Patient Safety

RE: Patient Safety

Rob Davis — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 09:03:42 GMT

[quote user="Thomas Johnson"]I've just read 'The Naked Surgeon: the power and peril of transparency in medicine' by Samer Nashef. One of the comments I found interesting was that while hospitals are often fairly good at learning from things that go wrong, they aren't very good at learning from near misses, and I wonder if it's the same in veterinary medicine.[/quote]

I've just read "Black box thinking" by Matthew Syed. He makes a similar point and I found it very interesting.

RE: Patient Safety

Thomas Johnson — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 19:01:14 GMT

[quote user="Jill Macdonald"]I'm going to email you too, but just to say here on the public domain, I think it's great that this area is being looked at. It's a topic I have a great interest in, and have had many a conversation on this with my other half, who has given me lots of interesting info on the 'just culture' that is followed in aviation. This was on my 'to do' list to have a think about and see what I could do to get the vet profession thinking about it too, so great to see you've covered that base![/quote]

I've just read 'The Naked Surgeon: the power and peril of transparency in medicine' by Samer Nashef. One of the comments I found interesting was that while hospitals are often fairly good at learning from things that go wrong, they aren't very good at learning from near misses, and I wonder if it's the same in veterinary medicine.

RE: Patient Safety

Jill Macdonald — Wed, 11 Jan 2017 18:26:34 GMT

Hi Mark,

I saw a piece about your work on this a while ago, and have been meaning to look out for it - this just popped up now so I've completed the survey.

I'm going to email you too, but just to say here on the public domain, I think it's great that this area is being looked at. It's a topic I have a great interest in, and have had many a conversation on this with my other half, who has given me lots of interesting info on the 'just culture' that is followed in aviation. This was on my 'to do' list to have a think about and see what I could do to get the vet profession thinking about it too, so great to see you've covered that base!

Personally I think the survey title is very apt, and maybe those that are scathing have missed the connection between blame and openness regarding mistakes, and patient safety.

Hope you've receieved lots of survey repsonses,

Jill

RE: Patient Safety

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 10:55:54 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]Unlike human medicine, our profession consists of (too) many small practices competing against each other, rather than working together or with each other, for a finite amount of the same work. This of course leads to price wars, cost cutting, and despite the PSS mantra an inevitable driving down of clinical standards and ultimately patient safety in some practices.[/quote]Add the corporate's aggressive marketing strategies making the surviving independents even more desperate to hang on to some work and vets whose main objective is profit rather than standards of care - we have all of those around here!

I have resisted these trends and refuse to lower my standards to compete - my nurses wouldn't let me anyway. Maybe I'm lucky that I'm now in a position of financial security and can retire any time so can apply these standards without caring about the bottom line. As said before on several occasions, I'm glad I'm not having to compete in the current environment to ensure my survival.

RE: Patient Safety

Clive Ansell — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 10:17:08 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]What worries me is that there are practices out there who are not doing all the right things and of those that don't are they: a) going to even look at the survey let alone answer at all and; b) if they do, answer honestly? From those points of view I do doubt the value of the results. But if it makes one vet re-evaluate what he/she should be doing it may be worthwhile.[/quote]

The problem, is that there is no enforced or enforceable basic minimum standard, along with no effective regulation, let alone any form of independent regulatory body or ombudsman.

Unlike human medicine, our profession consists of (too) many small practices competing against each other, rather than working together or with each other, for a finite amount of the same work. This of course leads to price wars, cost cutting, and despite the PSS mantra an inevitable driving down of clinical standards and ultimately patient safety in some practices.

RE: Patient Safety

Clive Ansell — Thu, 08 Dec 2016 10:08:02 GMT

+1 Done.

It will be interesting to see the results, but if it is in any way a comparison with the NHS I'm not sure how useful it will be?

RE: Patient Safety

Anthony Todd — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 19:12:50 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]What worries me is that there are practices out there who are not doing all the right thing[/quote]

Geez, mate you'll have to wear gloves when the survey is published......

RE: Patient Safety

Anthony Todd — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 19:10:14 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Todd"]Pity there aren't more dinovets on here....[/quote]

Well, as usual the questions, or most of them, are the sort of "what do you mean by that?" questions and "patient safety" is a dumb questionaire title IMHO, or a lot of the questions are.

Perhaps not so much for an employee?

RE: Patient Safety

Anthony Todd — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 17:55:56 GMT

I'll do it as the value of something like this is to see trends. I may be able to give examples when I do the survey.

Pity there aren't more dinovets on here....

RE: Patient Safety

Rob Davis — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 16:44:13 GMT

I think the answers from non-bosses will be the most interesting. As a "boss" I would be interested to know how other members of the practice completed it, though it they knew I was going to see the results that would be self-defeating!

RE: Patient Safety

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:06:22 GMT

[quote user="J G Wray"]

Whenever surveys like this appear, you have to wonder whether they're going to turn up obvious results like......because mistakes are made, animals aren't safe in the hands of a vet.

[/quote]What worries me is that there are practices out there who are not doing all the right things and of those that don't are they: a) going to even look at the survey let alone answer at all and; b) if they do, answer honestly? From those points of view I do doubt the value of the results. But if it makes one vet re-evaluate what he/she should be doing it may be worthwhile.

RE: Patient Safety

J G Wray — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 16:43:06 GMT

[quote user="Mark Turner"]This survey is the first of it's kind in the veterinary profession but has been adapted from a similar 'culture' questionnaire used in human medicine. Thanks![/quote]

Whenever surveys like this appear, you have to wonder whether they're going to turn up obvious results like......because mistakes are made, animals aren't safe in the hands of a vet.

RE: Patient Safety

Arlo Guthrie — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 09:42:04 GMT

Bump: I've just done a news story on this one:

https://www.vetsurgeon.org/news/b/veterinary_news/archive/2016/12/05/survey-aims-to-help-veterinary-profession-learn-from-mistakes.aspx

Please use the share buttons under the news story to spread the word in the profession. To the (albeit untrained) eye, this looks like a really important piece of work, and the more people that do it, the more useful it will be.

RE: Patient Safety

Selena Carnell — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 16:37:55 GMT

Done

RE: Patient Safety

Mark Turner — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 18:13:10 GMT

Hi Sue,

Thank you for completing the survey. Could you email me at mturner@rvc.ac.uk with a brief message, and we will be contacting those individuals who have expressed an interest in the topic, in the New Year.

Many Thanks, Mark Turner

RE: Patient Safety

Sue white — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 14:54:07 GMT

Hi, I have done the survey but think I accidentally hit the "do not contact me further "at the end. I am interested in further research you are doing on this topic but couldn't edit the reply! Please can you contact me with further information