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August 11, 2021 (TORONTO) — According to a recent survey cheap amoxil online conducted for Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), almost all Canadian physicians say they will continue to use virtual care after the amoxil, and 64 per cent say they will maintain or increase their use. The survey was conducted online in April and May with more than 2,000 physicians — general practitioners (GPs)/family physicians, specialists and residents.Ninety-four per cent of physicians said they currently use virtual care, with cheap amoxil online 93 per cent offering telephone visits, 51 per cent offering video visits, 36 per cent offering email/messaging and five per cent offering remote patient/home health monitoring. More than 70 per cent believe virtual care improves patient access and enables quality care and efficient care for their patients.Seven out of 10 were satisfied with telephone/video and about 50 per cent were satisfied with email/messaging and remote monitoring. More than 70 per cent said they have cheap amoxil online the knowledge and skills needed to use virtual care, are satisfied with time spent with patients, and found it easy to integrate into their workflow.In addition, 93 per cent of GPs are now using electronic medical records (EMRs), up from 86 per cent in 2019 (Commonwealth Fund Survey).“It’s clear from these findings that virtual care is here to stay in Canada,” said Michael Green, President and CEO, Infoway.

€œPhysicians are satisfied with it and they recognize the benefits to their patients and their practice. It’s also good to see that almost all GPs are using EMRs, which can really help enable virtual care.”“The use of virtual care has increased greatly since the beginning of the amoxil but work cheap amoxil online is still required to ensure quality care and equitable access,” said Dr. Ann Collins, CMA president. €œWe still have work to do such as creating national licensure, developing quality standards, addressing interoperability as cheap amoxil online well as ensuring digital health literacy, education and training.

These are crucial elements to the successful integration of virtual care into our health care system and should be part of our post-amoxil roadmap.”The survey also found that physicians believe some patients may need additional support to access virtual care. In particular, they cheap amoxil online mentioned patients with. Low levels of technology literacy, disabilities, language barriers, low incomes, chronic conditions, and those who are from remote locations and Indigenous communities.“We will continue to collaborate with the CMA, governments and other health system stakeholders, including patients, to overcome any barriers associated with virtual care,” Green said. €œInfoway is developing programs to address digital health literacy and clinician change management cheap amoxil online and we are enhancing our work on interoperability and standards.

Together, we can ensure that virtual care is effectively integrated into the health care system and that all Canadians have equitable access to it.”Download cheap amoxil online the results. 2021 National Survey of Canadian Physicians.Attend the virtual Infoway Partnership Series session on August 17 to hear a discussion between Dr. Ann Collins cheap amoxil online and Michael Green. View the program here and register for free here.About the Canadian Medical AssociationThe Canadian Medical Association is the national voice of the medical profession.

Our focus is on creating strong and accessible health systems, fostering well-being and diversity in medical culture, and ensuring every person in Canada has equal opportunity to be healthy cheap amoxil online. In partnership with physicians, medical learners, patients and others, we advance these goals through advocacy, knowledge sharing and granting.About Canada Health InfowayAt Canada Health Infoway (Infoway) we believe a more connected and collaborative system is a healthier system, and we work with governments, health care organizations, clinicians and patients to make health care more digital. We’re working to ensure that everyone is able to access their personal health information, book appointments, get prescriptions, view lab test results and cheap amoxil online access other health services, online. We’re working with our partners to transform the health system because we know that digital in health can be as transformative as digital has been in other aspects of our lives.

We’re an independent, not-for-profit cheap amoxil online organization funded by the federal government. Visit us online at www.infoway-inforoute.ca.-30-Media Inquiries Catherine ParrySenior Director, Marketing &. CommunicationsCanada Health Infoway647.267.7013 Email UsFollow @InfowayInquiries about the Canadian Medical AssociationGrégoire cheap amoxil online CarrièreSenior Media Relations AdvisorCanadian Medical Association613.227.4102This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.Follow @CMA_Docs.

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High efficacy of high dose intravenous ceftriaxone against extragenital gonorrhoeaCeftriaxone monotherapy is well established for Generic cialis order online treating amoxil 500g Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) urethritis, but data are limited for pharyngeal and rectal s. This prospective single-centre study was conducted in Japan in 2017–2020 among HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM) who underwent routine STI screening, including nucleic acid amplification tests amoxil 500g (NAATs) for rectal and pharyngeal NG every 3 months.1 Among 320 cases of extragenital gonorrhoea (all asymptomatic), 208 received only ceftriaxone (single 1 g intravenous dose) and 112 received additional treatment with doxycycline (100 mg two times a day for 7 days) or azithromycin (single 1 g dose) for concomitant STIs (predominantly, Chlamydia trachomatis (CT)). There was no difference in NG cure rates between the two groups (98.1% vs 95.5%) or by site. Data are needed for other ceftriaxone dosing amoxil 500g strategies and in areas where ceftriaxone resistance is a major concern.Published in STI—The Editor’s Choice.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae is associated with poor pregnancy and birth outcomesThis systematic review and meta-analysis compiled data from 30 studies that reported NG testing during pregnancy and compared pregnancy and birth outcomes between women with and without NG.2 Results indicated that NG amoxil 500g s during pregnancy nearly doubled the risk of preterm birth (summary adjusted OR 1.90. 95% CI 1.14 to 3.19). The effect was more pronounced in low-income and middle-income countries than in high-income countries amoxil 500g. Additionally, results suggested that NG may be associated with premature rupture of membranes, perinatal mortality, low birth weight and ophthalmia neonatorum, although estimates in most studies did amoxil 500g not sufficiently control for confounders.

The findings identify NG s as risk factor for poor pregnancy outcomes.Inadvertent HPV vaccination during or peripregnancy is not associated with adverse outcomesHuman papillomaamoxil (HPV) vaccination is not recommended in pregnancy due to lack of safety data. However, a pregnancy test amoxil 500g is not required prior to vaccination. This multisite cohort study collated data from 445 women who received the nonavalent HPV treatment during pregnancy and 496 that received the treatment peripregnancy (within 42 days before last menstrual period (LMP)).3 Pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in these groups were compared with those of 552 distal (16–22 weeks pre-LMP) exposures to the quadrivalent or nonavalent HPV treatment. Compared with distal-exposures, during-pregnancy amoxil 500g or peripregnancy, exposures were not associated with spontaneous abortion, preterm birth or small-for-gestational-age births.

Birth defects were rare in all amoxil 500g groups. The findings inform counselling for women who inadvertently receive the nonavalent (and possibly quadrivalent) HPV treatment during pregnancy. Data are amoxil 500g needed for the bivalent HPV treatment.Has the time come for point-of-care STI testing?. Point-of-care (POC) STI testing has been proposed as a strategy to both improve amoxil 500g treatment rates and optimise antibiotic stewardship.

This study investigated the performance of the Visby Medical Sexual Health Test, a POC PCR-based NAAT for rapid (30 m) detection of CT, NG and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV).4 The analysis used self-collected vaginal samples from 1535 women who attended 10 clinics in seven US states over an 11-month period. Results were compared with those of clinician-collected samples tested using gold-standard amoxil 500g laboratory-based NAATs. Specificity and sensitivity of the POC test were 98.3% and 97.4% for CT, 97.4% and 99.4% for NG and 99.2% and 96.9% for TV. These results highlight the potential utility of easy-to-use POC NAATs in clinical practice.Point of care HIV-1 RNA testing facilitates the amoxil 500g same-day confirmation of HIV and leads to rapid viral suppression when followed by immediate antiretroviral treatmentMSM with primary HIV (PHI) and those with established but undiagnosed can be an important source of onward transmission.

