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Top-down and externally imposed quality requirements can lead to improvement but do not seem as sustainable as intended. There is a need for a quality model that intrinsically motivates healthcare professionals to contribute to quality and safe care in hospitals. This study shows how a quality model that matches the identity and the quality vision of the organization was developed. A multimethod design with three phases was used in the development of the model at a large teaching hospital in Belgium. In the first phase, 14 focus groups and 19 interviews with staff members were conducted to obtain an overview of the quality and safety challenges, complemented by a plenary discussion with the members of the patient advisory council. In the second phase, the challenges that had been captured were further assessed using a hospital-wide survey for all hospital staff. Finally, a newly established quality review board (with internal and external stakeholders) critically evaluated the input of Phases 1 and 2 and defined the basic quality standards to be implemented in the hospital. A first evaluation 2 years after the implementation was conducted based on (i) patients' perceptions of quality of care and patient safety by publicly available indicators collected in 2016, 2019, and 2022 and (ii) staff experiences and perceptions regarding the acceptability of the new model gathered through (grouped) interviews and an open questionnaire. The quality model consists of eight broad themes, including norms for the hospital staff (n = 27), sustained with quality systems (n = 8), and organizational support (n = 6), with aid from adequate management and leadership (n = 6). The themes were converted into 46 standards. These should be supported within a safe, efficient, and caring work environment. The new model was launched in the hospital in June 2021. The evaluation shows a significant difference in quality and safety on different dimensions as perceived by hospitalized patients. The perceived added value of the participatory model is a better fit with the needs of employees and the fact that the model can be adjusted to the specific context of the different hospital departments. The lack of hard indicators is seen as a challenge in monitoring quality and safety. The participation of various stakeholders inside and outside the organization in defining the quality challenges resulted in the creation of a participatory quality model for the hospital, which leads towards a better-supported quality policy in the hospital., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Society for Quality in Health Care. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Internet and software-based platforms (e-learning) have gained popularity as teaching tools in medical education. Despite widespread use, there is limited evidence to support their effectiveness for surgical training. This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of e-learning as a teaching tool compared with no intervention and other methods of surgical training., Methods: A systematic literature search of bibliographical databases was performed up to August 2015. Studies were included if they were RCTs assessing the effectiveness of an e-learning platform for teaching any surgical skill, compared with no intervention or another method of training., Results: From 4704 studies screened, 87 were included with 7871 participants enrolled, comprising medical students (52 studies), trainees (51 studies), qualified surgeons (2 studies) and nurses (6 studies). E-learning tools were used for teaching cognitive (71 studies), psychomotor (36 studies) and non-technical (8 studies) skills. Tool features included multimedia (84 studies), interactive learning (60 studies), feedback (27 studies), assessment (26 studies), virtual patients (22 studies), virtual reality environment (11 studies), spaced education (7 studies), community discussions (2 studies) and gaming (2 studies). Overall, e-learning showed either greater or similar effectiveness compared with both no intervention (29 and 4 studies respectively) and non-e-learning interventions (29 and 22 studies respectively)., Conclusion: Despite significant heterogeneity amongst platforms, e-learning is at least as effective as other methods of training., (© 2016 BJS Society Ltd Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Recent advances in simulation science permit patient-specific rehearsal of endovascular stenting procedures. This study aimed to evaluate how effectively real interventions are replicated by patient-specific rehearsal technology, and to assess its value as a preparatory tool for the interventionalist and the operating team., Methods: All patients deemed candidates for carotid artery stenting procedures with suitable computed tomography images were enrolled. Each team member rehearsed the virtual procedure in the laboratory, simulated operating theatre or angiography suite environment immediately before treating the real patient. Dexterity and qualitative metrics were recorded. Subjective questionnaires used a Likert scale from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent)., Results: Of 18 patients, three were excluded. In 11 of 15 and 13 of 15 patients respectively endovascular tool use and fluoroscopy angles were identical during rehearsal and the real procedure. In a third of patients, the simulator did not adequately predict difficulties in cannulating the stenotic internal or common carotid arteries. The procedure realism, value in evaluating the case, increase in efficiency in tool use, and potential to increase communication, confidence and team performance were all rated highly (4 of 5)., Conclusion: Patient-specific rehearsal was rated highly for both face and content validity. Access strategy, endovascular material use and angiographic imaging were all replicated effectively, although certain biomechanical vessel properties seemed to be replicated to a lesser degree. Patient-specific rehearsal constitutes a unique tool that may help tailor endovascular material choice, and optimize the preoperative preparation of the interventionalist and team., (Copyright © 2012 British Journal of Surgery Society Ltd. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Endovascular therapy is a rapidly evolving field for the treatment of patients with peripheral arterial disease, and a magnitude of studies reporting on various modern revascularization concepts have been recently published. Thus, studies assessing the efficacy of endovascular therapy of peripheral arteries do not operate with uniformly defined endpoints, rendering a direct comparison of studies difficult. The purpose of this consensus statement is to highlight differences in the terminology used in the current literature and to propose some standardized criteria that must be considered when reporting results of endovascular revascularization for chronic ischaemia of lower limb arteries.

Candidemia and major organ candidiasis are problems that emerged in the past 2 decades and that are partially due to medical progress. Catheter-related thrombosis of the central veins is known to be a frequent but mostly subclinical complication of central venous lines. Although candidemia and catheter-related thrombosis are frequent, candida thrombophlebitis of the central veins is rarely reported. We recently successfully treated a 19-year-old polytrauma patient with candidal thrombophlebitis of the innominate vein. Despite catheter removal and therapy with amphotericin B, recurrent candidemia and signs of infection persisted, and a complete resection of the involved vein had to be performed. Only 16 well-documented cases of candidal thrombophlebitis of the central veins in adults have been reported over the past 20 years. An analysis of these 16 patients, together with our patient, is made in relation to risk factors, clinical features, diagnosis, therapy, and mortality.

Objective: Cognitive dysfunction after extracorporeal circulation is a major continuing problem in modern cardiac surgery. We designed this prospective study to update the incidence of postoperative neuropsychological changes after routine cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) and to identify perioperative variables associated with these complications., Methods: We assessed the patients with a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery 1 day before, 7 days after (n = 109) and 6 months after (n = 91) cardiopulmonary bypass. We used patients undergoing major vascular or thoracic surgery as a surgical control group (n = 20)., Results: Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (using surgical group as a between-subjects factor) on the group data revealed significant changes early after surgery compared with the preoperative performance (P = 0.001). The early changes are characterized by a significant decrease of visual attention and verbal memory performance (univariate F-tests, always P < 0.05). Cardiac patients showing cognitive impairment after cardiac surgery had lower preoperative ejection fractions (P = 0.014) and a more complicated medical history (P = 0.046). At 6-month follow-up, the patients performed significantly better than before surgery (P < 0.001). CPB patients showing persistent cognitive impairment at follow-up were significantly older at the time of surgery (P = 0.005). Individual comparisons revealed that 45% of the patients undergoing CPB showed evidence of cognitive impairment soon after surgery. In 12% of the patients, the cognitive sequelae persisted at follow-up. Both group data and individual incidence rates revealed neither significant pre-post differences between the surgical groups nor a time-by-group interaction effect. Variables directly associated with CPB were not significantly associated with the occurrence of cognitive impairment after surgery., Conclusions: We conclude that an important proportion of the cognitive impairment after cardiac surgery is likely to be due to nonspecific effects of surgery.