Report of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Long Term Care, 2006

Report of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Long Term Care, 2006 This report was finalised by the working group at the end of 2005 and submitted to Government in January 2006. While the reportâ?Ts proposals were not formally endorsed by Government, its analysis and recommendations have informed subsequent decisions, including the Fair Deal policy on Long-Term Nursing Home Care.The principles underpinning the report formed the basis for discussions about long term care with the Social Partners prior to the new national programme negotiations leading to a clear vision articulated in Towards 2016 on a number of priority actions to support older people to participate in society in a full and meaningful way. Click here to download PDF 693kb

Report on the Independent Review of Symptomatic Breast Care Services at Barringtons Hospital, Limerick

Report on the Independent Review of Symptomatic Breast Care Services at Barringtons Hospital, Limerick This independent review was established by Barringtons Hospital and the Department of Health and Children following concerns which had been raised about the standard of symptomatic breast care including cancer services at the Hospital. The terms of reference for the review are included at Appendix 1. An independent review team was established under the chairmanship of Dr Henrietta Campbell. The membership is listed at Appendix 2. Click here to download PDF 152kb

Value for Money Report - The Efficiency and Effectiveness of Long-Stay Residential Care for Adults within the Mental Health Services

Value for Money Report – The Efficiency and Effectiveness of Long-Stay Residential Care for Adults within the Mental Health Services Executive Summary and Contents PDF 164kb Chapters 1 and 2 – Introduction and Service Objectives PDF 504kb Chapter 3 plus annexes – Service Effectiveness and Efficiency PDF 3.7mb Chapter 4 – Service Resources PDF 2.4mb Chapters 5, 6 and 7 – Future Funding and Alternative Approaches, Key Performance Indicators, Conclusions and Recommendations PDF 2.4mb Appendices 1 to 6

Food and Nutritional Care in Hospitals. Guidelines for Preventing Under-Nutrition in Acute Hospitals

Food and Nutritional Care in Hospitals. Guidelines for Preventing Under-Nutrition in Acute Hospitals Click here to download PDF 1.3mb

Department of Health and Children Evaluation of Home Care Packages

Department of Health and Children Evaluation of Home Care Packages Click here to download PDF 1.6mb

A Report on Probity Assurance within the Dental Care Sector

A Report on Probity Assurance within the Dental Care Sector Click here to download PDF 294kb

Palliative Care For Children With Life-Limiting Conditions In Ireland- A National Policy

Palliative Care For Children With Life-Limiting Conditions In Ireland- A National Policy Click here to download PDF 1.30MB

Strategic Framework for Role Expansion of Nurses and Midwives: Promoting Quality Patient Care

This strategic document sets policy direction for the enhancement of nursing and midwifery roles. It builds on the achievements of the past ten years for nursing and midwifery and is set within the context of clinical and regulatory standards. The Programme for Government 2011 and policy initiatives such as legislative changes for the introduction of nurse and midwife medication prescribing create significant opportunities toexpand the role of nurses and midwives in a proactive manner.   Click here to download   PDF 1.12MB

Ruling out coronary heart disease in primary care patients with chest pain : a clinical prediction score

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Chest pain raises concern for the possibility of coronary heart disease. Scoring methods have been developed to identify coronary heart disease in emergency settings, but not in primary care. METHODS: Data were collected from a multicenter Swiss clinical cohort study including 672 consecutive patients with chest pain, who had visited one of 59 family practitioners' offices. Using delayed diagnosis we derived a prediction rule to rule out coronary heart disease by means of a logistic regression model. Known cardiovascular risk factors, pain characteristics, and physical signs associated with coronary heart disease were explored to develop a clinical score. Patients diagnosed with angina or acute myocardial infarction within the year following their initial visit comprised the coronary heart disease group. RESULTS: The coronary heart disease score was derived from eight variables: age, gender, duration of chest pain from 1 to 60 minutes, substernal chest pain location, pain increases with exertion, absence of tenderness point at palpation, cardiovascular risks factors, and personal history of cardiovascular disease. Area under the receiver operating characteristics curve was of 0.95 with a 95% confidence interval of 0.92; 0.97. From this score, 413 patients were considered as low risk for values of percentile 5 of the coronary heart disease patients. Internal validity was confirmed by bootstrapping. External validation using data from a German cohort (Marburg, n = 774) revealed a receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.75 (95% confidence interval, 0.72; 0.81) with a sensitivity of 85.6% and a specificity of 47.2%. CONCLUSIONS: This score, based only on history and physical examination, is a complementary tool for ruling out coronary heart disease in primary care patients complaining of chest pain.

