Christine M. Schwarz

• Dr.scient med. MSc BSc
• Researcher at Medical University of Graz

Background To ensure a safe patient discharge from hospital it is necessary to transfer all relevant information in a discharge summary (DS). The aim of this study was to evaluate a bundle of measures to improve the DS for physicians, nurses and patients. Methods In a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, four different versions of DS (2 ori...

Background Falls are a major problem among adults over 60 years. Multiple preventive measures must be taken. Written information leaflets can support the knowledge transfer and positively influence recall of the information provided. Objective The aim was to ensure usefulness and understandability of the information leaflets on home fall preventio...

Background In hospital medication errors are common. Our aim was to investigate risks of the analogue and digitally-supported medication process and any potential solutions. Methods A mixed methods study including a structured literature search and online questionnaires based on the Delphi method was conducted. First, all risks were structured int...

Background “Speaking up” is considered an important patient safety behaviour. The main idea is to voice patient safety concerns; however, several studies revealed that the organisational culture can be obstructive. In previous studies, we already identified barriers for doctors, nurses and medical students. In the current study, we explore how nurs...

Background: Medication errors are common in hospitals. Our aim was to investigate risks of the analogue and digitally-supported medication use process and potential for solutions. Methods: A mixed-method study including a structured literature search, and questionnaires based on the Delphi method was conducted. To identify major risks, a literature...

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Angehörige von kritisch Kranken auf der Intensivstation („intensive care unit“, ICU) sind in einer herausfordernden Situation: Sie befinden sich häufig in einer existenziellen Krise mit einer großen emotionalen Belastung, gleichzeitig sind sie oftmals aktiv in therapeutische Entscheidungen mit eingebunden. Die Besuchsre...

Was ist ein Methodenpapier?

Was sind die wesentlichen Schritte bei der Entwicklung von guten Gesundheitsinformationen?

Was ist Gesundheitskompetenz?

Background Low health literacy has been associated with poor health outcome and impaired use of healthcare services. The hospital discharge letter represents a key source of medical information for patients and can be used to address the problem of low health literacy. The aim of this project was to develop and evaluate a new, patient-directed, ver...

Introduction Morbidity and mortality conferences (M&MCs) are an instrument for learning from past complications, unexpected follow-ups and deaths in hospitals and are important for improving patient safety. However, there are currently no quantitative data on the implementation of M&MCs in Austria. The aim of the study was to determine the status q...

Rationale and objective The discharge summary (DS) is one of the most important instruments to transmit information to the treating general physician (GP). The objective of this study was to analyse important components of DS, structural characteristics as well as medical and general abbreviations. Method One hundred randomly selected DS from five...

Ob von Ihrer Ärztin oder Ihrem Arzt, aus Magazinen, aus dem Fernsehen, ob Tipps von Familienmitgliedern und Freunden oder aus dem Internet – überall sind Gesundheitsinformationen gegenwärtig. Nicht immer aber sind sie auf Anhieb verständlich und hilfreich. Dieser Praxisratgeber unterstützt Expert*innen im Gesundheitswesen dabei, Gesundheitsinformat...

Critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) have a high risk of developing malnutrition, and this is associated with poorer clinical outcomes. In clinical practice, nutrition, including enteral nutrition (EN), is often not prioritized. Resulting from this, risks and safety issues for patients and healthcare professionals can emerge. Th...

Introduction Low health literacy has been associated with poor health outcome and impaired use of healthcare services. The hospital discharge letter represents a key source of medical information for patients and can be used to address the problem of low health literacy. The aim of this project was to develop and evaluate a new, patient-directed, v...

Objectives The discharge summary (DS) represents one of the most important instruments to ensure a safe patient discharge from the hospital. They sometimes have poor quality in content and often include medical jargon, which the patient and their relatives cannot easily understand. Therefore, many risks for patient safety exist. This study investig...

Aim: Health care-associated infections along with antibiotic resistance are a leading risk for patient safety in intensive care units. Hygienic hand disinfection is still regarded as the most effective, simplest, and most cost-effective measure to reduce health care-associated infections. To improve hand hygiene compliance and to prevent health ca...

Background The medical discharge letter is an important communication tool between hospitals and other healthcare providers. Despite its high status, it often does not meet the desired requirements in everyday clinical practice. Occurring risks create barriers for patients and doctors. This present review summarizes risks of the medical discharge l...

Objective: Primary infection with human herpes virus 6 (mainly HHV-6B) commonly occurs in the first 2 years of life leading to persistence and the possibility of virus reactivation later in life. Consequently, a specific cellular immune response is essential for effective control of virus reactivation. We have studied cell-mediated immune response...

Objective Premature senescence of lymphocytes is a hallmark of inflammatory rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Early T-cell aging affects conventional T-cells but is presumably not limited to this cell population; rather it might also occur in the regulatory T-cells (Tregs) compartment. In RA, Tregs fail to halt aberrant immune r...

CD28- Treg-like cells are not correlated with disease parameters in RA. Graphs (A) correlation of CD28- Treg-like cells with age in HC (blue) and RA patients (red); (B) correlation of CD28- Treg-like cells with disease duration and (C) correlation of CD28- Treg-like cells with DAS28 in RA patients. Correlation between variables was evaluated by the...