Download PDF: Clinical Communiqué June 2019 Edition
In this edition
Editorial
Welcome to the second edition of the Clinical Communiqué for 2019, a landmark edition for this publication coinciding with the launch of our new design and revamped website – we hope you enjoy the new look. Five years on from the return of the Communiqué, we continue to strive to provide a publication that engages and educates using the lessons learned from healthcare-related deaths – for many more years to come.
We saw a fantastic response to our recent edition on human factors (Clinical Communiqué Volume 6. Issue 1. March 2019 Edition). It is very encouraging to hear that clinicians want to look deeper and understand more about their work, and the environment in which they perform. The study of human factors is helping us to understand that humans are not the root of the problem, but they are certainly part of the solution. Individuals can invoke changes that affect entire systems. We do not have to look too far to see people who are working hard to improve things in our workplaces, often against the odds. Stop and say to them – well done for trying, and ask if there is anything you can do to support them to make our healthcare systems safer.
That edition made us reflect on how much industries are learning from each other. Medicine has been learning from aviation. Aviation is learning from the gaming industry, the gaming industry learns from marketing, and on it goes. So, what does medicine have to offer to other industries? Sometimes it can feel like our industry sits far behind, constantly having to look outwards to understand how things can be done better. That is not the case however. As commentators in one article noted* - “One of the most important lessons that other industries can learn from healthcare is the importance of focusing on the customer, or in the case of healthcare, the patient. The patient is clearly at the center of today’s healthcare models.” (Susan A. Cantrell, RPh, CAE, CEO, AMCP). “Healthcare presents some unique problems that most other industries do not experience to the same degree - intense all pervasive regulation being the most notable. Other industries can learn how healthcare companies cope with and manage with the heavy compliance oversight but still improve outcomes for their patients and shareholders/stakeholders.” (David Schmidt, president of the TPG International Health Academy, Managed Healthcare Executive editorial advisor). As much as we can learn from other industries, we should also learn from our own and recognise our strengths and improvements, even when they arise from tragic circumstances.
In this edition, we turn to the issue of communicable diseases and the virus that is currently receiving plenty of attention in healthcare and in the media. We present one coroner’s finding into the deaths of two patients from Influenza A.