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J B Wasserfallen

Publications and source records attributed to J B Wasserfallen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

[Defining interfaces to improve quality of care: the example of anorexia nervosa in acute somatic hospitalisation].

Specialisation in medicine requires multidisciplinary approaches, and hence coordination in collaborations of the different partners involved. These integrated approaches, sometimes called "disease management", fit particularly well to chronic diseases. Our institution introduced an integrated approach for taking care of the acute somatic hospitalisation of patients suffering from anorexia nervosa. Interfaces with the different partners were defined, specifying tasks, rights, and duties of each person, care givers or patients. This initiative allows now to identify any deviation occurring in the process of care or hole in the care system, so that it can be corrected and recurrence prevented. This model will be extended to other complex and multidisciplinary care processes and other services in our institution.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2006

[Generic drug prescribing: pilot study on the impact of the new drug pricing system on costs and potential savings].

The impact of a systematic generic substitution and of the new drug pricing system (implemented in 2002 for cost saving reasons) on prescription cost was computed on the basis of prescriptions delivered in January 1999 for patients leaving our university hospital. A total of 3,099 prescriptions, representing 5,514 drugs, were delivered in one month, of which 335 (6%) were excluded (drug not available in 2002 or magistral preparations). Forced generic prescription would have saved 3,8% of global costs, while the new drug pricing system would have increased costs between 1,1% and 8,0%. In this specific setting, savings linked with forced generic drug prescription was weak (4 to 5%), and the expected savings of the new drug pricing system were not observed.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗
PubMed2005

Is early endoscopy in the emergency room beneficial in patients with bleeding peptic ulcer? A "fortuitously controlled" study.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: In previous randomized trials, early endoscopy improved the outcome in patients with bleeding peptic ulcer, though most of these studies defined "early" as endoscopy performed within 24 hours after admission. Using the length of hospital stay as the primary criterion for the clinical outcome, we compared the results of endoscopy done immediately after admission (early endoscopy in the emergency room, EEE) with endoscopy postponed to a time within the first 24 hours after hospitalization, but still during normal working hours ("delayed" endoscopy in the endoscopy unit, DEU). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of data from 81 consecutive patients with bleeding peptic ulcer admitted in 1997 and 1998 (age range 16 - 90 years). Of these 81 patients, 38 underwent DEU (the standard therapy at the hospital) and 43 underwent EEE. Patients in the two groups were comparable with regard to admission criteria, were equally distributed with respect to their risk of adverse outcome (assessed using the Baylor bleeding score and the Rockall score), and differed only in the treatment they received. Endoscopic hemostasis was performed whenever possible in all patients with Forrest types I, IIa, and IIb ulcer bleeding. RESULTS: We found similar rates in the two groups for recurrent bleeding (16 % in DEU patients vs. 14 % in EEE patients), persistent bleeding (8 % in DEU patients vs. none in EEE patients), medical complications (21 % in DEU patients vs. 26 % in EEE patients), the need for surgery (8 % in DEU patients vs. 9 % in EEE patients), and the length of hospital stay (5.1 days for DEU patients vs. 5.9 days for EEE patients). None of the differences between the two groups in these parameters were statistically significant. None of the patients died. CONCLUSIONS: Early endoscopy in an emergency room did not improve the clinical outcome in our 81 consecutive patients with bleeding peptic ulcer.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Minimally invasive fixation versus conservative treatment of undisplaced scaphoid fractures: a cost-effectiveness study.

