Papers by Simon Horsburgh
Journal of primary health care, 2011
General practitioners (GPs) and patients are key sources of information for investigating primary... more General practitioners (GPs) and patients are key sources of information for investigating primary health care. However, recruiting these into health care studies has been reported to be difficult. This study aimed to determine the recruitment and retention rates of GP practices and patients into a research project in the primary health care setting. All general practices in Dunedin, New Zealand, with three or more practitioners were invited to participate in a study investigating medication adherence. In practices that agreed to participate, 100 patients were recruited from waiting rooms and followed up by telephone over six months. The main outcome measures included recruitment rates of GPs and patients, the level of retention and loss to follow-up of patients over a six-month period, the drop out and reasons for this drop out. Only two of the 15 practices agreed to participate. To recruit 100 patients, 203 people were approached. Reasons for not wanting to participate were recorde...
BMJ open, 2015
To investigate healthcare professional perceptions of local implementation of a national clinical... more To investigate healthcare professional perceptions of local implementation of a national clinical governance policy in New Zealand. Respondent comments written at the end of a national healthcare professional survey designed to assess implementation of core components of the clinical governance policy. The written comments were provided by respondents to a survey distributed to over 41 000 registered healthcare professionals employed in 19 of New Zealand's government-funded District Health Boards. Comments were analysed and categorised within emerging themes. 3205 written comments were received. Five key themes illustrating barriers to clinical governance implementation were found, representing problems with: developing management-clinical relations; clinicians stepping up into clinical governance and leadership activities; interprofessional relations; training needs for governance and leadership; and having insufficient time to get involved. Despite a national policy on clinica...
Social Science Computer Review, 2011
The term e-government describes the use of information and communications technology, particularl... more The term e-government describes the use of information and communications technology, particularly the Internet, for the delivery of public services. As governments invest in e-government, there is only limited knowledge of the extent of public trust in the new electronic modes of delivery; we also know little about whether there is any relationship between trust in government and trust in e-government. This article reports on research designed to probe this issue. Drawing on survey data from Australia and New Zealand, a series of hypotheses are tested pertaining to relationships between public trust in government and e-government, in the use of information and communications technology and trust in e-government, and support for e-government investment and development. Trust in government was found not to be correlated with trust in facets of e-government service provision but was associated with support for e-government investment. More intensive Internet users were more likely to trust e-government services.
BMJ open, 2015
To investigate healthcare professional perceptions of local implementation of a national clinical... more To investigate healthcare professional perceptions of local implementation of a national clinical governance policy in New Zealand. Respondent comments written at the end of a national healthcare professional survey designed to assess implementation of core components of the clinical governance policy. The written comments were provided by respondents to a survey distributed to over 41 000 registered healthcare professionals employed in 19 of New Zealand's government-funded District Health Boards. Comments were analysed and categorised within emerging themes. 3205 written comments were received. Five key themes illustrating barriers to clinical governance implementation were found, representing problems with: developing management-clinical relations; clinicians stepping up into clinical governance and leadership activities; interprofessional relations; training needs for governance and leadership; and having insufficient time to get involved. Despite a national policy on clinica...
BMC health services research, 2014
Clinical governance has become a core component of health policy and services management in many ... more Clinical governance has become a core component of health policy and services management in many countries in recent years. Yet tools for measuring its development are limited. We therefore created the Clinical Governance Development Index (CGDI), aimed to measure implementation of expressed government policy in New Zealand. We developed a survey which was distributed in 2010 and again in 2012 to senior doctors employed in public hospitals. Responses to six survey items were weighted and combined to form the CGDI. Final scores for each of New Zealand's District Health Boards (DHBs) were calculated to compare performances between them as well as over time between the two surveys. New Zealand's overall performance in developing clinical governance improved between the two studies from 46% in 2010 to 54% in 2012 with marked differences by DHB. Statistically significant shifts in performance were evident on all but one CGDI item. The CGDI is a simple yet effective method which p...
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2001
Objectives-To describe work related fatal injuries to agricultural workers in New Zealand to iden... more Objectives-To describe work related fatal injuries to agricultural workers in New Zealand to identify priority areas for further research and injury control measures. Methods-Injury deaths in New Zealanders aged 15-84 inclusive for the period 1985-94 were identified and the coroner's files for these obtained. These files were then reviewed to determine whether the death arose as a result of work activities. Those deaths considered to be work related were coded for information relating to decedent demographics and the circumstances of the fatal injury. Work related deaths from injury occurring in the agricultural production and services to agriculture sectors were analysed. Results-The rate of fatal injuries to male agricultural workers over the study period was 21.2/100 000, with injury deaths in the agricultural sectors accounting for nearly a quarter of all work related fatal injuries in New Zealand in that time. There was no significant decline in fatal injuries to agricultural workers in the study decade. Workers in the 65-84 age bracket were at substantially higher risk of fatal injury than other age groups. Machinery and motor vehicles were commonly associated with fatal injury, with overturns on or next to embankments and slopes being the most frequent scenario. Conclusions-The results of this study highlight fatal injuries in older workers and machinery incidents (particularly tractors overturning) as priority areas for further research into contributing factors and injury control measures. (Occup Environ Med 2001;58:489-495)
Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, 2011
Background: Agricultural workers experience high rates of occupational injury. There is a lack of... more Background: Agricultural workers experience high rates of occupational injury. There is a lack of analytic studies which provide detailed occupational exposure information to inform intervention development.
