Recap of the User Days workshop: Managing a deteriorating patient

A workshop at the Medanets User Days discussed approaches to situations where a patient’s condition starts to deteriorate. Participants from different countries and specialties shared their best practices and discussed what could be learned from others in these situations.

The workshop addressed the phenomenon of not being able to save a patient who has suffered a complication in hospital, even though the death is due to a cause that could have been avoided or prevented.  In literature, the phenomenon is known as ‘failure to rescue’.^1,2 It can occur to any patient regardless of their diagnosis or disease process³.

There is a growing body of research on the subject, and studies have begun to identify measures that can improve failure to rescue rates. The workshop participants discussed what kind of measures are in place in their organisations and whether they could be classified into a strategy that could be used to save more patients.

The challenges are mutual

According to research, the failure to rescue can be the result of failure at one or more of the three stages:  

1. failure to recognize complications
2. failure to relay information regarding complications
3. failure to react in a timely and appropriate manner.³

These challenges were familiar to the workshop participants, too. Challenges regarding communication, i.e., the failure to relay information, sparked the most discussion. These challenges can be partly due to incompatible information systems, and / or slowness or delays in the systems.

Compatible, integrated tools and standardised practices to help

All customers stressed the importance of following standardised workflows and using the same tools throughout the organisation.

The participants called for systems and solutions that

1. integrate with each other
2. are accessible via mobile devices; and
3. support fully digitalised processes

Medanets’ mobile solutions support healthcare professionals at all stages of the care chain of a deteriorating patient, from recognizing the complication to relaying information and reacting in a timely and appropriate manner.

Click on image to enlarge

For several customers, Medanets’ mobile solutions were a key part of either their current or future approach to managing deteriorating patients. Read more about the solutions:

Sources:

1. Patient Safety Network (2019): Failure to rescue. Accessed 30.4.2024.

2. Burke et al. (2022): Failure to Rescue Deteriorating Patients: A Systematic Review of Root Causes and Improvement Strategies. Journal of Patient Safety 18(1), s. e140-e155.

3. Hall et al. (2020). Making Healthcare Safer II: A Critical Analysis of Existing and Emerging Patient Safety Practices.

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