The purpose of evidence-based healthcare management is to prevent the overuse, underuse or misuse of some management measures, and to eliminate the gap between research and practice or the difference between best practices and conventional practices. Evidence-based healthcare management is still in an early stage of development. It also faces many challenges, which have aroused some criticism and even suspicion. This is closely related to the complexity of the management field itself and the lack of empirical research in the field. Considering the scarcity of high-quality health and medical resources in China, in order to improve the scientificalness of healthcare decision-making, we strongly appeal that promoting evidence-based healthcare management requires government-led, universal education, intensified research, scientific evaluation, technological innovation and integration.
With nearly four decades of progress in healthcare-associated infection prevention and control in China, the national quality control efforts in this field have been ongoing for the past ten years, advancing rapidly with significant achievements. Over the last decade, the team of infection control professionals involved in quality management and control in China has consistently expanded, accompanied by an enhancement of their skills. Management capabilities have steadily grown, and operational mechanisms have been continuously refined. As public hospitals transition into a new phase of high-quality development, emphasizing refined management models and intrinsic development of medical quality, it becomes crucial to further fortify the foundation and foster innovation in infection control work to ensure quality. This article provides an overview of the establishment and implementation of the National Center for Quality Control of Infection Prevention and Control, examines the current shortcomings and challenges in the field, and collectively explores the positioning and direction of the development of quality control efforts for infection prevention and control in China.
Objective Interpretation of the growing body of global literature on health care risk is compromised by a lack of common understanding and language. This series of articles aims to comprehensively compare laws and regulations, institutional management, and administration of incidence reporting systems on medical risk management in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Taiwan, so as to provide evidence and recommendations for health care risk management policy in China. Methods?We searched the official websites of the healthcare risk management agencies of the four countries and one district for laws, regulatory documents, research reports, reviews and evaluation forms concerned with healthcare risk management and assessment. Descriptive comparative analysis was performed on relevant documents. Results?A total of 146 documents were included in this study, including 2 laws (1.4%), 17 policy documents (11.6%), 41 guidance documents (28.1%), 37 reviews (25.3%), and 49 documents giving general information (33.6%). The United States government implemented one law and one rule of patient safety management, while the United Kingdom and Australia each issued professional guidances on patient safety improvement. The four countries implemented patient safety management policy on four different levels: national, state/province/district, hospital, and non-governmental organization. Conclusion?The four countries and one district adopted four levels of patient safety management, and the administration modes can be divided into an “NGO-led mode” represented by the United States and Canada and a “government-led mode” represented by the United Kingdom, Australia, and Taiwan.
Objective To understand the current situation of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in comprehensive hospitals with a number of beds≥900, and provide a reference for the next step in formulating HAI prevention and control measures. Methods The data on the prevalence rate of HAI in comprehensive hospitals with a number of beds≥900 of Yunnan Province between 2020 and 2022 were retrospective collected. The HAI situation and trend in each year were analyzed. Results A total of 119 comprehensive hospitals were included, with 166 745 patients surveyed and 3 237 cases of HAI. Lower respiratory tract infection and urinary tract infection were the most common sites. The department with the highest incidence of hospital infections was the intensive care unit, followed by neurosurgery and hematology. The prevalence rates of HAI showed a downward trend from 2020 to 2022 (2.08% vs. 1.99% vs. 1.79%, χ2=14.301, P<0.001). A total of 1 315 strains of hospital-acquired pathogens were detected, all of which were mainly Gram-negative bacteria, with Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae being more common. The rate of antibiotics use and the rate of pathogen testing showed an upward trend from 2020 to 2022 (χ2=79.233, 23.866, P<0.001), the infection rate of incision site and the prophylactic use rate of antimicrobial drugs in patients with class Ⅰ surgery both showed a decreasing trend (χ2=15.551, 6.311, P<0.05). Conclusions The prevalence of infection in comprehensive hospitals of Yunnan Province is decreasing. But the supervision of key departments, the implementation of pathogen prevention and control measures, and the rational use of antibiotics in inpatients are still the focus of future work.
This article introduced the structure and features of the medical safety and quality management system of New South Wales (NSW) of Australia. The system was funded by government with overall design, multi-sectors involvement, and explicit roles of government, hospitals, and independent third parties. The system also developed national and state-wide regulations, policies, standards and their certification. The NSW Health Incident Information Management System (IIMS), the guidelines and interventional programs were also established to decrease the medical risk and ensure the healthcare quality. This system will be used for reference to the national medical risk and quality management system of China.
