Ministry of Health Library

Health Improvement and Innovation Digest

Issue 204 - 21 November 2019

Welcome to the fortnightly Health Improvement and Innovation Digest (formerly the HIIRC digest). The Digest has links to key evidence of interest, with access to new content arranged by topic.

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Have you heard about Grey Matter?

We'd like to introduce you to another newsletter that the Ministry of Health Library prepares.  The Grey Matter newsletter provides monthly access to a selection of recent NGO, Think Tank, and International Government reports related to health. Information is arranged by topic, allowing readers to quickly find their areas of interest.  If you'd like to subscribe to Grey Matter, email library@health.govt.nz.

Article access

For articles that aren't open access, contact your DHB library, or organisational or local library for assistance in accessing the full text. If your organisation has a subscription, you may be able to use the icon under full text links in PubMed to access the full article.

Māori Innovation

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata! (What is the most important thing in the world? It is people!)
This paper, published in the Australian Journal of Primary Health, highlights the importance of people as a central factor in improving health for Māori.

Whānau Māori explain how the Harti Hauora Tool assists with better access to health services
In this paper, published in the Australian Journal of Primary Health, whānau Māori highlight how a Kaupapa Māori-centred intervention (the Harti Hauora Tamariki tool, hereafter Harti tool) has improved interactions with health services.

Health Equity (New Zealand)

Māori experiences of multiple forms of discrimination: findings from Te Kupenga 2013
Comprehensive exploration of Māori experiences of discrimination in Aotearoa New Zealand remains limited, particularly in relation to exposure to multiple and interlocking forms of discrimination. This paper, published in Kōtuitui, presents findings from a secondary analysis of Te Kupenga 2013, the first Māori Social Survey, examining patterning and prevalence of different forms of discrimination for Māori.

Health Equity (International)

Engaging under- and/or never-engaged populations in health services: A systematic review
Patient engagement is a mechanism used to facilitate person-centred care, however, has not been realized in all patient populations. Often, many marginalized populations still remain under- and/or never-engaged. The purpose of this systematic review, published in the Patient Experience Journal, was to identify methods or interventions that have been used to engage under- and/or never-engaged populations in health services and identify outcomes that are associated with engaging under- and/or never-engaged populations in health services.

Quality Improvement (New Zealand)

Towards a safer culture: implementing multidisciplinary simulation-based team training in New Zealand operating theatres - a framework analysis
NetworkZ is a simulation-based multidisciplinary team-training programme designed to enhance patient safety by improving communication and teamwork in operating theatres (OTs). In partnership with the Accident Compensation Corporation, its implementation across New Zealand (NZ) began in 2017. The study, published in BMJ Open, aimed to explore the experiences of staff - including the challenges they faced - in implementing NetworkZ in NZ hospitals.

Collective learning: Quality improvement in aged residential care
Early in 2019, the Health Quality & Safety Commission's aged residential care programme team identified four care homes in the Auckland region, to carry out small-scale improvement projects over three months. The objective of this ‘expedition’ was to study the environment in which quality improvement needs to take place. It provided the opportunity to test and understand the challenges and opportunities for quality improvement across large and small, semi-rural and urban aged residential care homes.

Quality Improvement (International)

The nature of patient complaints: a resource for healthcare improvements
The aim of this study, published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care, was to explore the nature, potential usefulness and meaning of complaints lodged by patients and their relatives.

Cancer Services (New Zealand)

Skin shop: A new model for high-volume skin cancer care
Non-melanoma skin cancer incidence is increasing in New Zealand. Increased cost of care has led to service pressure and a review of models of care. A high-volume skin surgery service at Waikato Hospital has been developed to reduce service costs. This study, published in Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery, examines the oncological safety of the new model.

Shorter Stays In Emergency Departments (International)

The proportion, conditions, and predictors of emergency department visits that can be potentially managed by pharmacists with expanded scope of practice
Pharmacists have been shown to be beneficial for inclusion in emergency department (ED) services; however, little has been done to assess these benefits with pharmacists having even wider scopes of practice, including limited prescribing authority. The aims of this study, published in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, were to determine the proportion of ED visits that can potentially be managed by pharmacists, the most prevalent conditions within these cases, and the factors associated with patients presenting with such cases to the ED.

