death.

Summary Background Data: Trauma care requires high-functioning interdisciplinary teams where professionalism, particularly modeling respect and communicating effectively, is essential.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study used data from 9 level I trauma centers that participated in a national trauma registry linked with data from a national database of unsolicited patient complaints.

Individualized coaching in health system-wide provider communication training.

Objectives: Most practicing health professionals lack communication skills training (CST). Increasingly health care systems have implemented CST programs, mainly through single workshops which are limited in creating meaningful change in communication behaviors in practice. This paper describes a provider CST program which includes coaching to reinforce skills learned in CST workshops.

Descriptive Epidemiology of Safety Events at an Academic Medical Center.

: Adverse safety events in healthcare are of great concern, and despite an increasing focus on the prevention of error and harm mitigation, the epidemiology of safety events remains incomplete. : We performed an analysis of all reported safety events in an academic medical center using a voluntary incident reporting surveillance system for patient safety. Safety events were classified as: serious (reached the patient and resulted in moderate to severe harm or death); precursor (reached the patient and resulted in minimal or no detectable harm); and near miss (did not reach the patient).

Effects of vessel geometry and catheter position on dose delivery in intracoronary brachytherapy.

In-stent restenosis is commonly observed in coronary arteries after intervention. Intravascular brachytherapy has been found effective in reducing the recurrence of restenosis after stent placement. Conventional dosing models for brachytherapy with beta (beta) radiation neglect vessel geometry as well as the position of the delivery catheter.