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Improving the quality of assessment and management of nasal trauma in a major trauma centre (MTC): Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

ABSTRACT: Background:Nasal fractures present in 39% of patients with facial trauma. These patients are assessed in the emergency department followed by outpatient review in the senior house officer-led emergency ear, nose and throat (ENT) clinic. Inadequate treatment of nasal trauma can result in debilitating functional and aesthetic problems. Inexperienced junior doctors may be apprehensive in assessing nasal trauma resulting in time pressured clinics and suboptimal management. Measures:A retrospective review of clinical noting over 3 months was carried out to gauge the extent of the problem. Three baseline measurements for satisfactory quality of assessments included: (1) 3/5 key symptoms elicited by the clinician (epistaxis, rhinorrhoea, nasal airway obstruction, dental malocclusion and diplopia). (2) Presence/absence of 'septal haematoma' (SH) and 'deviated nasal septum' (DNS) documented. (3) Patient follow-up within 2 weeks after the initial injury. Three Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles were conducted with implementation of interventions (proforma, clinic poster, patient information leaflet and training) as visualised in our 'driver diagram'. Results:The quality of nasal trauma assessments improved following each intervention. There was an increase from 86% to 100% patients being seen within 2 weeks of the injury. There was an improvement in quality of assessments following the teaching as two-thirds (PDSA cycle 2) followed by 100% (PDSA cycle 3) of clinical documentation included 'rhinorrhoea' and 83% (PDSA cycle 2) to 100% (PDSA cycle 3) included 'nasal airway obstruction'. Similarly, two thirds (PDSA cycle 2) followed by 100% (PDSA cycle 3) examined and documented the presence/absence of SH and DNS. A 100% improvement in trainee confidence was reported. We are now conducting more comprehensive assessments of nasal trauma patients. Conclusion:The need to provide relevant training and support to ENT junior doctors is crucial in their development, as well as to ensure delivery of high-quality patient-centred care.

SUBMITTER: Khajuria A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6887497 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Value added services (VAS) are an innovative dispensing system created to provide an alternative means of collecting partial drug supply from our hospital. This in turn was projected to reduce the necessity for patient to visit pharmacy counter and thus reduce the burden of prescription handling.To evaluate the impact of increased VAS uptake following promotional campaign towards patient waiting time and to explore factors that may affect patient waiting time at the Ambulatory Pharmacy, Queen Elizabeth Hospital.A quasi experimental study design was conducted from September 2014 till June 2015 at the Ambulatory Pharmacy. During pre-intervention phase, baseline parameters were collected retrospectively. Then, VAS promotional campaign was carried out for six months and whilst this was done, the primary outcome of patient waiting time was measured by percentage of prescription served less than 30 minutes. A linear regression analysis was used to determine the impact of increased VAS uptake towards patient waiting time.An increased in percentage of VAS registration (20.9% vs 35.7%, p<0.001) was observed after the promotional campaign. The mean percentage of prescription served less than 30 minutes increased from 83.2% SD=15.9 to 90.3% SD=11.5, p=0.001. After controlling for covariates, it was found that patient waiting time was affected by number of pharmacy technicians (b=-0.0349, 95%CI-0.0548 : -0.0150, p=0.001), number of pharmacy counters (b=0.1125, 95%CI 0.0631 : 0.1620, p<0.001), number of prescriptions (b=0.0008, 95%CI 0.0004 : 0.0011, p<0.001), and number of refill prescriptions (b=0.0004, 95%CI 0.0002 : 0.0007, p<0.001). The increased in percentage of VAS registration was associated with reduction in number of refill prescription (b=-2.9838, 95%CI -4.2289 : -1.7388, p<0.001).Patient waiting time at the Ambulatory Pharmacy improved with the increased in VAS registration. The impact of increased VAS uptake on patient waiting time resulted from reduction in refill prescriptions. Patient waiting time is influenced by number of pharmacy technicians, number of pharmacy counters, number of prescriptions and number of refill prescriptions.

