Time trends in general practitioners’ home visits for older patients: a retrospective cross-sectional study from Switzerland

Original article
Neuner-Jehle S, Graber SM, Keizer E, Huber C, Blozik E, Rosemann T, Senn O
Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w20539

The number of home visits by general practitioners (GPs) has decreased in recent years, in contrast to the increasing number of frail and older patients in western countries. Current data on GP home visit numbers and rates are lacking for Switzerland. This study provides new data on GP home visit numbers and rates, and their associations with patient characteristics. There is an ongoing decline of GP home visits over past years, with a potentially negative impact on the quality of care for older and frail patients.

NeoCheck: a prescription-screening tool to optimise pharmacotherapy for hospitalised neonates

Original article
Rudolf von Rohr T, de Luca R, Bonnabry P, Pfister R, Fonzo-Christe C
Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w20519

Drug prescription in neonatology is challenging. For hospitalised neonates, it is based largely on low-quality pharmacotherapeutic evidence from small clinical studies, and off-label drug use occurs in >85% of cases. Widely accepted guidelines are rare, leading to great variability in practice. NeoCheck is the first prescription-screening tool developed to optimise neonatal pharmacotherapy. 

Centre-specific differences in short-term outcomes in neonates with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy

Original article
Grass B, Brotschi B, Hagmann C, Birkenmaier A, Schwendener K, Adams M, Kleber M, Swiss National Asphyxia and Cooling Register
Swiss Med Wkly. 2021;151:w20489

Short-term outcome indicators of seizures, arterial hypotension, infection and mortality showed significant differences in incidence between the centres. These data will help to establish benchmarks for the assessed outcome measures. Benchmarking is a continuous need with the ultimate goal of improving modifiable short-term outcomes in neonates with hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy.

Healthcare professionals’ opinions on psychological screening in follow-up care for childhood cancer survivors

Original article
Harju E, Hendriks MJ, Roser K, Michel G
Swiss Med Wkly. 2020;150:w20356

There is overall agreement that screening for psychological late effects is not yet standard in follow-up care in Switzerland. It is important to mitigate perceived barriers and concerns of healthcare professionals to enable a successful implementation of psychological distress screening according to the established standards of care.

PedAMINES: a disruptive mHealth app to tackle paediatric medication errors

Review article: Biomedical intelligence
Ehrler F, Siebert JN
Swiss Med Wkly. 2020;150:w20335

Medication errors are among the most common medical adverse events and an important cause of patient morbidity and mortality, affecting millions of people worldwide each year. This problem is especially acute in paediatric settings, where most drugs given intravenously to children are provided in vials prepared for the adult population.

Adequacy of stress ulcer prophylaxis prescription in the intensive care unit: an observational study

Original article
Franchitti M, Piubellini J, Sadeghipour F, Eckert P, Voirol P, Schneider AG
Swiss Med Wkly. 2020;150:w20322

The adequacy of stress ulcer prophylaxis in the ICU is low. In addition, the prescription is frequently continued after ICU and many patients are even discharged home with inadequate acid-suppressive therapy.

Management of hepatitis C in opioid agonist therapy patients of the Swiss canton Aargau within and outside the cohort study

Original article
Schürch S, Fux CA, Dehler S, Conen A, Knuchel J, Friedl A, Eigenmann F, Roser P, Ackle P, Bregenzer A
Swiss Med Wkly. 2020;150:w20317

Bayesian networks to identify potential high-risk multimorbidity and intervention clusters in inpatients: an explorative data mining study

Original article
Roth JA, Sakoparnig T, Gerber M, Hug BL
Swiss Med Wkly. 2020;150:w20299

Bayesian network analysis may be used as a tool to mine large healthcare databases in order to explore intervention targets for quality improvement programmes. However, the resulting associations should be substantiated in consecutive investigations using specific causal models.

Examinations and assessments in patients with a newly acquired spinal cord injury – retrospective chart analysis as part of a quality improvement project

Original article
Scheel-Sailer A, Sailer CO, Lampart P, Baumberger M, Berger M, Mueller G, Sigrist-Nix D, Schmitt K, Siepmann T, Pannek J
Swiss Med Wkly. 2020;150:w20291

The data presented here suggest a relevant gap between recommendations and clinical routine for time to some assessments after spinal cord injury. Within the framework of a quality improvement project, the next steps should be to build a national and international consensus on specific time frames for examinations and assessments in patients with a newly acquired spinal cord injury and thereafter, to develop an institutional implementation strategy.

Association between levator ani muscle avulsions and technique of vacuum extraction – a prospective exploratory study

Original article
Kimmich N, Birri J, Zimmermann R, Kreft M
Swiss Med Wkly. 2020;150:w20280

Trauma of the levator ani muscle in the form of partial or complete avulsions is common after vaginal births, especially after vaginal-operative births. There is little information available regarding associations between the technique of vaginal-operative births and levator ani muscle trauma.