In this post, we’re offering summaries and comments on articles from BMJ Quality & Safety’s Top 10 of 2020. To check out the 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 […]
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Introducing the Top Articles of 2020
While choosing the top articles published in BMJ Quality & Safety is a challenge every year, 2020 saw even greater numbers of submissions than in previous years. The editors and editorial board of the journal therefore had some difficult choices to make about the top articles of the year, taking into account downloads, citations, Altmetrics […]
The next frontier for patient safety? Bringing work back in
The study of patient safety has come a long way in the past twenty years,1 and yet commentators argue that it still has a long way to go.2,3 The prevailing model assumes that patient safety is a linear process, promoting concepts from manufacturing industries that identify errors after they have occurred and proposing solutions in […]
Driving positive change: what can we learn from compliment letters?
Patient perceptions of care have been recognized as a key component of healthcare quality for over 30 years.1 Patient satisfaction began being reported at the hospital level in the US in 2007.2 However, despite recent institutional and governmental emphasis on satisfaction measures, studies have not shown consistent ways in which using these results can drive […]
Virtual patient visits: bringing into view family member-staff relationships in times of COVID-19
Physical distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic have hindered communication between hospitalised patients and their family members. Sasangohar and colleagues[i] provide insight into use of an existing virtual intensive care unit (ICU) to facilitate online family visits amid Covid-19 visiting restrictions at a large, tertiary hospital in the United States. The paper raises some fascinating […]
Peer review pearls: maximizing your contributions
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 […]
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 […]