Project description:BackgroundStudies from countries such as Australia and South Africa have demonstrated a difference in the types of injury managed in rural hospitals compared to larger, urban hospitals and so conclude staff require a different skill-set to work in these environments. There is some evidence this attitude may be prevalent amongst UK surgical trainees, resulting in difficulty recruiting to rural settings. In addition, studies have compared mortality in paediatric trauma patients in rural and urban hospitals, but none have described types of injury or orthopaedic operations required.We hypothesise the distribution of operative, orthopaedic paediatric trauma in a rural district general and an urban major trauma centre will not differ significantly in terms of patterns and mechanism of injury, orthopaedic intervention or time to theatre.Materials/methodsAll operative paediatric patients (0-15yrs) seen during an acute orthopaedic take at a rural district general and an urban major trauma centre were included. Non-operative admissions were excluded. Patients were identified using daily trauma work lists from each site. Outcomes were age, injury type, operation, time to theatre, seasonality and mechanism.Results183 patients from the urban hospital and 103 from the rural were identified. There were no significant differences found in age of patient, seasonality or time to theatre between cohorts (p > 0.05). There were also broadly similar patterns of injury and operations performed in both groups, although k-wiring was more often employed in the rural cohort than the urban (27% vs 17% of total operations). There were more bicycle and shinty related injuries in the rural cohort, and equine related in the urban.ConclusionsPaediatric trauma admissions do not vary significantly between rural and urban trauma centres, although the types of procedure performed may be less conservative in a rural hospital. This may be due to geography or differences in ED practice.

Project description:Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax, a disease that primarily affects herbivorous animals, is a soil borne endospore-forming microbe. Environmental distribution of viable spores determines risky landscapes for herbivore exposure and subsequent anthrax outbreaks. Spore survival and longevity depends on suitable conditions in its environment. Anthrax is endemic in Queen Elizabeth Protected Area in western Uganda. Periodic historical outbreaks with significant wildlife losses date to 1950s, but B. anthracis ecological niche in the ecosystem is poorly understood. This study used the Maximum Entropy modeling algorithm method to predict suitable niche and environmental conditions that may support anthrax distribution and spore survival. Model inputs comprised 471 presence-only anthrax occurrence data from park management records of 1956-2010, and 11 predictor variables derived from the World Climatic and Africa Soil Grids online resources, selected considering the ecology of anthrax. The findings revealed predicted suitable niche favoring survival and distribution of anthrax spores as a narrow-restricted corridor within the study area, defined by hot-dry climatic conditions with alkaline soils rich in potassium and calcium. A mean test AUC of 0.94 and predicted probability of 0.93 for anthrax presence were registered. The five most important predictor variables that accounted for 93.8% of model variability were annual precipitation (70.1%), exchangeable potassium (12.6%), annual mean temperature (4.3%), soil pH (3.7%) and calcium (3.1%). The predicted suitable soil properties likely originate from existing sedimentary calcareous gypsum rocks. This has implications for long-term presence of B. anthracis spores and might explain the long history of anthrax experienced in the area. However, occurrence of suitable niche as a restricted hot zone offers opportunities for targeted anthrax surveillance, response and establishment of monitoring strategies in QEPA.

Project description:BackgroundAnthrax is a zoonotic disease primarily of herbivores, caused by Bacillus anthracis, a bacterium with diverse geographical and global distribution. Globally, livestock outbreaks have declined but in Africa significant outbreaks continue to occur with most countries still categorized as enzootic, hyper endemic or sporadic. Uganda experiences sporadic human and livestock cases. Severe large-scale outbreaks occur periodically in hippos (Hippopotamus amphibious) at Queen Elizabeth Protected Area, where in 2004/2005 and 2010 anthrax killed 437 hippos. Ecological drivers of these outbreaks and potential of hippos to maintain anthrax in the ecosystem remain unknown. This study aimed to describe spatio-temporal patterns of anthrax among hippos; examine significant trends associated with case distributions; and generate hypotheses for investigation of ecological drivers of anthrax.MethodsSpatio-temporal patterns of 317 hippo cases in 2004/5 and 137 in 2010 were analyzed. QGIS was used to examine case distributions; Spearman's nonparametric tests to determine correlations between cases and at-risk hippo populations; permutation models of the spatial scan statistics to examine spatio-temporal clustering of cases; directional tests to determine directionality in epidemic movements; and standard epidemic curves to determine patterns of epidemic propagation.Key findingsResults showed hippopotamus cases extensively distributed along water shorelines with strong positive correlations (p<0.01) between cases and at-risk populations. Significant (p<0.001) spatio-temporal clustering of cases occurred throughout the epidemics, pointing towards a defined source. Significant directional epidemic spread was detected along water flow gradient (206.6°) in 2004/5 and against flow gradient (20.4°) in 2010. Temporal distributions showed clustered pulsed epidemic waves.ConclusionThese findings suggest mixed point-source propagated pattern of epidemic spread amongst hippos and points to likelihood of indirect spread of anthrax spores between hippos mediated by their social behaviour, forces of water flow, and persistent presence of infectious carcasses amidst schools. This information sheds light on the epidemiology of anthrax in highly social wildlife, can help drive insight into disease control, wildlife conservation, and tourism management, but highlights the need for analytical and longitudinal studies aimed at clarifying the hypotheses.

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Improving the quality of assessment and management of nasal trauma in a major trauma centre (MTC): Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

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