Future Dementia Care in Ireland: Sharing the Evidence to Mobilise Action

A major challenge facing societies across the world today is population ageing. The fact that people are living longer and the notable improvements in the overall quality of life and well-being of older people today needs to be celebrated. However, population ageing will inevitably result in an increase in disability and a very significant increase in the incidence of age-related health problems especially Alzheimer's disease and the related dementias. Click here to download PDF 2.5mb

Creating Excellence in Dementia Care: A Research Review for Ireland's National Dementia Strategy

Dementia is a progressive condition that largely affects older people, impacting on their memory, language, ability to communicate, mood and personality. The course of the illness may be gradual and sometimes subtle, as is classically the case in Alzheimerâ?Ts disease. While dementia is a medical condition, recent insights from the psychosocial, sociopolitical and public health perspectives have focused attention on the human, social and economic implications of the disease.   Click here to download PDF 2.7mb

Health Care Quality Indicators in the Irish Health System

  Public reporting of quality indicators promotes the principle of a transparent and accountable health care system that encourages a continuing focus on improving the quality of care it provides. This work brings us a step further in enhancing the quality and safety of our system. It is important that this report is not relied upon to draw conclusions on quality of care. That was not the purpose of the exercise. The data is mostly over five years old and was collected from the system before the improvements to collection and reporting of information that the hospitals were asked to put in place as part of the work to prepare this report. The Department of Health will produce a report of quality indicators based on data from 2011 to 2013 inclusive later in 2014 which will identify regions and hospitals. A governance process will shortly be established to oversee the selection and reporting of these indicators. This system will report at national and regional level and will be aligned with international systems so that international comparisons can be reported. The publication of this report is an important step in the development of this national reporting system. It shows that we can use a major IT system called HIPE which captures information on all hospital stays in all public hospitals to examine quality and safety of care. Health Care Quality Indicators in the Irish Health System

Improving care for people with long term conditions: 'at a glance' information sheets for healthcare professionals

The Department has produced a series of information sheets for doctors,nurses, those delivering personal health budgets, allied health professionals, health trainers and anyone supporting individuals with long term conditions. The information sheets cover a range of topics including care planning, care co-ordination, managing need and assessment of risk, motivating people to self care, goal setting and action planning and end of life care.Download information sheet 1: Personalised care planning (PDF, 2514K)Download information sheet 2: Personalised care planning diagram (PDF, 2213K)Download information sheet 3: Care co-ordination (PDF, 1967K.

Strategy for personal and public involvement in Health and Social Care research

This report outlines the strategic need for, and benefits of, personal and public involvement to all levels of Health and Social Care Research and Development Division activity.

Reliability and validity of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) imbedded within a general health risk screening questionnaire: results of a survey in 332 primary care patients.

BACKGROUND: Self-administered, general health risk screening questionnaires that are administered while patients wait in the doctor's office may be a reasonable and timesaving approach to address the requirements of preventive medicine in a typical 10-min medical visit. The psychometric characteristics of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) incorporated within a health questionnaire (H-AUDIT) have not been examined. METHODS: The reliability and validity of the self-administered AUDIT were compared between the H-AUDIT and the AUDIT used as a single scale (S-AUDIT) in 332 primary care patients. RESULTS: No major demographic or alcohol use characteristics were found between the 166 subjects who completed the H-AUDIT and the 166 individuals who completed the S-AUDIT. The test-retest reliability of the 166 subjects who completed the H-AUDIT [estimated by Spearman correlation coefficient at a 6-week interval (0.88), internal consistency (total correlation coefficients for all items ranged from 0.38 to 0.69; Cronbach alpha index 0.85), and the sensitivity and specificity of the H-AUDIT were used to identify at-risk drinkers' areas under receiver operating characteristic (0.77) and alcohol-dependent subjects' areas under receiver operating characteristic (0.89)] was similar to the same measurements obtained with the 166 individuals who completed the S-AUDIT. CONCLUSIONS: The AUDIT incorporated in a health risk screening questionnaire is a reliable and valid self-administered instrument to identify at-risk drinkers and alcohol-dependent individuals in primary care settings.