The implementation of the Medical Regulation Office and Mobile Emergency Attendance System and its impact on the gravity profile of non-traumatic afflictions treated in a University Hospital: a research study

Abstract Background The public health system of Brazil is structured by a network of increasing complexity, but the low resolution of emergency care at pre-hospital units and the lack of organization of patient flow overloaded the hospitals, mainly the ones of higher complexity. The knowledge of this phenomenon induced Ribeirão Preto to implement the Medical Regulation Office and the Mobile Emergency Attendance System. The objective of this study was to analyze the impact of these services on the gravity profile of non-traumatic afflictions in a University Hospital. Methods The study conducted a retrospective analysis of the medical records of 906 patients older than 13 years of age who entered the Emergency Care Unit of the Hospital of the University of São Paulo School of Medicine at Ribeirão Preto. All presented acute non-traumatic afflictions and were admitted to the Internal Medicine, Surgery or Neurology Departments during two study periods: May 1996 (prior to) and May 2001 (after the implementation of the Medical Regulation Office and Mobile Emergency Attendance System). Demographics and mortality risk levels calculated by Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) were determined. Results From 1996 to 2001, the mean age increased from 49 ± 0.9 to 52 ± 0.9 (P = 0.021), as did the percentage of co-morbidities, from 66.6 to 77.0 (P = 0.0001), the number of in-hospital complications from 260 to 284 (P = 0.0001), the mean calculated APACHE II mortality risk increased from 12.0 ± 0.5 to 14.8 ± 0.6 (P = 0.0008) and mortality rate from 6.1 to 12.2 (P = 0.002). The differences were more significant for patients admitted to the Internal Medicine Department. Conclusion The implementation of the Medical Regulation and Mobile Emergency Attendance System contributed to directing patients with higher gravity scores to the Emergency Care Unit, demonstrating the potential of these services for hierarchical structuring of pre-hospital networks and referrals.

The evolution of the medical professions in eighteenth-century Ireland: An institutional perspective

Ireland, in the eighteenth century, followed the classic tripartite division of regular medical practitioners into physicians, surgeons and apothecaries. At the beginning of the century surgeons and apothecaries were regarded as mere tradesmen, but by the end of the century both were regarded as professionals and had the right to regulate their respective professions. Practitioners in different regions of Europe developed in a different manner, and eighteenth-century practitioners in Ireland developed independently from their English counterparts. In common with Britain and Europe in the eighteenth century, the total number of practitioners increased in Ireland, and by the end of the century, apothecaries were the largest group in Dublin, closely followed by the surgeons. Surgeons and apothecaries at the start of the eighteenth century belonged to the same guild. However in mid-century, St Luke's guild of apothecaries was established and this provided the apothecaries with a new identity that allowed them to pursue auto regulation, rather than hitherto, when they had been regulated by the physicians. This was vital to the apothecaries as they were in direct commercial competition with both the physicians and the surgeons and faced increasing pressure from both druggists and the disparate group of practitioners known as the irregulars. The 1765 County Infirmaries Act established a hospital in virtually every county in Ireland, and cast the surgeon as the primary medical officer in the countrywide network of hospitals. This legislation, which was unique in Europe, had the unintended consequence of elevating the status of the surgeons, as prior to this physicians were always in the ascendancy in the voluntary hospitals in Ireland and Britain, in contrast to France. The status of the surgeons was further enhanced by the establishment of the College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1784, which provided them with a new corporate identity, the authority to regulate the profession countrywide, and, also, the ability to educate surgeons in Ireland. The establishment of the College of Surgeons placed further pressure on the apothecaries to demonstrate that they also had a recognisable identity, and the authority to regulate their own profession. This was achieved with the 1791 Apothecaries Act which established the Apothecaries Hall and give the apothecaries the right to regulate themselves. This innovative legislation deemed the apothecaries a profession, and was enacted twenty-four years prior to similar legislation in Britain. Commercial pressure from druggists and, probably, irregulars expedited the requirement of the apothecaries to establish a new corporate identity, in order to distance themselves from these groups. The changing status of both apothecaries and surgeons had little effect on the physicians as a group, and, despite being the beneficiaries of a generous bequest from Sir Patrick Dun in 1711 to provide medical chairs in Dublin, the physicians displayed an inertia during the eighteenth century that was not in keeping with the developments that occurred in the contemporary Dublin medical world. The fact that it took ninety-five years, and that five acts of parliament, two House of Commons enquiries and a House of Lords enquiry were required to ensure that Dun's wishes were brought to fruition demonstrates that the physicians did not develop at the same pace as the other medical groups in the city. Had Dun’s bequest been implemented as he desired, Dublin, with a number of voluntary hospitals, would have been well placed to provide comprehensive tuition for medical students in the eighteenth century. It was not until the nineteenth century that the city, and the populace, benefited from this legacy. This thesis will trace these developments in the context of changes that occurred in contemporary medical education and diagnosis in Ireland, Britain and France. It will demonstrate that Irish practitioners developed independently, influenced mainly by local issues, but also by those who had travelled abroad and returned to Ireland with new concepts and ideas, ensuring that Irish medical practitioners had the institutional structure that could encompass the diagnostic and regulatory changes that would become accepted in the nineteenth century.