This study amoxil 500g from Amsterdam evaluated a strategy comprising. (i) an online media campaign to increase awareness about PHI among MSM and promote self-referral for testing, (ii) qualitative POC HIV-1 RNA testing for same-day confirmation of and delivery of results and (iii) immediate referral of newly diagnosed men to a treatment centre to initiate antiretroviral therapy (ART within 24 hours.5 Time to viral suppression was only 55 days for MSM who benefitted from the strategy and shorter than previous strategies that deferred ART initiation and/or did not employ HIV-1 RNA POC testing. The approach proved feasible in Amsterdam and should amoxil 500g be investigated in other settings.Pre-exposure prophylaxis, HIV incidence and risk behaviour among MSM in West AfricaThis prospective cohort study investigated the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among MSM in Côte D’Ivoire, Mali, Togo and Burkina Faso as an extension of CohMSM, a prevention study that did not include PrEP.6 Participants were free to choose between daily or event-driven PrEP, change between the two and stop and restart PrEP. Among 598 MSM followed for 743.6 person years, HIV incidence was amoxil 500g 2.3 per 100 person-years (95% CI 1.3 to 3.7) and lower than in CohMSM (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.21.

95% CI 0.12 to 0.36). There was no evidence of an increase in risk behaviour since reports of condomless anal sex and prevalence of STIs remained stable, whereas the number of male sexual partners and of sex acts amoxil 500g with casual male partners decreased. PrEP is an effective prevention tool for MSM in West Africa.Ethics statementsPatient consent for publicationNot required..

High efficacy of high dose http://jaymagee.com/generic-cialis-order-online intravenous cheap amoxil online ceftriaxone against extragenital gonorrhoeaCeftriaxone monotherapy is well established for treating Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) urethritis, but data are limited for pharyngeal and rectal s. This prospective single-centre cheap amoxil online study was conducted in Japan in 2017–2020 among HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM) who underwent routine STI screening, including nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for rectal and pharyngeal NG every 3 months.1 Among 320 cases of extragenital gonorrhoea (all asymptomatic), 208 received only ceftriaxone (single 1 g intravenous dose) and 112 received additional treatment with doxycycline (100 mg two times a day for 7 days) or azithromycin (single 1 g dose) for concomitant STIs (predominantly, Chlamydia trachomatis (CT)). There was no difference in NG cure rates between the two groups (98.1% vs 95.5%) or by site. Data are needed for other ceftriaxone dosing strategies and in areas where ceftriaxone resistance is a major concern.Published in cheap amoxil online STI—The Editor’s Choice. Neisseria gonorrhoeae is associated with poor pregnancy and birth outcomesThis systematic review and meta-analysis compiled data from 30 studies that reported NG testing during pregnancy and compared pregnancy and birth outcomes between women with and without NG.2 Results indicated that NG s during pregnancy nearly doubled the risk of cheap amoxil online preterm birth (summary adjusted OR 1.90.

95% CI 1.14 to 3.19). The effect was more pronounced in low-income and middle-income countries than in high-income countries cheap amoxil online. Additionally, results suggested that NG may be associated with premature rupture of membranes, perinatal mortality, low birth weight and ophthalmia neonatorum, although estimates in most cheap amoxil online studies did not sufficiently control for confounders. The findings identify NG s as risk factor for poor pregnancy outcomes.Inadvertent HPV vaccination during or peripregnancy is not associated with adverse outcomesHuman papillomaamoxil (HPV) vaccination is not recommended in pregnancy due to lack of safety data. However, a cheap amoxil online pregnancy test is not required prior to vaccination.

This multisite cohort study collated data from 445 women who received the nonavalent HPV treatment during pregnancy and 496 that received the treatment peripregnancy (within 42 days before last menstrual period (LMP)).3 Pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in these groups were compared with those of 552 distal (16–22 weeks pre-LMP) exposures to the quadrivalent or nonavalent HPV treatment. Compared with distal-exposures, during-pregnancy or peripregnancy, cheap amoxil online exposures were not associated with spontaneous abortion, preterm birth or small-for-gestational-age births. Birth defects were rare cheap amoxil online in all groups. The findings inform counselling for women who inadvertently receive the nonavalent (and possibly quadrivalent) HPV treatment during pregnancy. Data are needed for the bivalent HPV treatment.Has the time come cheap amoxil online for point-of-care STI testing?.

Point-of-care (POC) STI testing has been proposed as a strategy to both improve treatment rates and optimise antibiotic cheap amoxil online stewardship. This study investigated the performance of the Visby Medical Sexual Health Test, a POC PCR-based NAAT for rapid (30 m) detection of CT, NG and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV).4 The analysis used self-collected vaginal samples from 1535 women who attended 10 clinics in seven US states over an 11-month period. Results were compared with those of clinician-collected samples cheap amoxil online tested using gold-standard laboratory-based NAATs. Specificity and sensitivity of the POC test were 98.3% and 97.4% for CT, 97.4% and 99.4% for NG and 99.2% and 96.9% for TV. These results highlight the potential utility of easy-to-use POC NAATs in clinical practice.Point of care HIV-1 RNA testing facilitates the same-day confirmation of HIV and leads to rapid viral suppression when followed by immediate antiretroviral treatmentMSM with primary HIV cheap amoxil online (PHI) and those with established but undiagnosed can be an important source of onward transmission.

This study cheap amoxil online from Amsterdam evaluated a strategy comprising. (i) an online media campaign to increase awareness about PHI among MSM and promote self-referral for testing, (ii) qualitative POC HIV-1 RNA testing for same-day confirmation of and delivery of results and (iii) immediate referral of newly diagnosed men to a treatment centre to initiate antiretroviral therapy (ART within 24 hours.5 Time to viral suppression was only 55 days for MSM who benefitted from the strategy and shorter than previous strategies that deferred ART initiation and/or did not employ HIV-1 RNA POC testing. The approach proved feasible in Amsterdam and should be investigated in other settings.Pre-exposure prophylaxis, HIV incidence and risk behaviour among MSM in West AfricaThis prospective cohort study investigated the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among MSM in Côte D’Ivoire, Mali, Togo and Burkina Faso as an cheap amoxil online extension of CohMSM, a prevention study that did not include PrEP.6 Participants were free to choose between daily or event-driven PrEP, change between the two and stop and restart PrEP. Among 598 MSM followed for 743.6 cheap amoxil online person years, HIV incidence was 2.3 per 100 person-years (95% CI 1.3 to 3.7) and lower than in CohMSM (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.21. 95% CI 0.12 to 0.36).

There was no evidence of an increase in risk cheap amoxil online behaviour since reports of condomless anal sex and prevalence of STIs remained stable, whereas the number of male sexual partners and of sex acts with casual male partners decreased. PrEP is an effective prevention tool for MSM in West Africa.Ethics statementsPatient consent for publicationNot required..

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The UC amoxil without prescription Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department is launching a new http://sarahmook.co.uk/buy-cheap-cipro/ virtual support group for children and adolescents ages 6 to 17 who have a parent or caregiver with a serious illness. Coping Together is a new virtual support group for children and adolescents.Each of the four sessions provides opportunities for sharing, self-expression and virtually coming together to explore coping strategies, using art materials.A group for children ages 6-11 will be held virtually on Tuesdays, Oct. 5, 12, 19 and 26 from 3:30-4:30 p.m.A group for adolescents ages 12-17 will be amoxil without prescription held virtually on Thursdays, Oct.