Healthcare-associated infection outbreaks are a serious threat to patient safety and often cause serious consequences. The use of genotyping methods to identify the source of infection and the route of transmission in outbreaks is a critical point in controlling outbreaks. Recently, the use of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) makes it faster and much more accurate. Compared with traditional methods, WGS can distinguish highly correlated pathogen lineages, track infection source accurately and help researchers understanding the propagation dynamics model, and even provide more target intervention information. The application of WGS technology in healthcare-associated infection outbreak investigation and control is reviewed in this paper, and its advantages and challenges are also evaluated.
ObjectiveTo measure and evaluate the economic burden of hospital infection in Sichuan, and provide a basis for targeted economic evaluation of healthcare-associated infection (HAI).MethodsIn hospitals participating in the 2016 Sichuan provincial prevalence survey of HAI, matched cases were used to extract cases and controls, and then a multi-center nested case-control study was conducted.ResultsA total of 225 pairs/450 patients were selected in 51 hospitals, and 175 pairs/350 patients were successfully matched. The median of the difference of hospitalization costs between matched-pairs were RMB 3 362.0, and the difference was statistically significant (Z=3.275, P<0.001).ConclusionsThe hospitalization costs caused by HAI should be given special attention in the current medical insurance reform. Efforts need to be taken to reduce the hospitalization costs caused by HAI.
Objective To compare administration of incidence reporting systems for healthcare risk management in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Taiwan, and to provide evidence and recommendations for healthcare risk management policy in China. Methods We searched the official websites of the healthcare risk management agencies of the four countries and one district for laws, regulatory documents, research reports, reviews, and evaluation forms concerned with healthcare risk management and assessment. Descriptive comparative analysis was performed on relevant documents. Results (1) A total of 142 documents were included in this study. The United States had the most relevant documents (68). (2) The type of incidents from reporting systems has expanded from medication errors and hospital-acquired infections to near-misses, and now includes all patient safety incidents. (3) The incidence-reporting systems can be grouped into two models: government-led and legal/regulatory/NGO-collaborative. (4) In two cases, reporting systems were established for specific incident types: One for death or serious injury events (the sentinel events database in Britain, SIRL), and one for healthcare-associated infections (NHSN in America). (5) Compared to the four countries, Taiwan’s system put more emphasis on public welfare, confidentiality, and information sharing. The contents of reporting there covered every aspect of risk management to create a more secure environment. Conclusion (1) Britain’s national reporting and learning system was representative of a government-led model; (2) The United States was the earliest country to have a reporting system, which included a limited range of incident types. Management of incidents became more reliable with increased application of laws, regulations, and guidances; (3) Both the Canadian and the Australian systems drew from the American experience and are still developing; (4) The Taiwanese system was comprehensive and is an instructional case.
Objective To analyze the policy and guideline, the institutional management and the operation mechanism of ICU medical risk management in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada and Taiwan, so as to provide evidence and recommendations for health care risk management policy in China. Methods Such databases as PubMed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library were searched to include the literatures such as the guideline documents and the research reports on ICU medical risk management in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada and Taiwan; the institutional management and the operation mechanism of the risk management in the above four countries and one area were comprehensively analyzed, and especially the UK model was highly emphasized. Results A total of 31 literatures were included, including 1 guideline, 5 reviews, 2 investigative reports and 23 research documents. The United Kingdom guided the ICU risk management in forms of the standard and the guideline, formulated a clear tool of event classification and corresponding response mechanism. The United States learned from Australia’s experience and established the ICU safety reporting system; both of them regarded ICU as one part of the medical risk management and set up a special management column. Conclusion The ICU risk management with the independent report system in the United Kingdom is brought into the scope of national patient safety management, and is regarded as the relative complete system at present. In Australia and the USA, the national institutions are in charge of setting up the research projects of ICU risk management; the industry associations and the non-governmental organizations lead the risk research; and the experimental units popularize gradually after self-application.
Electronic skin has shown great application potential in many fields such as healthcare monitoring and human-machine interaction due to their excellent sensing performance, mechanical properties and biocompatibility. This paper starts from the materials selection and structures design of electronic skin, and summarizes their different applications in the field of healthcare equipment, especially current development status of wearable sensors with different functions, as well as the application of electronic skin in virtual reality. The challenges of electronic skin in the field of wearable devices and healthcare, as well as our corresponding strategies, are discussed to provide a reference for further advancing the research of electronic skin.