Theo Van Achterberg

..We examined plasma biomarkers in delirious and nondelirious patients and the role of these biomarkers on long-term cognitive function...

..Yet, compliance rates are generally below 50% of all opportunities for hand hygiene. This study aims at evaluating the short- and long-term effects of two different strategies for promoting hand hygiene in hospital nurses...

..The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of the confusion assessment method-ICU (CAM-ICU) and the effect of its use on frequency and duration of haloperidol use...

..The aim of this study is to develop and test such an integral patient safety program that addresses several AEs simultaneously in hospitals and nursing homes. This paper reports the design of this study...

..The aim of this paper is to provide an introduction and overview of current developments in implementation science and to apply these to nursing...

..Health professionals should avoid thinking that providing knowledge, materials and professional support will be sufficient for patients to accomplish change and consider alternative strategies which may be more effective...

..To improve this care, we need a better understanding of the factors determining guideline adherence...

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..To determine whether patient evaluations of the accessibility to general practice and co-ordination with other care providers were associated with characteristics of general practice organizations...

..This study aimed to explore the associations between chronic care organisation and physician workload in primary care...

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..Good insight into the quality of delivered medical care is important to make the accountability of health practitioners and managers transparent to society and to identify and minimize medical errors...

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..The actual safety of decisions made by triage nurses has not yet been assessed...

..To assess professionals' adherence to evidence-based guidelines and to investigate whether or not this is influenced by recording of the diagnosis and symptom severity...

..Depression often occurs simultaneously with a variety of somatic, psychiatric, and social conditions. Knowledge about differences in the pharmacological treatment of depressed patients with and without co-morbidity is lacking...

..The SCPD consists of an assessment of caregiver's sense of competence and suggestions on how to deal with competence deficiencies. The efficiency of the SCPD will be evaluated in our study...

..Although patient feedback can help identify areas for improvement, specific barriers must be addressed before such feedback can be put to more widespread use...

..Future developments in the Netherlands include integration and extensive collaboration with the accident and emergency departments of hospitals, in which PCPs take care of self-referring patients...

..To assess general practitioners' (GPs) provision of patient education with respect to patients with depression or anxiety...

..We aimed to evaluate the impact and feasibility of a programme for improving primary care for patients with CHF...

..GPs in out-of-hours care report that they feel at risk of rude or aggressive patient behaviour. We tried to get information about the incidence, types and patient characteristics of rude or aggressive behaviour...

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..To evaluate the effects of a programme to enhance the involvement of older patients in their consultations in general practice...

..Pay-for-performance programs need to account for chronic conditions to avoid penalizing physicians who care for larger shares of such patients...

..More robust evaluative studies into role revision are needed, particularly with regard to economic impacts, before definitive conclusions can be drawn...

..Co-morbidity may influence GPs' treatment decisions for patients with anxiety. However, knowledge about differences in the pharmacological treatment of anxiety disorders in patients with and without co-morbidity is lacking...

..The aim of the study was to measure the effects of introducing a diabetes passport to patients after embedding the passport in the organization of care...

..Several factors affect, positively or negatively, management of anxiety and its improvement. A literature review and thematic analysis was executed to obtain an overview of the types of determinants of anxiety care and its improvement...

..To summarize current evidence on the effectiveness of different knowledge transfer and change interventions for improving primary and ambulatory anxiety care to provide guidance to professionals and policy-makers in mental health care...

..The aim of this paper is to describe the design and methods of a study evaluating the effects of the nurses' training on patient outcomes...

..Our goal was to explore patients' anticipated needs for contact with their general practitioner (GP) at the time of hospital admissions and other life events...

..The aim of this study was to compare the effects of tight control with usual care and to compare the effects of tight control studies with and without protocolized treatment adjustments...

..Yet, the evidence for these suggested determinants of high-quality care is inconsistent...

..To review integrated care interventions and their effects on the quality of care for patients with cancer...

..In this study we aimed to determine the costs and patient outcomes of an implementation strategy designed to enhance uptake of these guidelines...

..A letter is considered to be of higher quality when a specialist commences a letter with a reference to the specific request by the GP. In conclusion, opportunities for optimal communication should be better used...

..One of the underlying goals of public reporting is to encourage the consumer to select health care providers or health plans that offer comparatively better quality-of-care...

..The purpose of the instrument is to provide formative feedback...

..To assess the quality of after-hours clinical care as delivered by general practitioner (GP) cooperatives in The Netherlands...

..We evaluated a nurse-based intervention on older OA patients' self-management with the aim to assess its effects on mobility and functioning...

..However, the recommendations on monitoring procedures may differ between guidelines and may not be based on scientific evidence. The aim of this article is to review the current guideline recommendations on monitoring routines for COPD...

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..Further, we investigated if other factors (traffic intensity, home visit intensity, time of day, and degree of urgency) influenced waiting times...

..To determine if GPs' attitudes towards working with drinkers moderated the impact that training and support had on screening and brief intervention activity in routine practice...