Clinical Governance: An International Journal, 2015
Aim: This study aimed to identify co-morbidities associated with scleroderma and to describe caus... more Aim: This study aimed to identify co-morbidities associated with scleroderma and to describe causes of mortality using a hospital-based population. Methods: Hospital admissions for newly diagnosed scleroderma patients (cases) and patients with no scleroderma history (controls) were obtained from the Ministry of Health for July 1999 to June 2012. Cases were patients with diagnosis codes (principal or contributing condition) for scleroderma (ICD-10-AM codes M34.0-M34.1 and search of textual diagnosis fields) with no prior history of admissions with scleroderma. Control admissions were matched to case admissions by hospital, sex, age and admission date (+/− two days). Data from the Cancer Registry, Mortality and Births, Deaths and Marriages collections were extracted to identify cancer incidence and causes of mortality. Conditional logistic regression was used to identify co-morbidities or causes of death occurring more often in cases. Results: 432 Cases (3,950 admissions) and 36,451 c...
Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 2014
Journal of Health Organization and Management, 2015
Journal of public health (Oxford, England), Jan 12, 2015
Clinical governance has been promoted in recent years as core to improving patient safety. Effect... more Clinical governance has been promoted in recent years as core to improving patient safety. Effective clinical governance requires partnerships between 'management' and health professionals as well as equal involvement of all professional groups. Professionals must also be willing to engage in clinical governance activities such as working to improve care systems and patient safety. There is limited research into the relative understanding of core clinical governance concepts amongst different professional groups or the extent to which professionals are prepared to take up opportunities to 'change the system'. A 2012 national survey study of health professionals employed in New Zealand health boards sought to probe understanding of and commitment to clinical governance following introduction of a 2009 policy. Respondent data showed only limited policy implementation had occurred. Regression analyses revealed statistically significant differences in perceptions of know...
Journal of primary health care, 2014
The New Zealand medical journal, Jan 18, 2013
Journal of primary health care, 2011
General practitioners (GPs) and patients are key sources of information for investigating primary... more General practitioners (GPs) and patients are key sources of information for investigating primary health care. However, recruiting these into health care studies has been reported to be difficult. This study aimed to determine the recruitment and retention rates of GP practices and patients into a research project in the primary health care setting. All general practices in Dunedin, New Zealand, with three or more practitioners were invited to participate in a study investigating medication adherence. In practices that agreed to participate, 100 patients were recruited from waiting rooms and followed up by telephone over six months. The main outcome measures included recruitment rates of GPs and patients, the level of retention and loss to follow-up of patients over a six-month period, the drop out and reasons for this drop out. Only two of the 15 practices agreed to participate. To recruit 100 patients, 203 people were approached. Reasons for not wanting to participate were recorde...
The New Zealand medical journal, Jan 26, 2001
To determine the number and rates of work-related fatal injuries by employment status, occupation... more To determine the number and rates of work-related fatal injuries by employment status, occupation, industry, age and gender in New Zealand 1985-1994. Potential cases of work-related injury deaths of persons aged 15-84 years were identified from the national electronic mortality data files. Main exclusions were deaths due to suicide and deaths due to motor vehicle crashes. The circumstances of the deaths of each fatal incident meeting inclusion criteria were then reviewed directly from coronial files to determine work-relatedness. The rate of work-related fatal injury in New Zealand was 5.03/100000 workers per year for the study period. There was a significant decline in crude rate over the study period. However, this was in substantial part accounted for by changes in occupation and industry mix. Older workers, male workers, self-employed workers, and particular occupational groups, all had substantially elevated rates. Agricultural and helicopter pilots, forestry workers and fisher...
Health & place, 2014
Geographic access to community pharmacies is an important aspect of access to appropriate medicin... more Geographic access to community pharmacies is an important aspect of access to appropriate medicines. This study aimed to explore changes in the number and location of pharmacies in New Zealand and determine whether some populations have poor geographical access to pharmacies. Pharmacy numbers in New Zealand have been declining since the mid-1980s, and, adjusted for population growth, there are now only half the number there was in 1965. While the urbanisation of pharmacies has been matched by loss of population in rural areas, the loss of pharmacies from smaller rural towns leaves many people with poor access to pharmacy services.
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Papers by Simon Horsburgh