7, 14, 21 and 28 from 3:30-4:30 p.m.Coping Together is facilitated by a child life specialist and art therapist trained in child development, coping and self-expression. The group is funded by New York Life and provided free of charge to all members of the amoxil without prescription community. To register, please complete the family questionnaire by Monday, September 20.

For questions, please contact a Coping Together facilitator at copingtogether@ucdavis.edu.The UC Davis Center for amoxil without prescription Healthcare Policy and Research (CHRP) has received a $7.5 million 5-year grant from the California Department of Public Health to help curb tobacco smoking in California. The grant will allow CHRP to lead a program that provides intensive training and technical assistance on smoking cessation to around 40 community clinics serving at-risk populations. Prof amoxil without prescription.

Jeffrey Hoch, associate director at CHRP and co-leader on Healthy Living Clinic InitiativeThis program is called the Healthy Living Clinic Initiative (HLCI). €œWe are so excited to launch HLCI and work with California’s Department of Public Health and the community clinics to reduce tobacco use in the state,” said Jeffrey Hoch, associate director at CHRP, professor and chief of the Division of Health Policy and Management at the Department of Public Health amoxil without prescription Sciences, and co-leader of the HLCI efforts. The Healthy Living Clinic Initiative for smoking cessationCigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disability in the United States.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 16 million Americans have at least one disease caused by smoking.

The HLCI amoxil without prescription will enable community clinics to follow proven quality improvement methods to increase the effectiveness of tobacco cessation efforts in California. It will help them adopt tobacco-free clinic policies and optimize their clinical data systems. This will allow for better assessment of population health metrics, such as smoking prevalence among the clinic’s patients, referral rates, counseling utilization rates, and quit amoxil without prescription rates.

Community outreach using novel approachesThe HLCI team will use novel approaches to tobacco control. They will employ a ‘whole health’ approach to amoxil without prescription support smoking patients, providing them with guidance on diet, physical activity, and stress management. They will work with patients to prevent or minimize weight gain, a phenomenon frequently associated with smoking cessation.

In addition, amoxil without prescription the team will use online platforms to provide consultation and education for clinic staff and wellness content for patients. €œOur center at UC Davis is especially well suited to run this important initiative,” Hoch said. The CHRP hopes that the HLCI will be a model of close partnership between academia and community-based primary care that can be replicated amoxil without prescription in many other clinics.

Co-principal investigators on this grant are Desiree R Backman, chief of prevention policy and practice group (PPPG) at CHRP, and Neal D. Kohatsu, chief health strategist of PPPG..

The UC Davis Child Life Buy cheap cipro and Creative Arts Therapy Department is launching a new virtual support group for children and adolescents ages 6 to 17 who have a parent or caregiver with a serious cheap amoxil online illness. Coping Together is a new virtual support group for children and adolescents.Each of the four sessions provides opportunities for sharing, self-expression and virtually coming together to explore coping strategies, using art materials.A group for children ages 6-11 will be held virtually on Tuesdays, Oct. 5, 12, 19 and 26 from 3:30-4:30 p.m.A group cheap amoxil online for adolescents ages 12-17 will be held virtually on Thursdays, Oct.

7, 14, 21 and 28 from 3:30-4:30 p.m.Coping Together is facilitated by a child life specialist and art therapist trained in child development, coping and self-expression. The group is funded by New York Life and provided free of charge to all members of the cheap amoxil online community. To register, please complete the family questionnaire by Monday, September 20.

For questions, please cheap amoxil online contact a Coping Together facilitator at copingtogether@ucdavis.edu.The UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research (CHRP) has received a $7.5 million 5-year grant from the California Department of Public Health to help curb tobacco smoking in California. The grant will allow CHRP to lead a program that provides intensive training and technical assistance on smoking cessation to around 40 community clinics serving at-risk populations. Prof cheap amoxil online.

Jeffrey Hoch, associate director at CHRP and co-leader on Healthy Living Clinic InitiativeThis program is called the Healthy Living Clinic Initiative (HLCI). €œWe are so excited to launch HLCI and work with California’s Department of Public Health and the community clinics to reduce tobacco use in the state,” said Jeffrey Hoch, associate director at CHRP, professor and chief of the Division of Health Policy and Management at the Department of Public Health Sciences, and co-leader cheap amoxil online of the HLCI efforts. The Healthy Living Clinic Initiative for smoking cessationCigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disability in the United States.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 16 million Americans have at least one disease caused by smoking.

The HLCI will enable community clinics to follow cheap amoxil online proven quality improvement methods to increase the effectiveness of tobacco cessation efforts in California. It will help them adopt tobacco-free clinic policies and optimize their clinical data systems. This will cheap amoxil online allow for better assessment of population health metrics, such as smoking prevalence among the clinic’s patients, referral rates, counseling utilization rates, and quit rates.

Community outreach using novel approachesThe HLCI team will use novel approaches to tobacco control. They will employ a ‘whole health’ approach to support smoking patients, providing cheap amoxil online them with guidance on diet, physical activity, and stress management. They will work with patients to prevent or minimize weight gain, a phenomenon frequently associated with smoking cessation.

In addition, the team will use cheap amoxil online online platforms to provide consultation and education for clinic staff and wellness content for patients. €œOur center at UC Davis is especially well suited to run this important initiative,” Hoch said. The CHRP hopes that the HLCI will be a model of close partnership between academia and community-based primary care that can be replicated in many other clinics.

Co-principal investigators on this grant are Desiree R Backman, chief of prevention policy and practice group (PPPG) at CHRP, and Neal D. Kohatsu, chief health strategist of PPPG..

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Patients are 100mg viagra for sale more likely to experience preventable harm during perioperative care than in any other type of healthcare encounter.1 2 For several decades, a hallmark of surgical quality and safety has been the use of checklists to prevent errors (eg, wrong site surgery) and assure that key tasks have been or amoxil online no prescription will be performed. The most widely used approach globally is the Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) recommended by the WHO.3 It is divided into preinduction (or sign in, consisting of seven items performed by anaesthesia and nursing), preincision amoxil online no prescription (timeout, 10 items performed by the entire team) and postsurgery (sign out, five items by the entire team).4 5 Most hospitals in the developed world perform the SSC or an equivalent timeout prior to surgical incision. However, preinduction briefings, and postcase debriefings in particular, are much less commonly performed.6 7There are widely disseminated arguments recommending the use of checklists in healthcare8 but also recognised limitations.9 Checklist-based preincision timeouts appear to improve surgical outcomes in many settings,4 5 yet, in other hospitals, the introduction of the SSC failed to improve outcomes.10 Like all tools or processes intended to improve safety, ineffective implementation will reduce the desired benefits. For example, there is appreciable evidence showing that surgical teams skip or do not meaningfully respond to timeout checklist items.11 12 Even with a robust implementation, effectiveness can be weakened by contextual factors, failure of leadership or deficient amoxil online no prescription safety culture.Despite numerous studies, gaps in the evidence to guide optimal checklist use persist.

