This report has reinforced the positive benefit that the IHFD and clinical audit is making in the healthcare system on a local, public, national and system level. The improvement in the IHFS has again reassured the system that the standards being measured are meaningful and lead to improved patient outcomes, with more patients going directly home and having improved function at discharge, and fewer patients being newly admitted into long-term care. The buy-in and enthusiasm...

The Irish Hip Fracture Database (IHFD) is a clinically led, web-based audit that measures the best practice standards of care, known as the Irish Hip Fracture Standards (IHFS) (Table 2), and outcomes of patients with hip fractures. The IHFD started as a collaboration between the Irish Gerontological Society (IGS) and the Irish Institute for Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery (IITOS). The National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) was established in 2012 and has a specific focus...

INTRODUCTION Stroke is the third leading cause of death in Western Europe and is the leading cause of severe long-term adult disability (The Stroke Alliance for Europe, 2020). Stroke is an important health issue for people in Ireland, with approximately 5,500 adults admitted to hospitals with a stroke in 2019. Stroke can affect people physically, emotionally and socially. It has a significant impact on Health Service Executive (HSE) resources, accounting for up to 4% of...

This fourth IHFD report details 3,159 hip fracture cases in patients aged 60 years and over, discharged by 16 hospitals in 2016, which accounts for 86% of all hip fracture cases nationally*.
This will be the first report to compare individual hospital performances across six clinical care standards.
Since its inception in 2012 and with more than 10,000 patient records on the database, the IHFD is now a powerful resource.The IHFD has a clear focus on driving...

This report has reaffirmed the extraordinary commitment of the multidisciplinary teams involved in hip fracture care in the 16 hospitals involved in this audit. The efforts made by the audit coordinators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to continue collecting such a high level of data ensured that hip fracture patients remained a priority through a very difficult and challenging period for Ireland’s health service. Providing such high-quality and timely data allowed rapid learning reports to be...

Ireland, historically a net exporter of nurses to countries such as the UK and the USA, began in the 1990s to encounter nursing shortages. As a result, employers initiated international recruitment campaigns to facilitate the migration of qualified nurses to Ireland [1]. Despite being a newcomer to overseas nurse recruitment, the rate of recruitment to Ireland in recent years has been rapid and remarkable. Overseas trained nurses, mainly from outside of the EU, are now...

Substance use behaviours have been found to cluster in youth, and cannabis use has been previously linked to tobacco and e-cigarette use. The objective of the current study was to examine the bidirectional associations between cannabis, e-cigarette, and cigarette use among a large sample of Canadian secondary school students. A sample of students in grades 9–11 (n = 14,652) from Ontario and Alberta, Canada who participated in two waves of the COMPASS Study (Time 1...

By the end of 2017, the Irish National Intensive Care Unit Audit (INICUA) run by the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) covered 58% of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) activity in adult Health Service Executive (HSE) funded hospitals (12 Units in nine hospitals) and all ICU activity in both specialist paediatric hospitals in the Republic of Ireland (ROI).

The purpose of this report is to provide patients, families, the public and the wider health system with an account of the National Audit of Hospital Mortality (NAHM) and its findings across an initial number of key diseases/medical conditions. This report outlines how the audit is used by hospitals and how the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) engages with hospitals. Information is presented across six key diagnoses: acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure,...

The purpose of this report is to provide patients, families, the public and the wider health system with an account of the National Audit of Hospital Mortality (NAHM) and its findings across an initial number of key diseases/medical conditions. This report outlines how the audit is used by hospitals and how the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) engages with hospitals. Information is presented across six key diagnoses: acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure,...

This report provides the first comprehensive analysis of paediatric major trauma in the Irish population. This is timely, given the opportunities for improving care for traumatically injured children throughout Ireland presented by the new children’s hospital, as this will be the single paediatric major trauma centre for the State. The report highlights that paediatric major trauma is of low frequency, at 5% of the overall trauma caseload for the 26 participating Irish hospitals. This represents...

This report has reaffirmed the extraordinary commitment of the multidisciplinary teams involved in hip fracture care in the 16 hospitals involved in this audit. The efforts made by the audit coordinators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to continue collecting such a high level of data ensured that hip fracture patients remained a priority through a very difficult and challenging period for Ireland’s health service. Providing such high-quality and timely data allowed rapid learning reports to be...

