Jeffrey Geppert

The culture of safety: results of an organization-wide survey in 15 California hospitals

Objective: To understand fundamental attitudes towards patient safety culture and ways in which attitudes vary by hospital, job class, and clinical status. Design: Using a closed ended survey, respondents were questioned on 16 topics important to a culture of safety in health care or other industries plus demographic information. The survey was conducted by US mail (with an option to respond by Internet) over a 6 month period from April 2001 in three mailings. Setting: 15 hospitals participating in the California Patient Safety Consortium. Subjects: A sample of 6312 employees generally comprising all the hospital’s attending physicians, all the senior executives (defined as department head or above), and a 10% random sample of all other hospital personnel. The response rate was 47.4% overall, 62% excluding physicians. Where appropriate, responses were weighted to allow an accurate comparison between participating hospitals and job types and to correct for non-response. Main outcome measures: Frequency of responses suggesting an absence of safety culture (“problematic responses” to survey questions) and the frequency of “neutral” responses which might also imply a lack of safety culture. Responses to each question overall were recorded according to hospital, job class, and clinician status. Results: The mean overall problematic response was 18% and a further 18% of respondents gave neutral responses. Problematic responses varied widely between participating institutions. Clinicians, especially nurses, gave more problematic responses than non-clinicians, and front line workers gave more than senior managers. Conclusion: Safety culture may not be as strong as is desirable of a high reliability organization. The culture differed significantly, not only between hospitals, but also by clinical status and job class within individual institutions. The results provide the most complete available information on the attitudes and experiences of workers about safety culture in hospitals and ways in which perceptions of safety culture differ among hospitals and between types of personnel. Further research is needed to confirm these results and to determine how senior managers can successfully transmit their commitment to safety to the clinical workplace.

Risks and costs of end-stage renal disease after heart transplantation

OBJECTIVESnTo estimate the risks and costs of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) after heart transplantation.nnnBACKGROUNDnPrevious studies have shown high rates of ESRD among solid-organ transplant patients, but the relevance of these studies for current transplant practices and policies is unclear. Limitations of prior studies include relatively small, single-center samples and estimates made before implementing suggested practice changes to reduce ESRD risk.nnnMETHODSnMedicare beneficiaries who underwent heart transplantation between 1989 and 1994 were eligible for study inclusion (n=2088). Thirty-four patients undergoing dialysis or who had the diagnosis of ESRD before or at transplantation were excluded from the study. ESRD was defined as any patient undergoing renal transplantation or requiring dialysis for more than 3 months. Mortality and ESRD events were recorded up to 1995. ESRD risk was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier product-limit estimator and logistic regression analyses. Linear regression was performed to determine expenditures for treating ESRD, and we developed long-term models of the risk and direct medical costs of ESRD care.nnnRESULTSnThe annual risk of ESRD was 0.37% in the first year after transplant and increased to 4.49% by the sixth posttransplant year. There was no significant trend in the risk of ESRD based on the year of transplantation, even after adjusting for patient characteristics. The average cumulative 10-year direct cost of ESRD per patient undergoing heart transplantation exceeded

Racial and sex differences in refusal of coronary angiography

13,000.nnnCONCLUSIONSnIn a large, national sample of patients undergoing heart transplantation, ESRD is not rare, even for patients undergoing transplant after the development of new practices intended to reduce its occurrence. ESRD remains an important component of the costs of heart transplantation.

A National Profile Of Patient Safety In U.S. Hospitals

PURPOSEnTo determine the effect of patient refusal on racial and sex differences in the use of coronary angiography and in outcomes among elderly patients with acute myocardial infarction.nnnSUBJECTS AND METHODSnWe included Medicare beneficiary patients admitted to hospitals performing coronary angiography from February 1994 through July 1995. In-hospital use and refusal of coronary angiography were determined, and adjusted for patient, hospital, and physician characteristics.nnnRESULTSnOf 124,691 patients, 53,671 (43%) underwent angiography during hospitalization and 2881 (2.3%) refused. Patients refusing angiography were more likely to be female (odds ratio [OR] = 1.37; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.23 to 1.53), black (OR = 1.26 vs. whites; 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.56), and older (OR = 2.25 per 10-year increase; 95% CI: 2.05 to 2.43) than patients who underwent angiography. Angiography use was lower in blacks (OR = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.72 to 0.83) than in whites, and lower in women (OR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.80 to 0.86) than in men. Increased refusal explained 6% (95% CI: -3% to 15%) of the difference in angiography use between whites and blacks, and 16% (95% CI: 10% to 22%) of the difference between men and women. After adjustment for patient characteristics, refusal of angiography was not associated with worse survival at 1 year (OR = 0.99; 95% CI: 0.82 to 1.20).nnnCONCLUSIONnAmong Medicare beneficiaries, elderly female and black patients are more likely to refuse angiography than are male and white patients. However, patient refusal is uncommon and accounts for only a small fraction of the racial and sex differences in use of angiography after myocardial infarction.