For example, we do not know whether checklist-based timeouts only decrease the occurrence of the undesirable events targeted by the checklist or, as many hypothesise, whether their use also facilitates teamwork and interprofessional communication. Although there is increasing guidance on how to optimally implement checklists at the local level, many questions remain.13 Moreover, we still do not understand the circumstances in which checklist use facilitates the detection, reporting and correction of errors.In this issue of the journal, Muensterer and colleagues14 describe a clever study in which the attending surgeon intentionally introduced errors during the preincision timeout while a amoxil online no prescription medical student in the operating theatre surreptitiously noted whether the error was detected and reported by one or more members of the surgical team. If the error was not verbalised, the attending surgeon corrected the error before the timeout was complete. The single error embedded in each of 120 of 1800 paediatric operations was randomly chosen amoxil online no prescription from among wrong patient name, age, gender, allergy or surgical procedure, side or site.

Overall, only about half (65. 54%) of all errors amoxil online no prescription were detected and reported by a team member prior to surgeon correction. Of these, errors were most commonly reported by the anaesthesiologist (64%) and almost never by residents in training (6%) or medical students (1%).This study also has important limitations. Because the investigators were leading the timeouts as part of amoxil online no prescription a research study, adherence to all of the checklist items was reportedly 100%.

Yet, few organisations consistently attain timeout adherence above 90%.11 Since you are less likely to catch an error if you do not address that item during the timeout, in institutions with lower adherence, the proportion of missed errors may be even higher.The authors, with input from their institutional review board, designed the study to be feasible and compliant with established human subjects protection principles. As such, the attending surgeon always amoxil online no prescription corrected the error after the anaesthesiologist’s component of the timeout but before the nurses’ component. By excluding the part of the timeout when the nurses address their checklist items (eg, instruments are sterile,) followed by a final opportunity as the timeout ends to note any errors or concerns, the study may have underestimated the rate of error reporting.Because the study did not query team members individually after the timeout, we also do not know how many errors were detected but not annunciated. For example, recognised errors that were attributed to ‘misspeaking’ and/or had no clinical significance may not have been verbally amoxil online no prescription challenged.

Moreover, as is discussed by the authors, there was an unequivocal hierarchy effect—individuals with the least ‘power’ (ie, low in hierarchy within the current healthcare culture) were the least likely to report the error.This study highlights two important safety relevant questions on which I will elaborate. First, why and how should we change healthcare culture to facilitate ‘speaking up’? amoxil online no prescription. Second, how can we best design and implement checklists and other safety interventions to yield more consistent and sustained clinician behaviour change?. The continued problem amoxil online no prescription of hierarchical culture in healthcareThe significant influence of hierarchy on the incidence of error reporting in Muensterer et al’s14 study is consistent with substantial prior evidence that lower hierarchy clinical providers are less likely to ‘speak up’, even when they are aware of major safety violations.15–17Failure of a subordinate copilot to challenge or speak up to the captain in the 1977 Tenerife disaster was the impetus for the aviation industry’s adoption of crew resource management (CRM).

Healthcare team-training initiatives like the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s TeamSTEPPS now include tools such as the ‘two-challenge rule’ and emphasise speaking up.18 Flattened hierarchies and reliance on expertise rather than seniority, especially during crisis or stress, are an integral component of high-reliability organisations. In contrast, the persistent hierarchical culture of healthcare is anathema amoxil online no prescription to positive safety attitudes and behaviours. This is particularly problematic in operating theatres where surgeons view themselves as ‘captain of the ship’ and where uncivil behaviour is tolerated.19 The insidious effects of hierarchy will impair effectiveness of checklist use and predispose to safety issues in all aspects of routine and emergency care.20 While team-oriented training designed to enhance the ability of lower hierarchy clinicians to ‘speak up’ can be effective,21 22 evidence to guide the design and implementation of these interventions is still sparse. Single training exposures have generally had limited effects,17 23 in part likely due to inadequate ‘potency’ to achieve the desired effect24 in a clinical environment contaminated by the hierarchical culture and in part because most interventions have focused on ‘assertiveness’ training for the less powerful members of the amoxil online no prescription team rather than, or in addition to, sensitivity or receptivity training of the most powerful (eg, surgical attendings).17Discussions of power hierarchy to date have largely focused on clinicians’ professional roles (ie, nurse vs physician) and level of experience (eg, resident vs attending).

Even with two attending physicians, for example, a surgeon and anaesthesiologist, power dynamics can degrade communication and decrease team performance. In a multicentre study of experienced anaesthesiologists managing simulated crisis events, the anaesthesiologists’ failure to challenge the surgeon to initiate life-saving interventions (eg, amoxil online no prescription to open the abdomen in the presence of an enlarging retroperitoneal haematoma during laparoscopic surgery, or to halt surgery to cardiovert an unstable patient) was associated with lower overall scenario performance scores as determined by trained blinded anaesthesiologist video raters.25In fact, hierarchy is much more complex and this may explain in part the variable and generally weak results seen in ‘speaking up’ intervention studies to date. When considering hierarchical effects on communication assertiveness, one must also consider individual characteristics including gender, race/ethnicity, language, personal cultural background and personality, as well as the personality of those in higher power roles, microclimate factors of the team and care unit, and overall organisational culture.17 22 An interesting direction for future study is the facilitation of more positive communication (eg, expressions of gratitude or encouragement).26In a single-site intervention study to improve the quality of handovers from anaesthesia professionals to postanaesthesia care unit (PACU) nurses,27 simulation-based training emphasised specific dyadic communication behaviours—assertiveness for the nurses when their needs were not being met and ‘sensitivity’ (or receptiveness) for the anaesthesia professionals when the nurses raised concerns. In poststudy interviews, this behavioural focus was considered an important contributor to the resulting amoxil online no prescription sustained improvement in the quality of actual handovers.

As part of this study, we explicitly taught participants to CUSS. CUSS is a graduated approach to facilitate speaking amoxil online no prescription up. The acronym stands for ‘I’m Concerned’, ‘I’m Uncomfortable’, ‘This is a Safety issue’ and ‘Stop!. €™.

The intended learners were taught these ‘triggers’ for eliciting desired behaviours (ie, to stop what they are doing and have a conversation with the initiator) and this approach creates an environment where the initiating individual can receive support from others who overhear the conversation—‘Doctor, I hear that Maria is CUSSing at you?. How can I help to resolve this situation?. €™ Such a graded assertiveness approach to ‘stop the line’, developed in other industries, is increasingly being used throughout healthcare.28Designing and implementing more effective safety tools and processesSSCs are just one tool used to advance overall perioperative system safety. Similarly, in commercial aviation, checklists are one tool used as part of CRM to assure operational safety.

CRM is a philosophy or construct that includes explicit values and principles, procedures supported by purpose-designed checklists and other tools, and regularly scheduled mandatory simulation-based training and assessment that together contribute to an existing safety culture in pilots and across the organisation.29 CRM and most of the existing aviation safety system were iteratively designed by pilots (the front-line workers) in collaboration with other stakeholders (including regulators). Healthcare must employ similar human-centred design approaches to re-engineer our safety systems.For commercial aviation to be completely safe, no planes would fly. Similarly, safety will never be the foremost system objective in healthcare. The primary goal is to efficiently deliver cost-effective care.

