See Something, Say Something in Medicine

Speaking up about traditional and professionalism-related patient safety threats: a national survey of interns and residents.

Speaking up when a safety concern arises is essential to patient safety. This study was a survey of 1800 U.S. medical and surgical interns and residents. The response rate was 47%.  Unprofessional behavior was observed by 75% of respondees, and traditional safety threats observed by 50%. Most interns and residents spoke up when they observed a traditional safety threat (71%) but less than half spoke up when they observed unprofessional behavior (49%).

Comment: speaking up can be difficult and potentially create resentment in the person being reported for unprofessional behavior. This study highlights the need for alternative reporting methods, which maintain anonymity.

BMJ Qual Saf. 2017 Apr 25

Improving Quality by Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methodologies

 This research study of children with congenital heart disease looked at combining qualitative and quantitative research methods to improve quality of care. The used Classification and Regression Trees as part of the analysis along with a Rich Picture generation, as shown here:

 The authors conclude that their research demonstrates that a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches may help improve quality in complex systems.

For complex systems, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches may be the best way to improve quality. BMJ Qual Saf. 2017 Jan 06

Comment: A lot of this research seems to be focused on the communication of results using graphical approaches such as \"Rich Pictures\" and \"Activity Diagrams.\" This are interesting approaches, but this research does not answer whether or not they are superior methods of communication.