Medical Communication Research Articles

Retraction Note: Bridge the gap caused by public health crises: medical humanization and communication skills build a psychological bond that satisfies patients

Retraction Note: Bridge the gap caused by public health crises: medical humanization and communication skills build a psychological bond that satisfies patients

Abstract Su407: Implementing An Effective Standardized Bystander CPR Protocol For US Golf Courses

Background: A golf course is the fifth most common public place for cardiac arrest (CA). Informal interviews with golfers and golf course personnel revealed striking incomplete and variable knowledge about what to do in the event of a CA on a golf course in accordance with most current bystander resuscitation guidelines. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that the development and implementation of a standardized protocol (called “911-CPR-AED”) for the three most critical first steps to assure aperson’s survival of an on-golf course CA will improve chances of surviving if playing partners, caddies and club staff are well prepared to respond urgently and appropriately to such an emergency. Aim: To successfully implement the standardized “911-CPR-AED” protocol for 4 different golf clubs. Approach: We achieved full support and involvement of the Club Boards, professional staff, club management, grounds crew and membership as well as coordination with local Emergency Medical Systems (EMS) and communications to all golfers and caddies. We created a specific four-panel laminated infographic customized for each club and designed to fit easily into every golfer’s bag and caddy vest, assuring a readily available “911-CPR-AED” guide for lay bystanders to notify EMS and Club staff, immediately initiate chest compressions, ensure rapid delivery of an AED and BLS certified persons to the arrest site, and safely guide EMS on their arrival. We also staged live “dry run’ simulations on the golf courses with all key team members and timed each and every step of the simulation from start to finish. All aspects of this process were shared with leaders of the closest EMS and hospital emergency departments (EDs). Results: Within the past 2 years, we have successfully implemented a standardized emergency resuscitation protocol we call “911-CPR-AED” at 4 different golf clubs for immediate initiation of bystander CPR in the event of full CA on a golf course. Since implementation, we have witnessed 3 CA events and achieved successful full “on course” resuscitations that deployed this protocol for all three survivors who are now back to playing golf. We intend to share the details and many lessons learned for these ongoing efforts. Conclusion: An effective, standard bystander CPR protocol now exists for use at any US golf course. We intend to expand Implementation to 3 new golf courses and will continue to raise awareness and encourage widespread local implementation across the US.

Digital Twin-Driven Virtual Network Architecture for Enhanced Extended Reality Capabilities

Extended Reality (XR) technology is proposed as a key enabler for the development of immersive applications, thus transforming the way users interact within digital environments. In communication networks, XR will be able to introduce immersive network functions with the potential to enhance the network experience. This paper proposes a comprehensive architectural framework designed to support the deployment of XR Functions (XRFs) within a Digital Twin Network (DTN) environment in order to provide immersive functions of any type, including control and management functions, that are not available in the original network. The proposal can be deployed in relevant fields where digital twins are promising, such as medical applications, surveillance systems, autonomous driving and space communications. The proposed architecture must consider the need for minimal hardware and software resources, along with a network topological configuration with the objective of providing a robust yet lightweight framework, allowing devices with limited computing power, such as smartphones and laptops, to benefit from the enhanced network functionalities provided in the Digital Twin Network, without affecting the original network (ON).

Patient Safety and Medical Error Prevention in General Practice: A Comprehensive Systematic Review

Patient safety and medical error prevention remain critical issues in general practice, where medical errors can lead to adverse patient outcomes and increased healthcare costs. This systematic review synthesizes recent evidence on prevalent types of medical errors, effective prevention strategies, and outcomes of patient safety interventions within general practice settings. Following a comprehensive search across multiple databases, 52 studies published from 2014 to 2024 were included. Findings highlight medication errors, diagnostic inaccuracies, and communication lapses as the most common types of errors. Effective prevention strategies include the adoption of electronic health records (EHR), structured team communication protocols, checklist systems, and staff training programs on safety practices. These interventions have shown significant reductions in error rates and improvements in patient outcomes, though implementation is often hindered by barriers such as limited resources, resistance to change, and lack of training. This review underscores the importance of a multifaceted approach that combines technological, organizational, and educational interventions to enhance patient safety in general practice. Future research should explore long-term impacts of these interventions and address context-specific challenges to foster a culture of safety in healthcare settings.