This study compares the direct and indirect costs of conservative and minimally invasive treatment for undisplaced scaphoid fractures. Costs data concerning groups of non-operated and operated patients were analysed. Direct costs were higher in operated patients. Although highly variable, indirect costs were significantly smaller in operated patients and the total costs were higher in non-operated patients. In conclusion, operative treatment of scaphoid fractures is initially more expensive than conservative treatment but markedly decreases the work compensation costs.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Human errors in a multidisciplinary intensive care unit: a 1-year prospective study.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the incidence and identify risk factors of critical incidents in an ICU. DESIGN: Prospective observational study of consecutive patients admitted over 1 year to an ICU. Critical incidents were recorded using predefined criteria. Their causes and consequences were analysed. The causes were classified as technical failure, patient's underlying disease, or human errors (subclassified as planning, execution, or surveillance). The consequences were classified as lethal, leading to sequelae, prolonging the ICU stay, minor, or without consequences. The correlation between critical incidents and specific factors including patient's diagnosis and severity score, use of monitoring and therapeutic modalities was analysed by uni- and multivariate analysis. SETTING: An 11-bed multidisciplinary ICU in a non-university teaching hospital. PATIENTS: 1,024 consecutive patients admitted to the ICU. INTERVENTION: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The median length of ICU stay by the 1,024 patients was 1.9 days. Of the 777 critical incidents reported 2% were due to technical failure and 67 % to secondary to underlying disease. There were 241 human errors (31%) in 161 patients, evenly distributed among planning (n = 75), execution (n = 88), and surveillance (n = 78). One error was lethal, two led to sequelae, 26 % prolonged ICU stay, and 57 % were minor and 16 % without consequence. Errors with significant consequences were related mainly to planning. Human errors prolonged ICU stay by 425 patient-days, amounting to 15 % of ICU time. Readmitted patients had more frequent and more severe critical incidents than primarily admitted patients. CONCLUSIONS: Critical incidents add morbidity, workload, and financial burden. A substantial proportion of them are related to human factors with dire consequences. Efforts must focus on timely, appropriate care to avoid planning and execution mishaps at the beginning of the ICU stay; surveillance intensity must be maintained, specially after the fourth day.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

[Medical-economic analysis: a necessary complement to "evidence based medicine"].

After an extraordinary technical development, medicine is under close scrutiny and requested to prove that its diagnostic and therapeutic procedures are "efficient, appropriate, and economical". Evidence based medicine allows the optimal use of existing data in the literature, but focuses only on health care benefits. Economical analyses take into account the health care resources needed to get these benefits. The various types of costs, perspectives of analysis, and techniques for assessing benefits and uncertainty about cost estimates, are presented and illustrated with two examples drawn from the fields of primary care and advanced technology. Because the cost benefit ratio of a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure is heavily dependent on the type of patients to which it is applied, as well as on the stage of technological progress, the two types of information are necessary to fully assess medical procedures.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMed2001

[Risk management in the hospital milieu: needs and implications].

Medicine can be dangerous for the patients, the caregivers, the visitors and the environment. Technological progress provides devices and drugs that are always more powerful, more efficacious, but at the same time able to lead to severe side effects. This paper describes the system set up in a university hospital to fulfill legal requirements. Specialists in specific fields build up commissions, which are united in a coordination office. A general policy for the hospital has been decided, but each commission is responsible for managing the risks in its field. The overall philosophy moved from a quality assurance to a quality management system, in which the employee involved in an incident or an accident is no longer considered the only culprit except in cases of obvious violation of established procedures. In order to be efficient, the system must be as simple as possible, and well known, so that collaborators gain confidence in it. Once this cultural revolution is accomplished, quality but also security of the procedures will be improved. Its impact on cost is more questionable, as the system generates running costs which might be higher than the savings it might bring.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2001

[Quality indicators pertinence and limits in medicine: example of nosocomial infections].

Insuring that quality indicators really measure quality of care and not other factors, such as the type of intervention or the patients' characteristics, is notoriously difficult. In order to avoid as much as possible these potential methodological pitfalls, the association FoQual (www.hospvd.ch/quality/foqual) requested in the year 2000 the opinion of experts on the scientific value of some indicators, considered for introduction into practice by the commission on quality of care representing the Swiss hospital association and the health insurers' association (H+/CAMS), as well as on theoretical and practical aspects essential to guarantee their efficiency. The expert group Swiss-NOSO (www.hospvd.ch/swiss-noso) was asked to assess the indicator "nosocomial infection". This example illustrates some pitfalls to avoid, the importance of including infectious surveillance into a global prevention program and ask professionals with a specific training and independence from hospital wards to perform this activity. It shows the complexity of setting up and exploiting quality indicators in health care and the side effects that they might have.

Cross Infection↗
PubMed2001

[Cost benefit aspects of quality: is there a return on the investment?].