Adaptive regulation or governmentality: patient safety and the changing regulation of medicine

Studies from across the world have shown that clinical mistakes are a major threat to the safety of patient care (World Health Organisation 2004). For the National Health Service (NHS) of England and Wales it is estimated that one in ten hospital patients experience some form of error, and each year these cost the service over £2billion in remedial care (Department of Health 2000). Unsurprisingly, ‘patient safety’ is now a major international health policy priority, questioning the efficacy of existing regulatory practices and proposing a new ethos of learning. Within England and Wales, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has been created to lead policy development and champion service-wide learning, whilst throughout the NHS the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) has been introduced to enable this learning (NPSA 2003). This paper investigates the extent to which, in seeking to better manage the threats to patient safety, this policy agenda represents a transition in medical regulation.

Regulação médica de urgências na região do Médio Paraíba: uma proposta para avaliação da implantação do serviço

O presente trabalho teve como objeto o desenvolvimento de uma proposta para avaliação da implantação da Central de Regulação Médica de Urgências (CRMU) vinculada ao Serviço de Atenção Móvel às Urgências da região do Médio Paraíba (SAMU 192 - MP). Para tal, propõe-se a criação de um modelo teóricológico que sirva como referência para elaboração de instrumentos e seleção de indicadores para avaliação da estrutura, processos e resultados da CRMU-MP, visando à melhor efetividade e eficiência desse serviço. O trabalho descreve as fases do processo de implantação e do funcionamento do SAMU-192 na região do Médio Paraíba. Aborda a sua importância para o sistema de saúde, visando minimizar quadros de demandas desnecessárias de urgência, com a diminuição dos fluxos informais de pacientes para grandes urgências hospitalares e préhospitalares da região, relatando os vários motivos relacionados à sobrecarga desses serviços na região: ineficiência da atenção básica; pronto-socorros préhospitalares e hospitalares de pequeno e médio porte sem retaguarda mínima de recursos diagnósticos e terapêuticos; fatores culturais; maior oferta das redes de alta complexidade; problemas relacionados à gestão. Questões sobre a estrutura da rede de urgências são mencionadas, evidenciando-se as deficiências do SUS: áreas físicas inadequadas e insuficientes, informalidade na contratação de recursos humanos além do despreparo dos profissionais que atuam nessa área. No cenário descrito, as ações de regulação despontam como ferramenta de defesa do cidadão, buscando garantir acesso ao meio mais adequado a suas necessidades. O desenho proposto (modelo teórico-lógico) descreve e identifica as etapas para avaliação do serviço (estrutura, processo e resultados), e também demonstra os diversos problemas encontrados na rede de atenção às urgências do Médio Paraíba. O trabalho faz uma revisão da literatura sobre os principais conceitos da regulação e da regulação médica de urgências; discorre sobre os aspectos da Política de Urgência e Emergência a partir de 2002, a inserção da região do Médio Paraíba e de sua rede de atenção às urgências neste contexto. Aborda os diversos conceitos da avaliação, com foco nos modelos teórico-lógicos e cita as estratégias metodológicas, empregando o modelo teórico-lógico como proposta para avaliar a implantação da CRMU. A última etapa trata da elaboração do modelo teórico-lógico, bem como de suas matrizes de avaliação e de seu elenco de indicadores.