Values in the doctor-patient interaction: understanding and cooperation

Introduction. Cooperation between a medical professional and a patient is the main value in the work of a medical institution rganization and the key to improving the quality of specialists. The purpose of the study. Development and testing of the “secret patient” method, which allows assessing the quality of medical care in accordance with the Moscow clinics’ values from the patient’s point of view; identifying factors influencing patients’ opinions regarding the quality of medical care. Materials and methods. The study was conducted in 2024 at two medical centers in Moscow. The following methods are: focus group, content analysis, “secret patient”, participant observation. Results. The assessment tools include the possibility and convenience of making an appointment with a doctor on the website of a medical institution; features of communication with medical workers; characteristics of the medical institution; information about the medical institution and communications in the medical institution; additional information. All medical care’ elements correlate with the values: patient-centeredness, friendliness, teamwork, trust and mutual respect. Research limitations. The study is limited by the absence of disease in the investigators conducting the participant observation. Conclusion. The developed methodology for receiving feedback from the head of a medical organization from patients corresponds to the core values of Moscow clinics and can be taken into the operational activities of medical organizations. Doctors provide consultations in accordance with the clinic’ values. Mutual respect and trust must be reinforced by the adoption of appropriate values by patients. The main shortcomings present in isolated cases are associated with unequal treatment of patients and incorrect communication by nursing staff.

Pre-hospital care for children: a descriptive study from Central Norway

BackgroundPre-hospital incidents involving pediatric and neonatal patients are infrequent, and clinical characteristics and care for these patients differ from the adult population. Lack of knowledge, guidelines, and experience can make pre-hospital pediatric care challenging, and there is limited research on the epidemiology and best practice of care for this population. We examined the pre-hospital pediatric population in the county of Sør-Trøndelag, Norway, to improve our understanding of this population in our region.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective observational cohort study of emergency incidents involving children under twelve years of age with dispatch of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Sør-Trøndelag between 2018 and 2022. Incidents and patient characteristics were extracted from the Emergency Medical Communication Center (EMCC) database. In addition, data on patient characteristics and interventions for more serious incidents seen by the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) were included from the database LABAS. We provided descriptive statistics and estimated population incidences using Poisson regression.ResultsThe catchment area of EMCC Sør-Trøndelag has a population of approximately 43,000 children under the age of twelve years. During the five-year study period, there were 7005 emergency calls concerning this patient population, representing 6% of all emergency calls (total no. 108,717). Of these, 3500 (50%) resulted in the dispatch of an ambulance and/or HEMS, yielding an annual incidence of EMS dispatches of 17 per 1000 children. The three most common primary medical problems were respiratory distress, altered consciousness, and trauma. Among the 309 HEMS patients, 131 (42%) received advanced interventions from the HEMS physician. Assisted ventilation was the most frequent intervention.ConclusionsPediatric and neonatal patients make up a small proportion of pre-hospital patient dispatches in Sør-Trøndelag. Consequently, each EMS provider infrequently encounters children in the pre-hospital environment, resulting in less experience with pediatric advanced medical interventions. This study identifies some clinical characteristics and interventions regarding pediatric and neonatal patients that have been pointed out as focus areas for pediatric pre-hospital research.

