University Hospital, Zurich

Institute of Clinical Chemistry University Hospital Zurich Raemistrasse 100 8091 Zurich Switzerland... 

University Hospital Zurich, Division of Rheumatology and Institute of Physical Medicine, Centre of Experimental Rheumatology... 

Switzerland (German) Yes Hospital ETH Zurich, in collaboration with University Hospital Zurich Yvonne Pfeiffer, Tanja Manser (Pfeiffer and Manser 2010) Journal article as part of a PhD thesis (van Vegten etal. 2011)... 

Quality management and patient safety are important considerations in the daily business of a modem hospital. Over the past few years University Hospital Zurich has implemented a number of tools and procedures as part of a strategic approach to this aspect of hospital management. 

Towards the end of the 1990s University Hospital Zurich joined forces with many other public, and some private, hospitals in Switzerland to examine the topic of medical quality within the framework of a regulatory project being nm by the Canton of Zurich. The project was sponsored by the Zurich Health... 

Regulatory considerations and early discussions on the topic of quality in professional circles prompted many questions, such as How can quality be defined, documented and measured both for individual specialties and across an entire hospital and What type of quality should we be striving for These questions prompted many individual activities. At University Hospital Zurich a new department was established in order to coordinate measurements and topics relating to medical quality. Measurements and improvements became routine, until ultimately another question arose, namely What level of quality do we have and how can we improve it This led to continuous measurement of indicators of treatment quality and service provision and to continuous assessment of patients accounts of their experiences. 

In 2004 the occurrence of a sentinel event - an incompatible blood group heart transplant - at University Hospital Zurich abruptly made patient safety a central concern of the hospital. This sentinel event created a major public stir, not least because the patient, who died in the postoperative period, was followed live by a television reporting team. The way in which this sentinel event was dealt with thus became a matter of public interest. Attention was no longer focused... 

University Hospital Zurich has been conducting patient surveys for more than 10 years now. In addition, its patient advice service deals directly with complaints and praise from patients and, where appropriate, makes contact with the patients concerned. The data acquired via the surveys and also via this direct patient feedback are made available to the various specialist units. This feedback makes clinical staff more aware of patients problems and expectations and also of what procedures and stractures are proving to be effective. It can also be used to plug and eliminate deficits in patient care as perceived by patients. 

Figure 15.2 Horizontal and vertical structures of University Hospital Zurich CIRS...

Experiences and Lessons Learnt by University Hospital Zurich 319... 

Horizontal and vertical stractures of University Hospital Zurich... 

Francesca Giuliani is head of the department for quality management and patient safety at the University Hospital Zurich. She has more than 10 years practical experience in building up a safety cultme at the interplay of corporate strategy. 

Ear, nose, throat In a cohort study of the effect of acetylsalicylic acid on epistaxis at the ENT Department of University Hospital Zurich, 591 events were evaluated in 571 patients, of whom 198 (34%) were taking acetylsalicylic acid [46. Acetylsalicylic acid was associated with a higher rate of surgery, an increased recurrence rate, and a higher severity score. 

Associate Professor, Section Head-Body Computed Tomography, Institute of Diagnostic Radiology, University Hospital Zurich, Raemisstrasse 100,8091 Zurich, Switzerland P. Stolzmann, MD... 

Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-UniversitM Munich, Karlstr. 29, D-80333 Munich, Germany Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, P.O.Box 77, CH-4132 Muttenz, Switzerland... 

University Hospital Zurich, Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, Ramistrasse 100, CH-8091 Zurich, Switzerland. 

J. Buschmann University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland... 

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