The Major Trauma Audit (MTA) is a clinically led audit established by the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) in 2013. This audit focuses on the care of the more severely injured trauma patients in our healthcare system. The methodological approach for the MTA is provided by the Trauma Audit & Research Network (TARN) based in the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. In 2016, the MTA became the first national clinical audit endorsed by the...

This report provides the first comprehensive analysis of paediatric major trauma in the Irish population. This is timely, given the opportunities for improving care for traumatically injured children throughout Ireland presented by the new children’s hospital, as this will be the single paediatric major trauma centre for the State. The report highlights that paediatric major trauma is of low frequency, at 5% of the overall trauma caseload for the 26 participating Irish hospitals. This represents...

The National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) established the Major Trauma Audit (MTA) in 2013. This audit focuses on the care of the more severely injured trauma patients in our healthcare system. The Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) provides the methodological approach for the MTA in Ireland and all 26 eligible hospitals now submit data to the MTA.
In 2016, the MTA became the first national clinical audit endorsed by the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee...

The Major Trauma Audit (MTA) was established by the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) in 2013. This audit focuses on care of the more severely injured trauma patients in our healthcare system. The methodological approach for the MTA is provided by the Trauma Audit & Research Network (TARN). In 2016, the MTA became the first national clinical audit endorsed by the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC) and mandated by the Minister for Health. Since...

INTRODUCTION Stroke is the third leading cause of death in Western Europe and is the leading cause of severe long-term adult disability (The Stroke Alliance for Europe, 2020). Stroke is an important health issue for people in Ireland, with approximately 5,500 adults admitted to hospitals with a stroke in 2019. Stroke can affect people physically, emotionally and socially. It has a significant impact on Health Service Executive (HSE) resources, accounting for up to 4% of...

This is the third National Audit of Hospital Mortality Annual Report. It provides mortality information across six key diagnoses: acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, ischaemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pneumonia. These diagnoses were chosen based on clinical and methodological selection criteria in order to ensure a focus on quality, safety and improvement in acute hospital care; hospitals can also view all diagnoses locally via the National Quality Assurance Improvement...

By the end of 2017, the Irish National Intensive Care Unit Audit (INICUA) run by the National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) covered 58% of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) activity in adult Health Service Executive (HSE) funded hospitals (12 Units in nine hospitals) and all ICU activity in both specialist paediatric hospitals in the Republic of Ireland (ROI).

This fourth IHFD report details 3,159 hip fracture cases in patients aged 60 years and over, discharged by 16 hospitals in 2016, which accounts for 86% of all hip fracture cases nationally*.
This will be the first report to compare individual hospital performances across six clinical care standards.
Since its inception in 2012 and with more than 10,000 patient records on the database, the IHFD is now a powerful resource.The IHFD has a clear focus on driving...

Introduction: Saliva represents a less invasive alternative to nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection. SalivaDirect is a nucleic acid extraction-free method for detecting SARS-CoV2 in saliva specimens. Studies evaluating the concordance of gold standard NPS and newly developed SalivaDirect protocols are limited. The aim of our study was to assess SalivaDirect as an alternative method for COVID-19 testing. Methods: Matching NPS and saliva samples were analysed from a cohort...

Active overseas recruitment efforts have attracted large numbers of migrant nurses into the Irish health system. However, it will be Ireland’s ability to retain these nurses that will determine the long-term effectiveness of this workforce strategy. This is a key consideration both for individual employers and at national policy level, given the extent of Ireland’s reliance upon migrant nurses. There is recognition internationally that poor support structures in the host country may encourage migrant nurses...

This report is testament to the commitment of all the participating hospitals to the Irish Hip Fracture Database (IHFD) and the focus on providing hip fracture patients with care that is aligned to international best practice standards. The report also highlights the continuing variability in all standards at hospital level. The IHFD allows hospitals and hospital groups to measure their care at hospital, inter-hospital and national levels. This year, the 2017 IHFD report marks a...

This report is testament to the commitment of all the participating hospitals to the Irish Hip Fracture Database (IHFD) and the focus on providing hip fracture patients with care that is aligned to international best practice standards. The report also highlights the continuing variability in all standards at hospital level. The IHFD allows hospitals and hospital groups to measure their care at hospital, inter-hospital and national levels. This year, the 2017 IHFD report marks a...