A Kansei engineering-based decision-making method for offline medical service quality evaluation with multidimensional attributes

The evaluation of doctors’ offline medical service quality plays a vital role in evaluating hospital performance. There are two challenges that need to be addressed: (1) Currently, telephone follow-up and questionnaire surveys are the main methods for evaluating the quality of offline (mainly outpatient and inpatient) medical services in hospitals. However, these methods suffer from drawbacks such as low efficiency and resource consumption. (2) There are certain limitations to determining attribute dimensions and weighting patient evaluation attributes based solely on word frequency. To this end, this study proposes a Kansei engineering-based decision-making method for offline medical service quality evaluation with multidimensional attributes. First, this study constructs a medical Kansei lexicon based on speed and cosine similarity. Second, a concept of Kansei utility values is been defined to represent attribute values in medical service quality evaluation. Additionally, this study builds upon the Kano model to obtain the Kano classification of each attribute. On that basis, a novel approach to obtaining the implicit importance of the attributes is proposed. Thus, the weight vector of the attributes can be calculated as the combination of explicit and implicit importance. Finally, the evaluation result is obtained by using the multiattribute decision-making method. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through an analysis of online reviews from Haodf.com. The case study reveals that offline patients consider medical ethics and communication skills as the ”must-be” dimension of attributes, medical competence as a one-dimensional attribute, and medical advice and prescriptions as the attractive dimension of attributes. A comparative analysis with the traditional method is conducted to demonstrate the importance of dimensional analysis for offline medical service quality evaluation. The main contributions of this study include the following: (1) A medical Kansei lexicon is constructed based on Kansei engineering, and (2) a novel decision-making framework for medical service evaluation based on both appearance and implicit importance is constructed.

Recent Advances in Organic Photodetectors

Organic photodetectors (OPDs) have garnered significant attention in fields such as image sensing, health monitoring, and wearable devices due to their exceptional performance. This review summarizes recent research advancements in materials, structures, performance, and applications of narrowband organic photodetectors, hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite photodetectors, flexible organic photodetectors (FOPDs), and photomultiplication type organic photodetectors (PM-OPDs). Organic semiconductors offer substantial potential in optoelectronic devices owing to their low cost, ease of processing, and tunable spectral response. Hybrid perovskite materials extend the spectral response range, FOPDs meet the demands of wearable devices, and PM-OPDs enhance sensitivity, allowing for the detection of weak light signals. Through innovations in materials, structural optimization, and improvements in manufacturing processes, the performance of OPDs has seen significant enhancement. This article also explores the application prospects of these technologies in medical monitoring, optical communications, and image sensing.

Variations in access to acute care services by immigrant background and sociodemographic factors

Abstract Background The Emergency Medical Communication Center (EMCC) plays a vital role in the medical emergency response system by triaging contacts, notifying local physicians, and providing medical advice. The utilization of acute care services and the subsequent care pathway by individuals with immigrant background remains unclear in the Norwegian context. This study aims to investigate whether disparities exist in the acute care pathway for patients with different sociodemographic background who use ambulance services. Methods We examined all code red ambulance dispatches for life-threatening emergencies in 2021 in Norway. These ambulance dispatches were linked to primary health care and specialist health care contacts to trace patient pathways and outcomes. Statistical analyses were conducted using linear regression models, adjusted for patient characteristics, such as immigrant background, age, sex, municipality of residence, living condition, socioeconomic status, comorbidity and cause of emergency contact. Results Preliminary crude findings indicate that patients with immigrant background are overrepresented in the groups receiving acute primary care only and underrepresented in the groups transferred directly to specialist health care, within 8 hours after ambulance arrival at the patients’ location. Conclusions The preliminary results suggest challenges for the EMCC in triaging patients with immigrant background, but further research is needed to explore potential systematic differences. This study aims to improve understanding of disparities in access to acute care and inform targeted interventions to optimize resource allocation in emergency departments. Key messages • This study may improve understanding of disparities in access to acute care in Norway. • This study can inform targeted interventions to improve resource allocation in emergency departments.

