MEGA SOFT Pediatric Patient Return Electrodes used during monopolar electrosurgery may cause serious burn injuries to patients.

Vaporizer Sevoflurane Maquet Filling is part of the Flow anesthesia systems but may expose patients or health professionals to toxic hydrogen fluoride.

Arrow FiberOptix and UltraFlex IAB Catheter Kits provide circulatory support. A manufacturing issue may prevent the balloon from fully inflating.

Las Vegas, Nevada. On May 24, 2024, Suntegrity Skincare initiated a voluntarily recall of nine lots of Suntegrity Impeccable Skin Sunscreen Foundation (Multiple Shades) based on its discovery of a higher than acceptable microbiological mold count (Species: Aspergillus Sydowii) in some tubes of Lot 1

Integrity Products , St Louis MO is voluntarily recalling tainted lot (HGW221116) within expiry of the Ram It & To The Moon capsules to the consumer level. FDA analysis founds these products to be tainted with sildenafil and Tadalafil. Sildenafil/Tadalafil is an FDA approved drug for the treatment o

Medline Industries, LP is recalling the Sub-G Endotracheal Tube with Subglottic Suction due to detachment or tearing of the inflation tube and other components from the main tube.

Omnipod DASH Insulin Management System’s Personal Diabetes Manager may have battery issues including swelling, fluid leakage, and extreme overheating.

Do not use high-level disinfection methods for reprocessing affected urological endoscopes from Karl Storz.

HomeoCare Laboratories Inc., a manufacturer of homeopathic products, is voluntarily recalling two batches of Homeopathic StellaLife Oral Care Products listed in the table below manufactured in 2024 due to FDA findings of microbial contamination. This recall is to be performed at the consumer level.

The software error may cause numbers or letters to be missing from the displayed text and may result in the mechanical depth stop being set too short or too long.

On February 20, 2024, Medline Industries, LP initiated a nationwide recall of 6 SubG Endotracheal Tubes with Subglottic Suction and 10 kits that contain these devices. The inflation tube and other device components have become detached and/or torn from the main tube, resulting in moisture buildup, l

Nimbus II infusion pumps may experience one or more issues that can cause severe patient injury and death.

Sagent Pharmaceuticals today announced the voluntary nationwide recall of two lots of Docetaxel Injection, USP (80 mg per 8 mL multi-dose vials and 160 mg per 16 mL multi-dose vials). The product was distributed by Sagent Pharmaceuticals. Sagent has initiated this voluntary recall of Docetaxel Injec

Vyaire Medical recalls Twin Tube due to potential nozzle separation risk posing a choking hazard.

Hospira, Inc., a Pfizer company (“Pfizer”), is voluntarily recalling the lots listed in the table below of Buprenorphine Hydrochloride Injection CarpujectTM Units and Labetalol Hydrochloride Injection, USP CarpujectTM Units to the User level. The recall was initiated due to the potential for incompl

Hologic, Inc. is recalling BioZorb Marker due to complications and adverse events with implanted devices.

The medical workforce is key to service quality. Organisations have a duty to develop their workforce—to ensure professional development, good governance and, from time to time, discipline staff. But what if part of the workforce is contracted from outside to fill gaps in the rota? That is the world of the ‘locum’—a peripatetic medical workforce that is in, but not of, the organisation.

Locum doctors are deployed in many countries of the world. There is a thriving international market across English-speaking countries,1 Western Europe2 3 and in the USA, where the Veterans Administration alone pays about $50 million per annum for temporary medical staff.4 Considering the size and importance of this human resources market, the subject has attracted surprisingly little academic attention.

Ferguson and colleagues peer into the world of the medical locum through an in-depth qualitative study based on interviews...

Contemporary healthcare systems comprise a myriad of organisations and professionals committed to patient care. These systems often develop innovations that are not easily transferable from one context to another. Three decades ago, Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocols originated in Northern Europe, introducing a systematic approach to perioperative care, initially focusing on major colorectal surgeries.1 2 Using a patient-centred and evidence-based approach, their goal was to improve patient's early recovery through enhancing the quality of surgical processes. ERAS protocols were specifically designed to facilitate the dissemination of multimodal perioperative care pathways covering all aspects of the patient’s surgical journey. Addressing key factors traditionally extending post-surgery hospital stays, including the need for analgesia, intravenous fluids due to gut dysfunction and bed rest due to limited mobility, the ERAS protocols offered guidance for well-coordinated perioperative care teams.3 These protocols have since transcended borders, catalysing transformative...

As quality improvement and patient safety (QIPS) practitioners, we aspire to improve care for all patients, caregivers and families using improvement methods. While teams are trained to carefully implement the science of improvement, less is known of how to effectively incorporate equity into QIPS work. Should there be more projects focused specifically on equity, or should equity be embedded into all quality improvement? Inattention to the equity domain in improvement efforts ignores systemic biases and can worsen inequities in health outcomes. How to measure inequity, and growing calls to reframe health equity data measurement, presentation and analysis are central to this discourse.

Arrington and colleagues' article offers strategies to collect, share and interpret quality data using a racial equity lens.1 The authors first describe the problems with stratifying quality data by race and ethnicity, which can perpetuate the false notion that race or ethnicity is responsible for...

Background

The use of temporary doctors, known as locums, has been common practice for managing staffing shortages and maintaining service delivery internationally. However, there has been little empirical research on the implications of locum working for quality and safety. This study aimed to investigate the implications of locum working for quality and safety.

Methods

Qualitative semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with 130 participants, including locums, patients, permanently employed doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals with governance and recruitment responsibilities for locums across primary and secondary healthcare organisations in the English NHS. Data were collected between March 2021 and April 2022. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and abductive analysis.

Results

Participants described the implications of locum working for quality and safety across five themes: (1) ‘familiarity’ with an organisation and its patients and staff was essential to delivering safe care; (2) ‘balance and stability’ of services reliant on locums were seen as at risk of destabilisation and lacking leadership for quality improvement; (3) ‘discrimination and exclusion’ experienced by locums had negative implications for morale, retention and patient outcomes; (4) ‘defensive practice’ by locums as a result of perceptions of increased vulnerability and decreased support; (5) clinical governance arrangements, which often did not adequately cover locum doctors.

Conclusion

Locum working and how locums were integrated into organisations posed some significant challenges and opportunities for patient safety and quality of care. Organisations should take stock of how they work with the locum workforce to improve not only quality and safety but also locum experience and retention.