Satisfação da equipe de enfermagem do serviço de atendimento móvel às urgências (SAMU) no ambiente de trabalho

Descriptive exploratory study, prospective with quantitative approach, performed on the Medical Regulation Central of SAMU/Natal, aiming to identify the level of professional satisfaction of the members of the nursing team working at SAMU/Natal; and verify the degree of importance attributed by the professionals to each of the components Professional Satisfaction: autonomy, interaction, professional status , work requirements, organizational rules and remuneration. The population was of 60 professionals, with data collected from january to february 2005. We used an instrument translated and validated by Lino (1999) to the portuguese language, the Professional Satisfaction Rate (PSR). The results demonstrate that there was a slight predominance of the female gender (54,9%); aged between 36 and 45 years old (60,8%); married (58,8%), 82,4% with children, 30,8% aged between 05 and 09. Regarding formation, we observed that 78,4% were nursing technicians and 21,6% nurses, formed for 11 to 15 years (17,5%). From the 11 nurses, 09 (81,8%) informed they have specialization, 29,4% of the team has been working for 11 to 15 years on the urgency area, 58.8% works for more than 02 years on SAMU, 72,6% of the team members have fixed work schedules. There was homogeneity on the work shifts: 41,2% on the day shift and 53% on the night shift. Regarding the reason to be working on SAMU, 64% chose to work in the service, and among these 76,3% predominantly perform direct care to the patients, 96,1% like and are satisfied to work in the service. Regarding the remuneration, 90,9% informed they receive 05 to 10 minimum wages; 70% of the technicians informed they receive -2 to 05 minumum wages, 50,1% informed they receive no additional benefit. The analysis of PSR through Cronbach s Alpha Coeficient resulted on the value of 0,94 and through Kendall s Tau Coeficient on 0,87, demonstrating to be a trustworthy instrument to measure the level of professional satisfaction of the SAMU nursing team, in our environment. As for the level of importance attributed to the components of professional satisfaction, we indentified that the nursing team considered the Autonomy component as the most important, followed by the component Remuneration, Interaction, Work Requirements, Work Requirements, Organizational Rules and Professional Status . Regarding the current level of professional satisfaction, we identified they were most satisfied with the Professional Status , Autonomy, Interaction, Remuneration, Work Requirements and Organizational Rules. The real professional satisfaction level, calculated through statistics, however, tells these professionals are more satisfied with Autonomy, Remuneration, Interaction, Work Requirements, professional Status and Organizational Rules. The PSR in our work was of 8,6, indicating the SAMU Natal nursing team has little satisfaction on their work environment

Serviço de atendimento móvel de urgência (SAMU) e a assistência às urgências psiquiátricas