Managing Pharmaceutical Promotion Mix in the Rise of Social Media

ABSTRACTA manufacturer of a branded prescription drug typically uses traditional promotional tools to communicate with consumers (i.e., direct‐to‐consumer advertising) and physicians (i.e., detailing, sampling, and journal advertising). These promotions seek to enhance brand drug visibility and, eventually, increase brand sales. As medical communication norms generally dictate how healthcare information is communicated, the emergence of social media challenges such norms and potentially inflates (or deflates) the efficacy of pharmaceutical marketing communication. In such situations, a crucial research question revolves around how marketers will adjust their promotional strategies. In this study, the authors analyze the longitudinal data of 41 brand drugs from 7 therapeutic classes between 2007 and 2014. Through the lens of signaling theory, they empirically show that the volume and valence of social media posts can enhance or hinder the sales impacts of different promotional activities. Specifically, the volume and valence of social media posts have the potential to amplify the sales impact of detailing and direct‐to‐consumer advertising, while diminishing the effects of sampling and journal advertising. The volume and valence of brand drug mentions as well as consumer passion toward the brand drug display similar effects on the efficacy of pharmaceutical promotions. The findings shed new light on conventional pharmaceutical promotion practices in the presence of social media and provide novel implications for promotion mix management.

Participation in medication safety of older-adult patients with chronic disease during the transition from hospital to home: a descriptive qualitative study

BackgroundMedication safety issues occur frequently among older-adult patients with chronic diseases during the transition from the hospital to their homes. Patient participation in medication safety has been found to be an effective measure for improving patient safety. However, few studies have been conducted on the safety of older-adult patients with chronic disease during the hospital to family transition period. This study aimed to understand the experiences and perceptions of such patients regarding participation in medication safety during the hospital to family transition period and to explore the actual situation and obstacles during this period in the Chinese context.MethodsA descriptive, qualitative research approach was adopted using purposive sampling. Eighteen patients with chronic disease (aged 61–84 years) participated, all of whom were in the period of transition from hospital to home. Data were collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews and analysed using directed qualitative content analysis.ResultsFour themes and 12 sub-themes were identified in this study. The four themes were participation in medication decision-making, participation in medication self-management, participation support, and barriers to patient participation.ConclusionsPatient participation is important in ensuring medication safety during the hospital to family transition period. This study highlights that older-adult patients’ participation in medication safety includes three aspects: participation in medication decision-making, participation in medication self-management, and participation support. Health literacy, medical communication, and family care support are the key factors affecting patient participation in medication safety. Effective intervention strategies for this patient group during the transition period would target improving patients’ cognition, health literacy, doctor-prescription communication, and family care support to encourage patients to be more actively involved in the process of drug treatment.

Expanding the primary care workforce by integrating genetic counselors in multidisciplinary care teams.

Collectively, rare diseases are common, affecting approximately 8% of the population in Canada and the USA. Therefore, the majority of primary care (PC) clinicians will care for patients who are affected or at risk for a genetic disease. Considering the increasing ways in which genetics is being implemented into all areas of healthcare, one way to address these needs and expand the capacity of the PC workforce is through the integration of genetic counselors (GCs) into PC multidisciplinary teams. GCs are Masters-educated allied health professionals with specialized training in molecular genetics, communication, and short-term psychotherapeutic counseling. The current models of GCs in PC mimic other multidisciplinary models. Complex tasks related to genetics, such as pre- and post-test counseling, genetic test selection, and results interpretation, are conducted by GCs, which, in turn, allows physicians, nurse practitioners, and other PC providers to work at the top of their scope of practice. Quality genetics services provided by GCs improve clinical outcomes for patients and their families; the simultaneous provision of genetic education and psychological support by a GC is associated with an increase in patient knowledge, perceived personal control, decrease in distress, and can lead to positive health behavior changes, all of which are aligned with the goals of primary healthcare. With their extensive training in clinical care, medical communication, and psychotherapeutic counseling, integrating GCs into PC care teams will improve the care patients receive and allow PC clinicians to ensure their patients are at the forefront of the personalized medicine revolution.