Instead, in any high-consequence industry, safety is a desirable by-product (an ‘emergent feature’) of a system designed to achieve primary operational goals. In healthcare, sick patients must be treated and there is inherent risk in doing so.30 Achieving societally acceptable levels of safety will stem from a deliberately designed system founded on a strong safety culture and truly committed leadership.With this as background, it is not surprising that so many hospitals struggle to garner reliable and sustained benefit from the use of checklists and other safety tools. To understand what is required, I would like to draw parallels with anaesthesiology’s experience of implementing another type of checklist.The Food and Drug Administration Anesthesia Machine Pre-Use ChecklistThe earliest checklist used in healthcare to reduce adverse events is the anaesthesia equipment preuse checklist, developed in 1987 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in collaboration with the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and the American Society of Anesthesiologists.31 After more than three decades of use, lessons learnt from the use of the FDA checklist parallel more recent experiences with SSCs, and are instructive to a more general understanding of the role of safety tools in healthcare (see table 1).View this table:Table 1 Lessons learnt from 30 years of personal experience with and reflection about the Anesthesia Equipment Pre-Use Checklist*A checklist alone is insufficient to achieve optimal resultsHospitals that get the best results from an SSC implementation are often well-resourced organisations that already have safety-oriented committed leadership, a strong safety culture, educated and engaged front-line clinicians and an established track record of successfully implementing other safety interventions.32 That said, any hospital, given adequate commitment, resources and expertise, can implement an SSC or other substantive safety intervention successfully. In doing so, it will educate and engage its workers, improve its safety culture and set the stage for further safety and quality improvements.A multimodal approach to safety interventions is more effective.

Hospitals that were able to successfully implement all three components of the SSC saw greater reductions in postoperative complications.33 Similarly, the combination of the SSC with a complementary approach that more fully addresses preoperative and postoperative issues, the Surgical Patient Safety System, was associated with better postoperative outcomes than use of the WHO SSC alone.34 The most effective interventions are those that are based on an integrated conceptual framework and follow human factor principles, especially when the safety goals are multiple or diverse.35In our PACU handover improvement project mentioned earlier,27 the multimodal intervention produced a fourfold improvement in observed clinician behaviours (ie, conduct of actual handovers) that was sustained for at least 3 years after the intervention ceased. The project began by getting perioperative leadership buy-in, conducting observations of the current handover process and engaging front-line clinicians in all phases of study development. The criteria for an ‘acceptable handover’ were chosen by an independent team of clinicians. Front-line clinicians first completed a multimedia introductory webinar that included key principles and a knowledge assessment.

To attend the 2-hour simulation training session, both anaesthesia professionals and PACU nurses were relieved from regular clinical duties (a strong message that this was an organisational priority). A custom patient-specific electronic form was available at every bedside in the PACU to reinforce the training during actual handovers. Performance feedback was provided to individuals, units and perioperative leadership. The number of components needed for successful safety interventions will depend on the behaviour change desired, the existing safety culture, current experience and expertise of the intended end users and the priority articulated by organisational leaders.

Regardless, design and implementation must be based on a solid conceptual framework, consider the full life-cycle of the intervention (from conceptualisation to obsolescence) and employ human factors engineering and implementation science principles and tools.13ConclusionChecklists and other safety tools are potentially valuable tools to advance perioperative safety. However, when used in isolation or implemented incorrectly, checklists have significant limitations. Safety initiatives that take a systems-oriented multimodal approach to design and implementation can, with organisational leadership and determination, produce both targeted and more general safety improvement.Ethics statementsPatient consent for publicationNot required.Many patients admitted to hospital require venous access to infuse medications and fluids. The most commonly used device, the peripheral venous catheter, ranges from 2.5 to 4.5 cm in length, and is typically used for less than 5 days.

The midline, a relatively newer peripheral venous catheter, is up to 20 cm in length, but does not reach the central veins, and may be used for up to 2 weeks. A peripherally inserted central venous catheter (PICC) is a longer catheter that is placed in one of the arm veins and extends to reach the central veins. The PICC is used for longer periods of time compared with peripheral intravenous devices, and initially gained popularity as a convenient vascular access device used in the outpatient and home settings. Its premise has been to provide access that lasts for weeks, that is fairly safe and easily manageable.

Patients often require central venous access when hospitalised, with more than half of patients in intensive care, and up to 20% in those cared for in the non-intensive care wards.1 Common indications for PICC use in the acute care setting include the requirement for multiple and frequent infusions (eg, antibiotics, parenteral nutrition), the administration of medications incompatible with peripheral infusion, invasive haemodynamic monitoring in critically ill patients, very poor venous access and frequent need for blood draws.2 Specially trained healthcare workers place PICCs, often nurses from a vascular access team (VAT), or interventional radiologists. The VAT is comprised of skilled nurses, with either medical/surgical, emergency department or intensive care unit backgrounds. Contrary to other healthcare workers that place PICCs, the VAT’s primary function is to place PICCs, and optimise the infusion delivery, through a safe and effective process. Its scope includes assessment for need, peripheral and central device insertion, monitoring of use and removal.3In their study of five hospitals within the Veterans Administration (VA) healthcare systems in the USA, Krein et al4 underscore the importance of a formal VAT to formulate and implement explicit appropriateness criteria, ensure timely insertion and safe management and direct patient education around PICC use.

They found that team structures supporting line placement vary across hospitals from a dedicated team, to individual nurses trained in placement, to hospitals where only interventional radiologists insert PICCs. The presence of a VAT was associated with more defined criteria for PICC use, but a recurrent theme was inadequate interdisciplinary dialogue. Although qualitative data were gathered at five VA hospitals only, the study’s findings reflect the variation in PICC placement and use, whether in academic or community, small or large hospitals.An important factor in variation in the approach to PICC line placement and management is the availability of resources and expertise at the hospital site. For example, if healthcare workers have suboptimal skills to place peripheral venous catheters, including midlines,5 clinicians may resort to ordering more PICCs unnecessarily to fill that void.

Furthermore, as revealed in Krein’s study, a hospital that does not have the expertise to learn about alternative devices, such as those with lower risks and shorter dwell times (eg, midlines), may resort to using more PICCs than necessary. Similarly, hospitals without clinicians skilled or comfortable placing other central lines6 may rely more on using PICCs. In addition, the lack of an available VAT to place PICCs using uasound guidance may result in more referrals to interventional radiology for placement, potentially exposing the patient to avoidable radiation during fluoroscopy.7We propose an approach to improve the appropriate and safe use of PICCs by focusing on three elements that address the findings by Krein and colleagues. Establishing a structure powered by a VAT.

Anchoring a standardised process for line selection, insertion and care. And promoting adoption by engagement with the key stakeholders.Establishing a structure to support placement and management of PICCs depends on whether the number of devices placed is enough to support the creation of a dedicated vascular access programme. Leadership plays a critical role to invest the resources for a functional VAT, understanding the financial and quality benefits associated.8 Not realising its value, hospital leaders may view the VAT as a non-revenue-generating service, putting it at risk when considering cost reduction strategies. The value of the VAT expands from mitigating preventable events (eg, deep venous thrombosis, ) to enhancing patient experience (eg, less attempts to place a peripheral device).9 In addition, better outcomes help curb the financial risks (eg, hospital-acquired condition penalties)8 and improve hospital ratings.

The VAT’s role encompasses placing PICCs and guaranteeing the proper selection of the intravascular device and its appropriate use.2The second element involves standardising processes for line selection and care, regardless of who is taking care of the device. Implementing policies to address indications, placement and maintenance and using standardised kits help minimise variation. The creation of policies should be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach with VAT, nurses and physicians. The VAT can act as the ‘gate keeper’ evaluating whether the reason for PICC placement is aligned with indications.