The objective of this work which is characterized as an applied research, with a qualitative exploratory approach and has case study character has been the analysis of the conceptions and dealings of health professionals of SAMU in Natal RN about the attendance of psychiatric urgencies. The information was collected between the months of March and April of 2010, by means of semi-structured interviews, performed with 24 health professionals integrating of SAMU-Natal as well as the usage of direct observation technique, performed in the institution's medical regulation room. Both the number of professionals involved in the interviews and the bringing about of the observations, were determined by saturation methods in qualitative research's information collecting. The interviews and observations were transcribed and submitted to contents analysis technique , more specifically, to thematic analysis, which made possible to reach the deepest levels, that go beyond what has simply been manifest in the speech of the interviewed, getting to the relations among the categories and social structures of the issue of the research. Keeping this in mind, three analysis categories have been built, namely: conceptions and concepts of psychiatric urgencies shared by health professionals in SAMU-Natal; attendances to psychiatric urgencies in SAMU-Natal; and the Brazilian Psychiatric Reformation under the view of the SAMU-Natal's health professionals. Reflection about the analyzed information revealed discussions pertaining to the stigma and prejudice on mental illness, and also, pointed out to some hindrances which impair the attendance to individuals in mental suffering in SAMU-Natal. The interviewed health professionals' conceptions on the individual in psychical crisis involve concepts of unpredictability, aggressiveness and risk, stigmatizing elements and historically associated to the social hazard ideology and need for mentally sicks' segregation. The predominance of these conceptions, seen in health professionals speech, had identifiable reflexes on assistance to psychiatric demands performed by SAMU-Natal, namely: indiscriminate request for military police's presence during psychic crisis intervention, neglect about occasions that involve mental health patients, as well as repetitive assisting practice directed on physical contention, and transportation to psychiatric hospital. Associated to it, the professionals have shown distorted and reductionist understanding about Brazilian Psychiatric Reformation, and, in the majority, haven't lent credibility to present model of attention to mental health, based on psycho-social treatment, pointing their speech to a need for psychiatric patient's internment. In this sense, we notice that the hospital-centered and excluding model conceived by classical psychiatry still remains alive in these health professionals' mentality as a reference to psychiatric urgency's assistance. Therefore, the research revealed a sequence of elements, that make us think about the challenges that health sector and society must face to realize Brazilian Psychiatric Reformation's principles and guidelines

The role of state government in the regulation of medical transport vehicles /

Cover title.

Regulation of trade in drugs: hearings, Ninety-first Congress, second session, on S. 1575, to regulate trade in drugs and devices by prohibiting the dispensing of drugs or devices by medical practitioners and their participation in profits from the dispensing of such products, except under certain circumstances, and for other purposes, June 16 and 17, 1970.

"Serial no. 91-81."

The Legal, Medical and Cultural Regulation of the Body: Transformation and Transgression

The regulation of the body provides an important concern in law, medical practice and culture. This volume contributes to existing research in the area by encouraging experts from a range of related disciplines to consider the legal, cultural and medical ways in which we regulate the body, further exploring how conceptions of self, liberalism, property and harm inform and influence contentious legal and ethical questions about what we can and cannot do to or with our own bodies.

Regulation of human stem cell research in Australia

Australia is currently well placed to contribute to the global growth of human stem cell research. However, as the science has progressed, authorities have had to deal with the ongoing challenges of regulating such a fast moving field of scientific endeavour. Australia’s past and current approach to regulating the use of embryos in human embryonic stem cell research provides an insight into how Australia may continue to adapt to future regulatory challenges presented by human stem cell research. In the broader context, a number of issues have been identified that may impact upon the success of future human stem cell research in Australia.

Stem cell technologies : regulation, patents and problems

Human embryonic stem cell research promises to deliver in the future a whole range of therapeutic treatments, but currently governments in different jurisdictions must try to regulate this burgeoning area. Part of the problem has been, and continues to be, polarised community opinion on the use of human embryonic stem cells for research. This article compares the approaches of the Australian, United Kingdom and United States governments in regulating human embryonic stem cell research. To date, these governments have approached the issue through implementing legislation or policy to control research. Similarly, the three jurisdictions have viewed the patentability of human embryonic stem cell technologies in their own ways with different policies being adopted by the three patent offices. This article examines these different approaches and discusses the inevitable concerns that have been raised due to the lack of a universal approach in relation to the regulation of research; the patenting of stem cell technologies; and the effects patents granted are having on further human embryonic stem cell research.

Commercialisation of regenerative human tissue : Regulation and reform in Australia and England, Wales and Northern Ireland

The commercialisation of therapeutic products containing regenerative human tissue is regulated by the common law, statute and ethical guidelines in Australia and England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This article examines the regulatory regimes in these jurisdictions and considers whether reform is required to both support scientific research and ensure conformity with modern social views on medical research and the use of human tissue. The authors consider the crucial role of informed consent in striking the balance between the interests of researchers and the interests of the public.