Combining the Servqual and Kano Models to Find Out How Satisfied Customers are with Swab and PCR Services

Swabs and PCR are ways to track patients infected with COVID-19. One private swab and PCR service provider in Surabaya offers swab and PCR tests with fast results and is open 24 hours a day. This research aims to determine service quality performance, identify the causes of consumer dissatisfaction, and identify service attributes that must be maintained and improved for Swab and PCR services in Surabaya. This research uses an integration of the Servqual and Kano methods. The integration of Servqual and Kano determines the service attributes to be improved. Data was obtained from a questionnaire using the five-dimensional Servqual approach, then calculated to get a gap value and categorized using the Blauth formula. The Servqual gap and the Blauth formula's category values are combined to make action decisions. The results state that swab and PCR service providers still need to improve all factors used in this research. Three attributes fall into the weak and indifferent category, so the decision that needs to be made is to ignore them because they do not affect consumer satisfaction and are not a priority for improvement. The other twenty-one attributes fall into the weak and one-dimensional category, meaning companies must improve these attributes to satisfy consumers. Companies need to make improvements to ensure better service, including increasing the number of medical officers to reduce fatigue and queues and providing training on medical procedures and communication skills for medical officers.

Medical Team Practices and Interpreter Alterations on Family-Centered Rounds.

Robust evidence demonstrates inequities in communication during family-centered rounds for families who use a language other than English (LOE) for health care. This study aimed to characterize the type of interpreter alterations occurring on family-centered rounds and identify medical team communication practices associated with alterations. In this observational study of interpreter-supported family-centered rounds, we recorded and transcribed family-centered rounds encounters for Spanish-speaking families. We assessed measures of medical team communication behaviors and interpreter alterations (omissions, additions, and substitutions) using previously described instruments. We used a content analysis approach to apply defined codes to each interpreted segment and to characterize the nature of interpreter alterations. We assessed the association between medical team communication behaviors and interpreter alterations using χ2 tests. We recorded, transcribed, and coded 529 interpreted segments of 10 family-centered rounds encounters. At least 1 alteration was present in 72% (n = 382/529) of interpreted segments. Omissions were the most common alteration (n = 242/529, 46%) followed by substitutions (n = 177/529, 34%) and additions (n = 71/529, 13%). Interpretation resulted in a potentially negative alteration in 29% (n = 155/529) and a positive alteration in 9% (n = 45/529) of segments. Greater number of sentences in the segment preceding interpretation was associated with an increase in loss of information (P < .001), loss of social support (P = .003), and loss of partnership (P = .020). To improve communication with families that use an LOE, medical teams must abide by best practices for using an interpreter such as frequent pausing to prevent loss of both biomedical and psychosocial information.

Evaluation of the information quality related to osteoporosis on TikTok

BackgroundOsteoporosis is currently considered the most common bone disease in the world and is characterized by low bone mass, deterioration of the bone tissue microstructure, and decreased bone strength. With the increasing popularity of smartphones and short videos, many patients search for various types of health information through social media, such as short videos. As one of China’s short video giants, TikTok has played a significant role in spreading health information. We found that there are many videos about osteoporosis on TikTok; however, the quality of these short videos has not yet been evaluated.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the information quality of osteoporosis videos on the domestic TikTok platform.MethodsWe retrieved and screened 100 videos about osteoporosis from TikTok, extracted the basic information, encoded the video content, and recorded the source of each video. Two independent raters evaluated the information quality of each video via the DISCERN rating scale.ResultThe videos were divided into three groups according to their source: medical personnel, science communicators, and news media, with medical personnel posting the most videos. The content of the video is divided into 7 groups, namely, disease prevention, disease diagnosis, disease symptoms, disease overview, life-style, drug knowledge, and drug treatment, with the most videos related to disease overview. The average DISCERN score of the videos is 37.69 (SD = 6.78), mainly within the ‘poor’ (54/100, 54%) and ‘appropriate’ (43/100, 43%) rating ranges, with overall quality being low. Further analysis revealed a positive correlation between the number of shares, comments, likes, and favorites, and a positive correlation between the DISCERN score and the number of shares and favorites.ConclusionThe overall quality of videos concerning osteoporosis on TikTok is lower, but the quality of videos varies significantly across different sources. We should be selective and cautious when watching videos about osteoporosis on TikTok.

