The peer review process is essential to assuring the quality of published manuscripts. BMJ Quality & Safety highly values the work of reviewers, who assist in decisions about which of the many submissions (over 2000 a year) should be selected for publication. The editors also devote considerable time and effort to making sure that the […]
Category: Uncategorized
Informed consent for Orthopaedic surgeons in the time of COVID-19: Addressing ‘the elephant in the room’
In common with other countries, elective procedures have been largely suspended in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK in response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the area of orthopaedics, nationally prioritised urgent and emergency surgical procedures have continued,1 but reduced theatre capacity, staff re-allocation and, most importantly, the increased risk […]
Electronic transmission of outpatient prescriptions still requires significant pharmacist oversight
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to increasing numbers of patients moving to the use of electronic prescriptions and internet pharmacies in many healthcare systems. For example, there has been a dramatic increase in use of the English electronic prescription service since March 2020, with internet pharmacies in the UK also experiencing large increases in the […]
Advanced analytics in healthcare: ready for primetime?
After Michael Lewis’s 2003 book Moneyball revealed that statistical analysis seemed to offer an edge to baseball’s Oakland Athletics, reformers in many other fields tried to emulate the team’s success. There was ‘moneyball for government,’ ‘moneyball for education,’ ‘moneyball for policing’ – initiatives founded on the idea that the introduction of data analysis might upend […]
#Notlittleadults: emergency care for children and the role for collaboration between tertiary academic and rural centers
#Notlittleadults might be the definitive hashtag for the field of paediatric emergency medicine. The unique differences in patterns of injury between children and adults are particularly obvious in the emergency department (ED). An elderly adult might break her hip falling out of bed. But a toddler may tumble down a full flight a steps and […]
Top 10 articles of 2019, Part 2
Here, we’re featuring the second installment of summaries and comments on the BMJQS Editorial Board’s choice of the top 10 articles from 2019 using data such as citation rates and social media engagement in addition to their own judgement. For the full list of our 20 finalists, click here. Part 1, highighting articles #6-#10 for […]
Top 10 articles of 2019, Part 1
In this post, we’re offering summaries and comments on some articles from the BMJQS’s Top 10 of 2019. To check out a full list of our 20 finalists, click here. The editors and the Editorial Board used data such as citation rates and social media engagement in addition to their own judgement to create these […]
Introducing the Top Articles of 2019
2019 saw an exceptional volume of submissions to BMJ Quality and Safety. The editors and editorial board of the journal had some difficult choices to make about the top articles of the year, taking into account downloads, citations, Altmetrics scores, and other information as well as expert judgement. We thank all authors for their contributions […]
System-level initiatives to reduce persistently elevated blood pressures in hypertensive patients: how do we overcome clinical inertia?
In the United States, research consistently shows around half of adults with hypertension do not achieve recommended control of their blood pressure (BP).1 Poor BP control at the population level then leads to higher rates of preventable negative cardiovascular outcomes, like strokes and heart attacks. As recently reported, Elizabeth Pfoh and colleagues studied a quality […]
Unit culture, testing frequency, and simple interventions: more than meets the eye (test)
Recently, Benjamin Leis (@LeisBenjamin) and colleagues published a short report on an intervention in a cardiac intensive care unit (ICU) in Canada. In this study, the authors removed TSH testing from standard admission order sets with the aim of reducing the number of unnecessary thyroid studies obtained. Often, altering an order set like this is […]