..Acceptance by patients may be a barrier for successful implementation. In this study, the role of inhaled steroids in starting asthma self-management is described...

..The objective of our study was to explore the existence/co-existence of factors - as per American Thoracic Society (ATS)/European Respiratory Society (ERS) standards - for staging patients in a primary care COPD population...

..To investigate associations between the level of shared care and the clinical management of patients with uncomplicated lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS)...

..To determine the effectiveness of quality circles on prescribing patterns of primary care physicians in Germany and to explore the influence of specific factors on changes...

..Internationally, different organizational models are used for providing out-of-hours care. The aim of this study was to assess prevailing models in order to identify their potential strengths and weaknesses...

..We expected that countries with strong primary care systems would have programs to improve management of disease, but wondered how they dealt with lifestyle interventions delivered in primary care...

..Planning needs to take into account the nature of the innovation; characteristics of the professionals and patients involved; and the social, organisational, economic and political context...

..Based on this information we will develop an implementation strategy to improve lifestyle behavior change in general practice...

..We explored trainees' views on continuity for hypothetical scenarios and related these to personal characteristics and trainers' views...

..000). Use of this tailored education program improved the GP-patient interaction within the context of a clinically effective asthma self-management program. Findings from this study may be applicable to other chronic conditions as well...

..To compare guidelines on diabetes from different countries in order to examine whether differences in recommendations could be explained by use of different research evidence...

..To study the effects of small group continuous quality improvement (CQI) on the clinical practice of midwives in the Netherlands...

..We can conclude that the health education strategy did not change the GP attendance of older adults. The results suggest that the health education was being appreciated as being useful and informative...

..Patient centred communication (PCC) has been described as a method for doctor-patient communication. The principles of shared decision making (SDM) have been proposed more recently...

..To explore patient factors related to the use of prescribed and non-prescribed drugs for dyspepsia in The Netherlands...

..Personal continuity is considered a core feature of general practice care. Nowadays, another important concept for general practice may be patients' familiarity with a GP...

..To examine associations between patient evaluations of general practice and characteristics of national health care systems...

..Therefore, it is important to review pharmacotherapy concerning older patients in primary care in a reliable way...

..We explored the association between negative patient evaluation of nurse telephone consultations and characteristics of patients and GP cooperatives...

..There was no relation whatsoever between the importance that individual GPs attached to continuity after consultations, and their scores on the postal survey...

..Excellent exchange of information between professionals may be a way to maintain continuity of care. Relevant information to be passed over includes thoughts about future management for individual patients...

..The aim of this study is to develop a new tool to assess professional behaviour in general practitioner (GP) trainees: the evaluation of professional behaviour in general practice (EPRO-GP) instrument...

..To determine the effect of a distance learning programme on general practice management of men with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS)...

..Most patients accept these new models but are dissatisfied if they expect to see a physician. Local or regional integration of all emergency services seems to be the most promising model for after-hours care...

..Additional measures include practice characteristics and exposure to programs to improve cardiovascular care...

..To study the effects of a team-based model for continuous quality improvement (CQI) on primary care practice management...

..Internationally valid, reliable and feasible indicators and instruments are needed to describe and compare the management of primary care practices in Europe...

..Further investigation should be directed toward calculating the potential efficiency of these support programs by applying net-benefit or cost-effectiveness analysis...

..Instruments that reflect these challenges are needed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of clinical teachers...

..To develop a framework for general practice management made up of quality indicators shared by six European countries...

..In the present study, the results of previous studies on the development of educational and organizational interventions to improve the quality of health care are examined...

..This study aims to explore which factors represent incentives, or disincentives, for consultants to implement suggestions for improvement from 360-degree feedback...

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..This made it difficult to draw generic lessons from this body of research. More rigorous evaluations are needed, in particular, of continuous learning and safety analysis techniques...

..To evaluate the effects of a multifaceted empowerment strategy on the actual use of single embryo transfer after in vitro fertilisation...

..Developments towards less personal doctoring in general practice should, therefore, be considered carefully...

..Older people are prone to problems related to use of medicines. As they tend to use many different medicines, monitoring pharmacotherapy for older people in primary care is important...

..The results can be used as a guide for improving health care, education and research and might result in an improved quality of life...

..Here we describe frequently used improvement strategies and related determinants of behaviour change that prompt good HH behaviour to provide a better overview of the choice and content of such strategies...

..In general, evidence shows that none of the approaches for transferring evidence to practice is superior to all changes in all situations...

..Our objective is to assess the feasibility and impact of public involvement on quality-indicator choice and agreement with public priorities...

..A systematic review was undertaken of studies that test the effectiveness of different strategies used to increase general practitioners' rates of screening for and giving advice about hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption...

..The range of appropriate interventions may be similar in all countries...

..To investigate effectiveness, definitions, and components of integrated care programmes for chronically ill patients on the basis of systematic reviews...