Quality, Risk & Legal Flashcards
Elements of Open Disclosure:
- Statement of apology (include “sorry this has occurred”)
- Factual account of events
- Opportunity for family to relay THEIR experience of events (and ask questions)
- Discussion of consequences (incl potential)
- Explanation of steps to mitigate future risk
Approach to a complaint:
- Ensure patient SAFE and COMFORTABLE
- EXPRESS REGRET for their experience
- Encourage a formal complaint (liaison)
Quality Assurance:
- GATHER INFO: patient account, staff account, medical records. Root Cause Analysis
- PLAN ACTION: staff education, discipline, protocol etc.
- FOLLOW UP:
—> With patient: written/ meeting
—> Audit actions
Avenues via which a patient might complain:
Direct to care staf
In-charge/ director
Patient Liason Officer
Hospital CEO
Health Minister
Health Care Complains Commissioner (Ombudsman)
AHPRA
Media
Quality Assurance Cycle:
Quality Standards:
Domains via which quality is assessed.
APEEES
Access: wait times, inpatient beds
Patient-centredness: complaints, patient satisfaction
Effectiveness: following best practice
Efficiency: cost-effectiveness, avoiding waste
Equity:
Safety: eg. PPE, hazards
Clinical Indicators:
Some measures of how well an ED is performing/ the quality of its care.
Used to ID areas for improvement, and for benchmarking.
eg.
Readmission rates
Wait times
Did Not Wait rates
Time in ED (4 hours), Time to inpatient bed
Time to analgesia
Follow up of missed xrays
Staff retention
Staff sick leave
etc.
Steps of Root Cause Analysis:
- Define issue
- Collect data
–> Fact check
–> Staff, departmental, systems, processess - Outline root causes + prioritise these
- Plan for mitigation + implement
- Audit
GENERAL APPROACH to dealing with a missed injury (or incident):
1- Manage patient
- Safety, symptomatic, plan
2- Open disclosure
- Apology, Facts, Pt POV, Consequences, Steps incl FU
3- Quality assurance
- Report, Root cause analysis
4- Documentation
5- Medicolegal
- eg. Coroner, AHPRA, Police
- NAI, guardianship
Reasons for DNW:
Waiting times
Competing interests at home
Problem resolved
Felt not urgent enough
Unpleasant waiting room
Alternative care arranged (eg. GP)
Not understanding triage/ perceived unfairness
etc.
High risk DNW:
ATSI
Psych
Drug affected
Referred to ED
Chest pain/ head injury
How to reduce DNW:
Shorter wait times
Early analgesia/ antiemetic
Liason in wait room
Specialty liason (eg. Aboriginal Health Worker)
Communication re triage system/ expected wait time
Approach to DAMA:
Full informed consent
Sign DAMA form
DOCUMENT
Risk mitigation (eg. PO antibiotics)
Safety net incl. follow up
Components of INFORMED consent (5):
Diagnosis and expected outcome
Proposed intervention (include costs)
Consequences of NOT
Risks
Alternative options
Components of VALID consent (4):
Patient has capacity
Informed
Specific to the context
Freely given
When is WRITTEN consent required over verbal?
Verbal consent is just as valid as written consent as long as it is DOCUMENTED
Capacity vs Competence:
Capacity = functional (what we do)
Competence = legal term
These are assumed present for adults and assumed absent for minors, unless proven otherwise.