Communication Skills of Medical Interpreters: A Qualitative Explanatory Study of Healthcare Professionals' and Medical Interpreters' Perceptions.

Background/Objectives: Medical interpreters support communication between medical professionals and foreign patients. However, the communication skills required of medical interpreters in the field are currently unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate what medical professionals and medical interpreters consider to be most important communication skills of medical interpreters, and whether there are differences in perceptions between medical professionals and medical interpreters. Methods: From December 2023 to February 2024, we interviewed 10 medical professionals and medical interpreters (five medical professionals and five medical interpreters) working throughout Japan and in the United States. The narratives collected in the interviews were analyzed and evaluated in a conceptual framework. Results: Healthcare professionals and medical interpreters exhibited differences in perceptions regarding the most important communication skills for medical interpreters. The narratives of medical professionals and medical interpreters regarding medical interpreters' communication skills were divided into a 2 × 2 grid consisting of four quadrants with two axes (intervention and perspective). Regarding the communication skills of medical interpreters, medical professionals were primarily concerned with the transmission of medical information and felt that it was necessary for interpreters to understand medical professionals' perspectives and what they wanted to say in order to convey it accurately. In contrast, medical interpreters emphasized the importance of empathy and communication skills for respecting the other person and understanding the other person's opinion and perspective. Additionally, to understand the patient's perspective, medical interpreters reported that it was important to understand the cultural background of the patient and to maintain good relationships with all of the people around the patient. Conclusions: We explored the communication skills of medical interpreters and the characteristics of the perceptions and narratives of medical professionals and medical interpreters. Concepts regarding the communication skills of medical interpreters were divided into two axes (intervention and perspective) and presented as a 2 × 2 grid with four quadrants. The results of our study suggested that medical interpreters should actively intervene in interpretation situations involving foreign patients.

What else do we Train when we Teach Medical Students? Medical Humanities in the Encores

Medical education is known for its competitive and highly demanding environment. Medical students are required a solid set of hard skills on the one hand, but they are also expected to proficiently master soft skills. This article focuses on the 21st century skills, narrowing down the perspective to communication and creativity in the current medical education field. Empathy as a key concept in patient-centred medical communication has proven to be difficult to define, difficult to assess, and challenging to achieve, especially since studies show a decrease of empathy in medical students in their clinical years of formation. Investigation of appliable solution has been included in terms of curriculum disciplines and extra curriculum programs that could highly contribute to enhancing the required 21st century skills in the case of medical students.

Frequent callers contacting the Norwegian national emergency medical number 113: a retrospective study

BackgroundCalling for help is the first link in the chain of survival; however, few studies have investigated the challenges faced by frequent callers (FCs) to emergency medical communication centres (EMCCs). This study aimed to explore the characteristics of FCs and the nature of their calls to the Bergen EMCC, Norway.MethodsThis was a retrospective analysis of all emergency calls to the Bergen EMCC over three consecutive years (2019–2021). Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway, and the Bergen EMCC and ambulance services are part of the specialist medical service, covering a population of 460,000. The Bergen EMCC receives approximately 60,000 emergency calls per year. The study population comprised all adults identified during emergency medical calls. FCs were defined as individuals who registered five or more calls over 12 consecutive months during the three-year period.ResultsThe analysis included approximately 50,000 individuals, who made > 90,000 calls during the study period. Of those, 1,594 (3.2%) were FCs, accounting for approximately one in four (21,339 of 90,085, 23.7%) calls. The FCs included more men (882 of 1,594 (55.3%) vs. 24,204 of 47,564 (50.9%)) and registered a lower proportion of calls with an acute degree of urgency (6,051 of 21,339 calls (28.4%) vs. 30,276 of 68,746 calls (44.0%)). Calls from FCs showed an even occurrence throughout the week, peaking between 19:00 h and 20:00 h. Compared with calls from non-FCs, calls from FCs had a higher proportion of ‘no response/verbal referral to local emergency medical department’ and involved a lower proportion of hospital transfers. The EMCC most frequently used the medical criterion ‘Mental health problems/suicide’ for calls from FCs.ConclusionsFCs were common, and more often men. The EMCC dispatched ambulances or admitted patients to hospitals less frequently following these calls. Many of these situations could be handled in other parts of the healthcare system, reducing the burden on EMCCs, and providing more suitable services for FCs. Thus, EMCCs should identify and adjust patient management to match their actual needs.

