World Patient Safety Day

World Patient Safety day is celebrated every year on 9^th of December to raise awareness about the safety of patient. Patient safety is a global public health concern and is a fundamental principle of health care. The main aim of this day is to raise awareness about patient safety issues in all parts of the world.

Hospital is a place which provides treatment to sick people round the clock. However at times, it could turn out to be life threatening as well. Every process of patient care safety involves a certain degree of uncertainty. The discipline of patient safety highlights the importance to prevent harm to patients, caused by the process of healthcare itself.  Improving patient safety means reducing harm to the patient.

Why this concern?
According to WHO, estimates show that in developed countries as many as 1 in 10 patients are harmed while receiving hospital care. The harm can be caused by a range of errors or adverse events. Recent advancement in technology has created an immensely complex healthcare system. This complexity brings many challenges for healthcare staff in order to keep the patient safe. Though, a lot of people are treated successfully but there are times when things can go wrong.

Patient Safety Issues: 

Diagnostic Errors:  such as wrong, missed or unintentional delayed diagnosis.
Health Care-Acquired Infections: These are the errors which occur during patient’s hospitalization.
Medication Errors- are when a patient gets the wrong medication, or when he or she receives the right medication but in the wrong dosage.
Readmissions: A readmission is when a patient needs to return to the hospital less than 30 days after being discharged.
Wrong-Site Surgery: Wrong-site surgery means an operation done on the wrong part of the body or on the wrong person.
Communication: Proper communication between the hospital workers as well as between the patient and doctor.

How to ensure proper patient Safety?

• Ensure proper patient identity. Patient coding/ labelling can be helpful.
• Do not use abbreviations while writing prescriptions. Preferably use capital letters so that it is easy for the patient to understand.
• Training of healthcare professionals and team building activities can help in reducing such errors.
• Proper healthcare infrastructure will help in reducing patient harm during hospitalization.
• Effective use of signages will avoid unnecessary delays during hospitalization. 
• Take proper charge when handing over/taking over the patients especially during shifts.
• Engaging patient and their families in their own care. Adherence to Standard Operative Procedure (SOP) facilitates patient’s safety.
• Doctors should be trained for rational use of medicines and especially avoid over prescription.

Source: National Health Portal

Short-term sleep deprivation affects heart function

People who work in fire and emergency medical services, medical residencies and other high-stress jobs are often called upon to work 24-hour shifts with little opportunity for sleep. While it is known that extreme fatigue can affect many physical, cognitive and emotional processes, this is the first study to examine how working a 24-hour shift specifically affects cardiac function.

"For the first time, we have shown that short-term sleep deprivation in the context of 24-hour shifts can lead to a significant increase in cardiac contractility, blood pressure and heart rate," said study author Daniel Kuetting, M.D., from the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the University of Bonn in Bonn, Germany.

For the study, Dr. Kuetting and colleagues recruited 20 healthy radiologists, including 19 men and one woman, with a mean age of 31.6 years. Each of the study participants underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging with strain analysis before and after a 24-hour shift with an average of three hours of sleep.

"Cardiac function in the context of sleep deprivation has not previously been investigated with CMR strain analysis, the most sensitive parameter of cardiac contractility," Dr. Kuetting said.

The researchers also collected blood and urine samples from the participants and measured blood pressure and heart rate.

Following short-term sleep deprivation, the participants showed significant increases in mean peak systolic strain (pre = -21.9; post = -23.4), systolic (112.8; 118.5) and diastolic (62.9; 69.2) blood pressure and heart rate (63.0; 68.9). In addition, the participants had significant increases in levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroid hormones FT3 and FT4, and cortisol, a hormone released by the body in response to stress.

Although the researchers were able to perform follow-up examinations on half of the participants after regular sleep, Dr. Kuetting notes that further study in a larger cohort is needed to determine possible long-term effects of sleep loss.

"The study was designed to investigate real-life work-related sleep deprivation," Dr. Kuetting said. "While the participants were not permitted to consume caffeine or food and beverages containing theobromine, such as chocolate, nuts or tea, we did not take into account factors like individual stress level or environmental stimuli."

As people continue to work longer hours or work at more than one job to make ends meet, it is critical to investigate the detrimental effects of too much work and not enough sleep. Dr. Kuetting believes the results of this pilot study are transferable to other professions in which long periods of uninterrupted labor are common.

"These findings may help us better understand how workload and shift duration affect public health," he said

Source: ScienceDaily