Interventions to reduce emergency department consultation time: A systematic review of the literature
Overcrowding in the emergency department (ED) is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Studies have shown that consultation to decision time, defined as the time when a consultation has been accepted by a specialty service to the time when disposition decision is made, is one important contributor to the overall length of stay in the ED. The primary objective of this review, published in CJEM, is to evaluate the impact of workflow interventions on consultation to decision time and ED length of stay in patients referred to consultant services in teaching centres, and to identify barriers to reducing consultation to decision time.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (New Zealand)

Long‐term follow‐up of a randomized controlled trial of a text‐message diabetes self‐management support programme, SMS4BG
The aim of this study, published in Diabetic Medicine, was to determine the long‐term effectiveness of an individually tailored text‐message diabetes self‐management support programme, SMS4BG, on glycaemic control at 2 years in adults with diabetes.

Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes (International)

Association of health literacy and diabetes self-management: a systematic review
The purpose of this review, published in the Australian Journal of Primary Health, was to summarise the existing evidence about the association of health literacy (HL) with type 2 diabetes mellitus self-management.

Primary Mental Health (New Zealand)

Te Oranga Hinengaro - Māori Mental Wellbeing
Te Oranga Hinengaro presents results from the New Zealand Mental Health Monitor and the Health and Lifestyles Survey related to the mental health and wellbeing of Māori in New Zealand. In particular, this report provides insight into the relationship between multiple measures of mental health and Māori experiences of wellbeing: Whanaungatanga and belonging, cultural connectedness and reconnection, and strength of cultural identity.

Weight Management (New Zealand)

Preoperative bariatric surgery programme barriers facing Pacific patients in Auckland, New Zealand as perceived by health sector professionals: a qualitative study
Minority ethnic patient groups typically have the highest bariatric surgery preoperative attrition rates and lowest surgery utilisation worldwide. Eligible patients of Pacific Island ethnicity (Pacific patients) in New Zealand (NZ) follow this wider trend. The present study, published in BMJ Open, explored structural barriers contributing to Pacific patients' disproportionately high preoperative attrition rates from publicly-funded bariatric surgery in Auckland, NZ.

Childhood Obesity (International)

Interventions for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children aged five years and under
Insufficient consumption of fruits and vegetables in childhood increases the risk of future non‐communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease. Interventions to increase consumption of fruit and vegetables, such as those focused on specific child‐feeding strategies and parent nutrition education interventions in early childhood may therefore be an effective strategy in reducing this disease burden. The objective of this Cochrane Review was to assess the effectiveness, cost effectiveness and associated adverse events of interventions designed to increase the consumption of fruit, vegetables or both amongst children aged five years and under.

Key Ministry of Health Publications

Sexual and reproductive health 2014/15: New Zealand Health Survey
The Sexual and Reproductive Health reports and data explorer cover the following topics: first heterosexual sex, heterosexual sexual behaviours, sexual orientation, contraception, pregnancy planning, sexually transmitted infections and non-volitional sex.

Annual Update of Key Results 2018/19: New Zealand Health Survey
The Annual Data Explorer provides a snapshot of the health of New Zealanders through the publication of key indicators on health behaviours, health status and access to health care for both adults and children.

Death, Funerals, Burial and Cremation: a Review of the Burial and Cremation Act 1964 and Related Legislation
This consultation document sets out a range of options for modernising the legislation relating to death, burial, cremation and funerals in New Zealand, including the Burial and Cremation Act 1964, Cremation Regulations 1973 and the Health (Burial) Regulations 1946. The closing date for submissions is 5.00 pm, Friday 28 February 2020.

The information available on or through this newsletter does not represent Ministry of Health policy. It is intended to provide general information to the health sector and the public, and is not intended to address specific circumstances of any particular individual or entity.