Frequent contacts to Emergency Medical Services (EMS): more than frequent callers

BackgroundA frequent caller is defined by The Frequent Caller National Network (FreCaNN) as an adult who makes five or more emergency calls in a month or twelve or more in three months, related to individual episodes of care. However, we believe that when limiting the definition to those who call themselves, one underestimates the impact frequent contacts have on the Emergency Medical Communication Center (EMCC) and the Emergency Medical Services (EMS).MethodWe conducted a descriptive retrospective cross-sectional database review of frequent contacts; defined as persons who have ≥ 5 contacts in a month or ≥ 12 contacts in three months. Data were provided from Oslo EMCC, between 1. January 2017 and 31. December 2022. Contrary to the FreCaNN definition, we included all types of contacts and callers, both emergent and non-emergent, regarding patients of all ages.ResultsDuring the study period, 2.149.400 contacts were registered. Of these 129.700 were contacts from frequent callers, where the patients called themselves. When including contacts frequently made on behalf of a patient, we found that 268.723 fit the definition of frequent emergency contacts. When also taking non-emergent contacts into account, a total of 437.361 contacts fit the definition of frequent contacts.ConclusionWhen limiting the criteria to only frequent callers, one underestimates the impact persons who have frequent contacts, have on the EMCC and the EMS. We were able to distinguish between three categories—contacts from frequent callers, frequent emergency contacts, and frequent contacts. We believe broadening the definition can benefit both research and audits, when accessing the use of emergency resources to patients with frequent requests for help to the EMCCs.

Experiences and Perceptions of Medication Management Communication During Transitions of Care for Residents in Aged Care Homes and Their Caregivers: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis.

To explore the experiences and perceptions of communication about managing medication across transitions of care for residents living in aged care homes and their family caregivers. Effective medication communication across transitions of care involves exchanging information, resident, and family caregiver's participation in decision-making, and shared responsibility. A qualitative meta-synthesis. This review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines and the accompanying 27-item checklist. A systematic search of seven electronic databases (Embase, PsycINFO, Medline Ovid, Scopus, CINAHL, EmCare and Web of Science) was performed from inception to December 2023. Studies eligible for inclusion in this review were required to be published in peer-reviewed English journals and focus on medication communication among healthcare providers, residents and family caregivers during transitions of care for aged care residents. The JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research was employed for the critical appraisal of the studies, and the COREQ checklist was used to evaluate their quality. Of the 2610 studies identified, 12 met the inclusion criteria. No study was excluded based on quality. Two main themes were generated: (1) Medication information exchange involving residents and families, and (2) resident and family factors influencing medication communication engagement. The findings revealed a lack of supportive structure for effective communication and collaboration among residents, family caregivers and healthcare providers during transitions of care, marked by one-way interactions and limited evidence of shared decision-making or family caregiver engagement in medication management communication, despite varying individual needs and preferences. Communication about medication management during transitions of care focused on sharing details rather than active engagement. Residents and their family caregivers have individual needs and perspectives regarding communication about medication management, which are not well addressed by healthcare providers during transitions of care. Healthcare providers' communication remains limited, and family caregivers are underutilised.