In addition, the VAT plays a critical role supporting nurses’ competencies for venous catheter use (eg, aseptic access and maintenance, addressing complications and mitigating risk)10 to reduce mechanical11 and infectious complications.12 The VAT performs regular rounds to mitigate process gaps (eg, dressing site intactness) and to identify complications (eg, PICC site erythema or drainage, arm swelling), and provides timely feedback on clinical performance. The VAT can also serve as subject matter experts to the ordering physicians for the appropriate device type, based on vessel size and indications for use, how many lumens, site selection and a de-escalation plan for the patient prior to discharge. It also provides services should a device-related complication occur (eg, clotting), and works with clinicians to remedy the issue and salvage the device, thereby preventing a patient from losing their vascular access and/or having to replace it.The last element, and perhaps most significant, is to enhance the adoption of best practices through a partnership with the key stakeholders. PICC-associated outcomes are not only owned by the VAT, rather it is the responsibility of the clinicians, physicians and nurses to achieve those goals (table 1).

Physicians are an essential stakeholder group to engage as they are the ones responsible for ordering the PICC. An identified physician champion who partners and empowers the VAT will help resolve any barriers and be a liaison with the local physician community.13 The ideal physician champion should have the respect of peers, understand process optimisation and promote quality improvement. They need to be well versed on the appropriate indications for PICC use, the associated complications and risks and alternatives to the device. The physician champion engages the leaders of the key disciplines responsible for requesting a PICC, educating them on the appropriate indications for use, the outcomes associated with PICC use, inviting them to be partners and responding to any of their concerns.View this table:Table 1 Disciplines and their support to mitigate PICC harmWhat about the key physician disciplines to engage?.

Physicians can play an active role in enhancing PICC use through avoiding the unnecessary use of infusions. The consultation of infectious diseases specialists for intravenous antibiotic use appropriateness has been associated with less PICC use and lower complications.14 Similarly, having a surgeon support the decision for whether enteral or parenteral nutrition is needed will help reduce unnecessary device use.15 Disciplines like hospitalists or general internists care for a large number of patients and often order PICCs for venous access,16 while nephrologists may advocate avoiding the use of PICCs in the chronic kidney disease population in an effort for vein preservation.17 In hospitals with teaching programmes, the VAT and its physician champion may educate physicians in training on device choice, placement and duration of use, and address with their faculty competencies for line management.18 Engaging these disciplines, elucidating the indications for appropriate use and providing feedback and local data on the potential harm ensure accountability and further attention to PICC safety.In summary, the PICC is one of the primary solutions to achieve vascular access. With up to one in five patients at risk for developing complications,19 it is incumbent on us to ensure that these devices are properly used and maintained. Identifying and overcoming system barriers are key to delivering sustainable safe outcomes.

As a first step, clinical and administrative leaders, realising the financial and quality benefits, need to support the structure reflected by the VAT to enhance PICC care. Second, the VAT must partner with disciplines (particularly nursing) to promote and ensure adequate competencies for placement and maintenance. Finally, clinical disciplines caring for the patient should instil a collaborative environment for better decision-making on when central access is required, and what device provides the safest and most effective delivery of care.Ethics statementsPatient consent for publicationNot required..

Patients are more likely to experience preventable harm during perioperative care than in any other type of healthcare encounter.1 2 For several decades, a hallmark of surgical quality and safety has been the use of checklists to prevent errors (eg, wrong site surgery) and assure that key tasks have been cheap amoxil online or will be performed. The most widely used approach globally is cheap amoxil online the Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) recommended by the WHO.3 It is divided into preinduction (or sign in, consisting of seven items performed by anaesthesia and nursing), preincision (timeout, 10 items performed by the entire team) and postsurgery (sign out, five items by the entire team).4 5 Most hospitals in the developed world perform the SSC or an equivalent timeout prior to surgical incision. However, preinduction briefings, and postcase debriefings in particular, are much less commonly performed.6 7There are widely disseminated arguments recommending the use of checklists in healthcare8 but also recognised limitations.9 Checklist-based preincision timeouts appear to improve surgical outcomes in many settings,4 5 yet, in other hospitals, the introduction of the SSC failed to improve outcomes.10 Like all tools or processes intended to improve safety, ineffective implementation will reduce the desired benefits. For example, there is appreciable evidence showing that surgical teams skip or do not meaningfully respond to cheap amoxil online timeout checklist items.11 12 Even with a robust implementation, effectiveness can be weakened by contextual factors, failure of leadership or deficient safety culture.Despite numerous studies, gaps in the evidence to guide optimal checklist use persist.

For example, we do not know whether checklist-based timeouts only decrease the occurrence of the undesirable events targeted by the checklist or, as many hypothesise, whether their use also facilitates teamwork and interprofessional communication. Although there is increasing guidance on how to optimally implement checklists at the local level, many questions remain.13 Moreover, we still do cheap amoxil online not understand the circumstances in which checklist use facilitates the detection, reporting and correction of errors.In this issue of the journal, Muensterer and colleagues14 describe a clever study in which the attending surgeon intentionally introduced errors during the preincision timeout while a medical student in the operating theatre surreptitiously noted whether the error was detected and reported by one or more members of the surgical team. If the error was not verbalised, the attending surgeon corrected the error before the timeout was complete. The single error embedded in each of 120 of 1800 paediatric operations was randomly cheap amoxil online chosen from among wrong patient name, age, gender, allergy or surgical procedure, side or site.

Overall, only about half (65. 54%) of all errors were cheap amoxil online detected and reported by a team member prior to surgeon correction. Of these, errors were most commonly reported by the anaesthesiologist (64%) and almost never by residents in training (6%) or medical students (1%).This study also has important limitations. Because the investigators cheap amoxil online were leading the timeouts as part of a research study, adherence to all of the checklist items was reportedly 100%.

Yet, few organisations consistently attain timeout adherence above 90%.11 Since you are less likely to catch an error if you do not address that item during the timeout, in institutions with lower adherence, the proportion of missed errors may be even higher.The authors, with input from their institutional review board, designed the study to be feasible and compliant with established human subjects protection principles. As such, the attending surgeon always corrected the error after the anaesthesiologist’s cheap amoxil online component of the timeout but before the nurses’ component. By excluding the part of the timeout when the nurses address their checklist items (eg, instruments are sterile,) followed by a final opportunity as the timeout ends to note any errors or concerns, the study may have underestimated the rate of error reporting.Because the study did not query team members individually after the timeout, we also do not know how many errors were detected but not annunciated. For example, recognised errors that were attributed to ‘misspeaking’ and/or had no clinical significance may cheap amoxil online not have been verbally challenged.

Moreover, as is discussed by the authors, there was an unequivocal hierarchy effect—individuals with the least ‘power’ (ie, low in hierarchy within the current healthcare culture) were the least likely to report the error.This study highlights two important safety relevant questions on which I will elaborate. First, why cheap amoxil online and how should we change healthcare culture to facilitate ‘speaking up’?. Second, how can we best design and implement checklists and other safety interventions to yield more consistent and sustained clinician behaviour change?. The continued problem of hierarchical culture in healthcareThe significant influence of hierarchy on the incidence of error reporting in Muensterer et al’s14 study is consistent with substantial prior evidence that lower hierarchy clinical cheap amoxil online providers are less likely to ‘speak up’, even when they are aware of major safety violations.15–17Failure of a subordinate copilot to challenge or speak up to the captain in the 1977 Tenerife disaster was the impetus for the aviation industry’s adoption of crew resource management (CRM).