Quality health care has a cost with three components: the cost of the diagnostic or therapeutic procedure itself, the cost of error or side effects prevention, and the cost of error or side effects treatment. Hence an optimal position must be found. The literature shows that quality projects aiming at decreasing the cost of side effects treatment usually lead to savings. On the other hand, legal or contract requirements aiming at preventing side effects from happening usually lead to additional costs. Therefore, specific assessment methods to compute the costs and benefits of quality programs must be developed. It would be paradoxical to waste resources in setting up and running a quality assurance program.

Cost Savings↗
PubMed1999

Item responsiveness of a rhinitis and asthma symptom score during a pollen season.

Twenty-one asthma patients with allergic rhinitis completed a series of self-administered questionnaires (21-item symptom score for rhinosinusitis and asthma, bother scale, McMaster Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire [MAQOL] and Euroqol) at 2-week intervals from August to November 1994. Relative responsiveness of the instruments was assessed in reference to the maximum and minimum average scores for MAQOL, with area under the curve (AUC) and correlation coefficients between the different instruments. Symptom score, MAQOL, and bother scale provided similar results for both extreme values and AUC, whereas Euroqol utilities were less responsive. These results suggest that the symptom scores and bother scales are responsive and valid, and might prove valuable in everyday practice, clinical trials, and quality assurance programs.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Extreme hypercapnia is not a long-term prognostic factor after near-fatal asthma: a 12-year follow-up study.

QUESTION OF THE STUDY: Some patients experiencing near-fatal asthma present with extreme hypercapnia (PaCO2 > or = 100 mm Hg), whereas others do not. The influence of this factor on short- and long-term outcome and quality of life in these patients is still unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A series of 39 consecutive patients who had had an episode of near-fatal asthma between 1978 and 1992 were followed up. Long-term outcome and quality of life of the 12 patients who had experienced extreme hypercapnia were compared with those of the 27 patients who had not. RESULTS: Four patients died, but only 1 from asthma. Three patients were lost to follow-up. The remaining 32 patients had a median observation period of 12.7 years. The hypercapnic patients did not significantly differ from the others in past asthma history, subsequent hospitalizations, medication needs, pulmonary function tests, quality of life and impairment/disability. In the event of subsequent near-fatal asthma attacks, they tended to present with hypercapnia levels similar to those observed during the first episode. DISCUSSION: Extreme hypercapnia in near-fatal asthma tended to recur, but is not an aggravating long-term prognostic factor. Targeted surveillance of these high-risk patients should make it possible to reduce relapses and death rates from asthma.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

[First evaluation of a year of ambulatory surgery in urology].

Day surgery in urology is in full growth actually. The present report is based on our first 120 patients. Low post-operative complication rate, patients' satisfaction and economical savings are the main factors for the important increase in this type of surgery.

Ambulatory Surgical Procedures↗
PubMed1997

Development and validation of a rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma symptom score for use as an outcome measure in clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: The measurement of health outcomes has become a priority for assessing and containing health care costs. OBJECTIVE: To develop and fully validate a simple symptom scale assessing both asthma and rhinoconjunctivitis, two interdependent conditions. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire of 31 items was tested in 102 patients with asthma and rhinoconjunctivitis between September 1992 and December 1994. The items were rated on a six-point Likert scale ranging from none to extremely severe and included commonly recorded symptoms of inflammation such as irritation, congestion, and discharge in the skin, eyes, nose, sinus, pharynx, and chest. RESULTS: Validation included (1) responsiveness: scores for 18 patients evaluated during an emergency room visit were statistically significantly different from those recorded after recovery and in a control group of 24 patients with asthma; (2) reliability: external consistency was 0.8 at 1 week, and internal consistency was 0.8 for individual organs and 0.7 for individual symptoms; (3) validity: a five-point scale better captured the distribution of values; irrelevant and redundant items were eliminated. The optimal questionnaire included 21 items. CONCLUSIONS: The symptom score was applicable, responsive, reliable, and valid. Used with existing validated tools such as treatment needs and quality of life assessment, it may provide a comprehensive picture of allergic airway disease for quality assurance or research purposes.

Adolescent↗