Knowledgebase
Being mindful of medical hierarchy
Medical hierarchy may present a challenge, and at times a possible reluctance, to open discussions about patients. Dr Rachel Birch, medicolegal consultant at Medical Protection, discusses possible reasons for this and provides helpful strategies to overcome this.
Read more >The story of a locum session; missing out on marginal gains
In this final article, we'll run through a hypothetical locum session (but inspired by real events!) and the typical response to errors, finally examining how a more considered, system-based approach based on the learning from psychology and Black Box thinking could promote patient safety, practice efficiency and GP morale and retention.
Read more >Systems to improve continuity of care
Following on from her previous article Dis-continuity; putting care into context, Dr Sara Chambers explores the idea that sometimes continuity of care is deployed to paper over the cracks where 'continuity of management' and 'information' is lacking or even absent, and why the locum's perspective needs to be part of a future solution.
Read more >Podcast | A viper’s nest: when venom is a man’s best friend
Did you know that captopril was derived from the venom of the deadly Brazilian pit viper? Since it went on the market in 1981 captopril and its successor ACE inhibitors have probably saved many more lives than have been lost to pit vipers.
Read more >Significant events and Swiss cheese
There is a scientific discipline called human factors and ergonomics (HF&E) which recognises the absolute certainty that human beings will make mistakes, and so seeks to design working systems and environments that work around our human nature to reduce the risk of error as far as possible.
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