Healthcare team-training initiatives like the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s TeamSTEPPS now include tools such as the ‘two-challenge rule’ and emphasise speaking up.18 Flattened hierarchies and reliance on expertise rather than seniority, especially during crisis or stress, are an integral component of high-reliability organisations. In contrast, the persistent cheap amoxil online hierarchical culture of healthcare is anathema to positive safety attitudes and behaviours. This is particularly problematic in operating theatres where surgeons view themselves as ‘captain of the ship’ and where uncivil behaviour is tolerated.19 The insidious effects of hierarchy will impair effectiveness of checklist use and predispose to safety issues in all aspects of routine and emergency care.20 While team-oriented training designed to enhance the ability of lower hierarchy clinicians to ‘speak up’ can be effective,21 22 evidence to guide the design and implementation of these interventions is still sparse. Single training exposures have generally had limited effects,17 23 in part likely due to inadequate ‘potency’ to achieve the desired effect24 in a clinical environment contaminated by the hierarchical culture and cheap amoxil online in part because most interventions have focused on ‘assertiveness’ training for the less powerful members of the team rather than, or in addition to, sensitivity or receptivity training of the most powerful (eg, surgical attendings).17Discussions of power hierarchy to date have largely focused on clinicians’ professional roles (ie, nurse vs physician) and level of experience (eg, resident vs attending).

Even with two attending physicians, for example, a surgeon and anaesthesiologist, power dynamics can degrade communication and decrease team performance. In a multicentre study of experienced anaesthesiologists managing simulated crisis events, the anaesthesiologists’ failure cheap amoxil online to challenge the surgeon to initiate life-saving interventions (eg, to open the abdomen in the presence of an enlarging retroperitoneal haematoma during laparoscopic surgery, or to halt surgery to cardiovert an unstable patient) was associated with lower overall scenario performance scores as determined by trained blinded anaesthesiologist video raters.25In fact, hierarchy is much more complex and this may explain in part the variable and generally weak results seen in ‘speaking up’ intervention studies to date. When considering hierarchical effects on communication assertiveness, one must also consider individual characteristics including gender, race/ethnicity, language, personal cultural background and personality, as well as the personality of those in higher power roles, microclimate factors of the team and care unit, and overall organisational culture.17 22 An interesting direction for future study is the facilitation of more positive communication (eg, expressions of gratitude or encouragement).26In a single-site intervention study to improve the quality of handovers from anaesthesia professionals to postanaesthesia care unit (PACU) nurses,27 simulation-based training emphasised specific dyadic communication behaviours—assertiveness for the nurses when their needs were not being met and ‘sensitivity’ (or receptiveness) for the anaesthesia professionals when the nurses raised concerns. In poststudy interviews, this behavioural focus was considered an important cheap amoxil online contributor to the resulting sustained improvement in the quality of actual handovers.

As part of this study, we explicitly taught participants to CUSS. CUSS is a graduated approach to facilitate cheap amoxil online speaking up. The acronym stands for ‘I’m Concerned’, ‘I’m Uncomfortable’, ‘This is a Safety issue’ and ‘Stop!. €™.

The intended learners were taught these ‘triggers’ for eliciting desired behaviours (ie, to stop what they are doing and have a conversation with the initiator) and this approach creates an environment where the initiating individual can receive support from others who overhear the conversation—‘Doctor, I hear that Maria is CUSSing at you?. How can I help to resolve this situation?. €™ Such a graded assertiveness approach to ‘stop the line’, developed in other industries, is increasingly being used throughout healthcare.28Designing and implementing more effective safety tools and processesSSCs are just one tool used to advance overall perioperative system safety. Similarly, in commercial aviation, checklists are one tool used as part of CRM to assure operational safety.

CRM is a philosophy or construct that includes explicit values and principles, procedures supported by purpose-designed checklists and other tools, and regularly scheduled mandatory simulation-based training and assessment that together contribute to an existing safety culture in pilots and across the organisation.29 CRM and most of the existing aviation safety system were iteratively designed by pilots (the front-line workers) in collaboration with other stakeholders (including regulators). Healthcare must employ similar human-centred design approaches to re-engineer our safety systems.For commercial aviation to be completely safe, no planes would fly. Similarly, safety will never be the foremost system objective in healthcare. The primary goal is to efficiently deliver cost-effective care.

Instead, in any high-consequence industry, safety is a desirable by-product (an ‘emergent feature’) of a system designed to achieve primary operational goals. In healthcare, sick patients must be treated and there is inherent risk in doing so.30 Achieving societally acceptable levels of safety will stem from a deliberately designed system founded on a strong safety culture and truly committed leadership.With this as background, it is not surprising that so many hospitals struggle to garner reliable and sustained benefit from the use of checklists and other safety tools. To understand what is required, I would like to draw parallels with anaesthesiology’s experience of implementing another type of checklist.The Food and Drug Administration Anesthesia Machine Pre-Use ChecklistThe earliest checklist used in healthcare to reduce adverse events is the anaesthesia equipment preuse checklist, developed in 1987 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in collaboration with the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and the American Society of Anesthesiologists.31 After more than three decades of use, lessons learnt from the use of the FDA checklist parallel more recent experiences with SSCs, and are instructive to a more general understanding of the role of safety tools in healthcare (see table 1).View this table:Table 1 Lessons learnt from 30 years of personal experience with and reflection about the Anesthesia Equipment Pre-Use Checklist*A checklist alone is insufficient to achieve optimal resultsHospitals that get the best results from an SSC implementation are often well-resourced organisations that already have safety-oriented committed leadership, a strong safety culture, educated and engaged front-line clinicians and an established track record of successfully implementing other safety interventions.32 That said, any hospital, given adequate commitment, resources and expertise, can implement an SSC or other substantive safety intervention successfully. In doing so, it will educate and engage its workers, improve its safety culture and set the stage for further safety and quality improvements.A multimodal approach to safety interventions is more effective.

Hospitals that were able to successfully implement all three components of the SSC saw greater reductions in postoperative complications.33 Similarly, the combination of the SSC with a complementary approach that more fully addresses preoperative and postoperative issues, the Surgical Patient Safety System, was associated with better postoperative outcomes than use of the WHO SSC alone.34 The most effective interventions are those that are based on an integrated conceptual framework and follow human factor principles, especially when the safety goals are multiple or diverse.35In our PACU handover improvement project mentioned earlier,27 the multimodal intervention produced a fourfold improvement in observed clinician behaviours (ie, conduct of actual handovers) that was sustained for at least 3 years after the intervention ceased. The project began by getting perioperative leadership buy-in, conducting observations of the current handover process and engaging front-line clinicians in all phases of study development. The criteria for an ‘acceptable handover’ were chosen by an independent team of clinicians. Front-line clinicians first completed a multimedia introductory webinar that included key principles and a knowledge assessment.

To attend the 2-hour simulation training session, both anaesthesia professionals and PACU nurses were relieved from regular clinical duties (a strong message that this was an organisational priority). A custom patient-specific electronic form was available at every bedside in the PACU to reinforce the training during actual handovers. Performance feedback was provided to individuals, units and perioperative leadership. The number of components needed for successful safety interventions will depend on the behaviour change desired, the existing safety culture, current experience and expertise of the intended end users and the priority articulated by organisational leaders.

Regardless, design and implementation must be based on a solid conceptual framework, consider the full life-cycle of the intervention (from conceptualisation to obsolescence) and employ human factors engineering and implementation science principles and tools.13ConclusionChecklists and other safety tools are potentially valuable tools to advance perioperative safety. However, when used in isolation or implemented incorrectly, checklists have significant limitations. Safety initiatives that take a systems-oriented multimodal approach to design and implementation can, with organisational leadership and determination, produce both targeted and more general safety improvement.Ethics statementsPatient consent for publicationNot required.Many patients admitted to hospital require venous access to infuse medications and fluids. The most commonly used device, the peripheral venous catheter, ranges from 2.5 to 4.5 cm in length, and is typically used for less than 5 days.

