Programa de manutenção de aeronaves das companhias de aviação de baixo custo

Este trabalho aborda o Programa de Manutenção de Aeronaves das companhias de aviação de baixo custo, tendo como foco a análise e identificação dos requisitos legais e das metodologias de desenvolvimento de um Programa de Manutenção de uma aeronave e a comparação dos custos de manutenção de companhias de baixo custo com as companhias regulares. A aplicação eficaz de um programa de manutenção, para além de reduzir os seus custos, tem um impacto positivo na segurança, economia da manutenção e na fiabilidade de despacho. A metodologia utilizada foi a análise de informação de publicações e artigos. Com base na revisão de literaturas especializadas, fez-se uma selecção dos diversos aspectos necessários para se obter um Programa de Manutenção, o que permitiu construir o caso de estudo e efectuar a análise dos custos inerentes de manutenção de um operador aéreo de baixo custo e de um operador aéreo regular. Os resultados da análise permitiram chegar a veracidade da hipótese de que do ponto de vista de manutenção é igualmente seguro ou não seguro voar numa companhia de baixo custo e numa companhia regular, assim independentemente do tipo de companhia, ambas devem cumprir os requisitos para aprovação do PMA imposto pela autoridade aeronáutica, para garantir a aeronavegabilidade das aeronaves, ou seja, a sua segurança para a condição de voo, sem pôr em causa o carimbo baixo custo ou regular da companhia.

The hospital survey on patient safety culture in Portuguese hospitals: instrument validity and reliability

Purpose – Quantitative instruments to assess patient safety culture have been developed recently and a few review articles have been published. Measuring safety culture enables healthcare managers and staff to improve safety behaviours and outcomes for patients and staff. The study aims to determine the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) Portuguese version's validity and reliability. Design/methodology/approach – A missing-value analysis and item analysis was performed to identify problematic items. Reliability analysis, inter-item correlations and inter-scale correlations were done to check internal consistency, composite scores. Inter-correlations were examined to assess construct validity. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to investigate the observed data's fit to the dimensional structure proposed in the AHRQ HSPSC Portuguese version. To analyse differences between hospitals concerning composites scores, an ANOVA analysis and multiple comparisons were done. Findings – Eight of 12 dimensions had Cronbach's alphas higher than 0.7. The instrument as a whole achieved a high Cronbach's alpha (0.91). Inter-correlations showed that there is no dimension with redundant items, however dimension 10 increased its internal consistency when one item is removed. Originality/value – This study is the first to evaluate an American patient safety culture survey using Portuguese data. The survey has satisfactory reliability and construct validity.

A checklist for patient safety rounds at the care pathway level

Objective - To define a checklist that can be used to assess the performance of a department and evaluate the implementation of quality management (QM) activities across departments or pathways in acute care hospitals. Design - We developed and tested a checklist for the assessment of QM activities at department level in a cross-sectional study using on-site visits by trained external auditors. Setting and Participants - A sample of 292 hospital departments of 74 acute care hospitals across seven European countries. In every hospital, four departments for the conditions: acute myocardial infarction (AMI), stroke, hip fracture and deliveries participated. Main outcome measures - Four measures of QM activities were evaluated at care pathway level focusing on specialized expertise and responsibility (SER), evidence-based organization of pathways (EBOP), patient safety strategies and clinical review (CR). Results - Participating departments attained mean values on the various scales between 1.2 and 3.7. The theoretical range was 0-4. Three of the four QM measures are identical for the four conditions, whereas one scale (EBOP) has condition-specific items. Correlations showed that every factor was related, but also distinct, and added to the overall picture of QM at pathway level. Conclusion - The newly developed checklist can be used across various types of departments and pathways in acute care hospitals like AMI, deliveries, stroke and hip fracture. The anticipated users of the checklist are internal (e.g. peers within the hospital and hospital executive board) and external auditors (e.g. healthcare inspectorate, professional or patient organizations).

Fire safety barrier availability analysis

This paper shows several ways to analyse the performance of a safety barrier, depending on the objective to be achieved and present a method to analyse binary components usually present on sensor systems of safety barriers. An application example of a water-based fire system is presented and the Probability of Failure on Demand (PFD) of the sensor system is determined based on the analysis of pressure switches installed in this safety barrier. The knowledge of such information will allow the determination of safety barrier’s availability.