M edical errors make headline news. The headlines will always emphasise the human suffering associated with medical error, but the prevention of such errors comes as the result of detailed analysis of their circumstances. One area of particular concern to surgeons is wrong site/wrong side surgery. Although its occurrence is rare, it is potentially avoidable. A notable recent case in the UK was ...

We interviewed hospital leaders and unit nurses in twenty-five hospitals between June and October 2008 to explore the effect of performance-based incentives. Interviewees expressed favorable impressions of the impact that incentive policies have on quality and safety. However, they raised concerns about the policies’ effects on the nurse workforce. Their concerns included the belief that perfor...

Over the past two decades, as the prevalence of chronic pain and health care costs have exploded, an opioid epidemic with adverse consequences has escalated. Efforts to increase opioid use and a campaign touting the alleged undertreatment of pain continue to be significant factors in the escalation. Many arguments in favor of opioids are based solely on traditions, expert opinion, practical exp...

introduction: health tourism is an organized travel we make from where we live to another place to keep, regain, and improve physical and mental health. it can be also a national strategy to improve national income and some believe that it can be an integral part of national security. the present study is an attempt to determine the relationship between observance of the standards of internatio...

Introduction: According to the International Society for Quality in Healthcare, accreditation is a process which "trained external peer reviewers evaluate healthcare organisation's compliance with pre-established performance standards. Unlike licensure, focuses on continuous improvement strategies and achievement of optimal quality standards, rather than adherence minimal standards intended ass...

T he fields of blood banking (BB) and transfusion medicine (TM), like other areas of medicine, have evolved into specialties with a diverse array of areas of knowledge. These areas include advances in the detection of pathogens in donated blood, advances in methods to collect and manipulate progenitor cells, advances in blood conservation techniques, and advances in treatments for both the acut...

n 2000, members of the Brain Attack Coalition published recommendations for the establishment of primary stroke centers (PSCs), 1 and in 2005 they published recommendations for the establishment of comprehensive stroke centers (CSCs). 2 To improve patient care and outcomes for stroke, the recommendations suggested that stroke centers should include acute stroke teams, written care protocols, em...