The midline, a relatively newer peripheral venous catheter, is up to 20 cm in length, but does not reach the central veins, and may be used for up to 2 weeks. A peripherally inserted central venous catheter (PICC) is a longer catheter that is placed in one of the arm veins and extends to reach the central veins. The PICC is used for longer periods of time compared with peripheral intravenous devices, and initially gained popularity as a convenient vascular access device used in the outpatient and home settings. Its premise has been to provide access that lasts for weeks, that is fairly safe and easily manageable.

Patients often require central venous access when hospitalised, with more than half of patients in intensive care, and up to 20% in those cared for in the non-intensive care wards.1 Common indications for PICC use in the acute care setting include the requirement for multiple and frequent infusions (eg, antibiotics, parenteral nutrition), the administration of medications incompatible with peripheral infusion, invasive haemodynamic monitoring in critically ill patients, very poor venous access and frequent need for blood draws.2 Specially trained healthcare workers place PICCs, often nurses from a vascular access team (VAT), or interventional radiologists. The VAT is comprised of skilled nurses, with either medical/surgical, emergency department or intensive care unit backgrounds. Contrary to other healthcare workers that place PICCs, the VAT’s primary function is to place PICCs, and optimise the infusion delivery, through a safe and effective process. Its scope includes assessment for need, peripheral and central device insertion, monitoring of use and removal.3In their study of five hospitals within the Veterans Administration (VA) healthcare systems in the USA, Krein et al4 underscore the importance of a formal VAT to formulate and implement explicit appropriateness criteria, ensure timely insertion and safe management and direct patient education around PICC use.

They found that team structures supporting line placement vary across hospitals from a dedicated team, to individual nurses trained in placement, to hospitals where only interventional radiologists insert PICCs. The presence of a VAT was associated with more defined criteria for PICC use, but a recurrent theme was inadequate interdisciplinary dialogue. Although qualitative data were gathered at five VA hospitals only, the study’s findings reflect the variation in PICC placement and use, whether in academic or community, small or large hospitals.An important factor in variation in the approach to PICC line placement and management is the availability of resources and expertise at the hospital site. For example, if healthcare workers have suboptimal skills to place peripheral venous catheters, including midlines,5 clinicians may resort to ordering more PICCs unnecessarily to fill that void.

Furthermore, as revealed in Krein’s study, a hospital that does not have the expertise to learn about alternative devices, such as those with lower risks and shorter dwell times (eg, midlines), may resort to using more PICCs than necessary. Similarly, hospitals without clinicians skilled or comfortable placing other central lines6 may rely more on using PICCs. In addition, the lack of an available VAT to place PICCs using uasound guidance may result in more referrals to interventional radiology for placement, potentially exposing the patient to avoidable radiation during fluoroscopy.7We propose an approach to improve the appropriate and safe use of PICCs by focusing on three elements that address the findings by Krein and colleagues. Establishing a structure powered by a VAT.

Anchoring a standardised process for line selection, insertion and care. And promoting adoption by engagement with the key stakeholders.Establishing a structure to support placement and management of PICCs depends on whether the number of devices placed is enough to support the creation of a dedicated vascular access programme. Leadership plays a critical role to invest the resources for a functional VAT, understanding the financial and quality benefits associated.8 Not realising its value, hospital leaders may view the VAT as a non-revenue-generating service, putting it at risk when considering cost reduction strategies. The value of the VAT expands from mitigating preventable events (eg, deep venous thrombosis, ) to enhancing patient experience (eg, less attempts to place a peripheral device).9 In addition, better outcomes help curb the financial risks (eg, hospital-acquired condition penalties)8 and improve hospital ratings.

The VAT’s role encompasses placing PICCs and guaranteeing the proper selection of the intravascular device and its appropriate use.2The second element involves standardising processes for line selection and care, regardless of who is taking care of the device. Implementing policies to address indications, placement and maintenance and using standardised kits help minimise variation. The creation of policies should be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach with VAT, nurses and physicians. The VAT can act as the ‘gate keeper’ evaluating whether the reason for PICC placement is aligned with indications.

In addition, the VAT plays a critical role supporting nurses’ competencies for venous catheter use (eg, aseptic access and maintenance, addressing complications and mitigating risk)10 to reduce mechanical11 and infectious complications.12 The VAT performs regular rounds to mitigate process gaps (eg, dressing site intactness) and to identify complications (eg, PICC site erythema or drainage, arm swelling), and provides timely feedback on clinical performance. The VAT can also serve as subject matter experts to the ordering physicians for the appropriate device type, based on vessel size and indications for use, how many lumens, site selection and a de-escalation plan for the patient prior to discharge. It also provides services should a device-related complication occur (eg, clotting), and works with clinicians to remedy the issue and salvage the device, thereby preventing a patient from losing their vascular access and/or having to replace it.The last element, and perhaps most significant, is to enhance the adoption of best practices through a partnership with the key stakeholders. PICC-associated outcomes are not only owned by the VAT, rather it is the responsibility of the clinicians, physicians and nurses to achieve those goals (table 1).

Physicians are an essential stakeholder group to engage as they are the ones responsible for ordering the PICC. An identified physician champion who partners and empowers the VAT will help resolve any barriers and be a liaison with the local physician community.13 The ideal physician champion should have the respect of peers, understand process optimisation and promote quality improvement. They need to be well versed on the appropriate indications for PICC use, the associated complications and risks and alternatives to the device. The physician champion engages the leaders of the key disciplines responsible for requesting a PICC, educating them on the appropriate indications for use, the outcomes associated with PICC use, inviting them to be partners and responding to any of their concerns.View this table:Table 1 Disciplines and their support to mitigate PICC harmWhat about the key physician disciplines to engage?.

Physicians can play an active role in enhancing PICC use through avoiding the unnecessary use of infusions. The consultation of infectious diseases specialists for intravenous antibiotic use appropriateness has been associated with less PICC use and lower complications.14 Similarly, having a surgeon support the decision for whether enteral or parenteral nutrition is needed will help reduce unnecessary device use.15 Disciplines like hospitalists or general internists care for a large number of patients and often order PICCs for venous access,16 while nephrologists may advocate avoiding the use of PICCs in the chronic kidney disease population in an effort for vein preservation.17 In hospitals with teaching programmes, the VAT and its physician champion may educate physicians in training on device choice, placement and duration of use, and address with their faculty competencies for line management.18 Engaging these disciplines, elucidating the indications for appropriate use and providing feedback and local data on the potential harm ensure accountability and further attention to PICC safety.In summary, the PICC is one of the primary solutions to achieve vascular access. With up to one in five patients at risk for developing complications,19 it is incumbent on us to ensure that these devices are properly used and maintained. Identifying and overcoming system barriers are key to delivering sustainable safe outcomes.

As a first step, clinical and administrative leaders, realising the financial and quality benefits, need to support the structure reflected by the VAT to enhance PICC care. Second, the VAT must partner with disciplines (particularly nursing) to promote and ensure adequate competencies for placement and maintenance. Finally, clinical disciplines caring for the patient should instil a collaborative environment for better decision-making on when central access is required, and what device provides the safest and most effective delivery of care.Ethics statementsPatient consent for publicationNot required..