Dataset Information

Prompting physicians to address a daily checklist and process of care and clinical outcomes: a single-site study.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

Checklists may reduce errors of omission for critically ill patients.

Objectives

To determine whether prompting to use a checklist improves process of care and clinical outcomes.

Methods

We conducted a cohort study in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) of a tertiary care university hospital. Patients admitted to either of two independent MICU teams were included. Intervention team physicians were prompted to address six parameters from a daily rounding checklist if overlooked during morning work rounds. The second team (control) used the identical checklist without prompting.

Measurements and main results

One hundred and forty prompted group patients were compared with 125 control and 1,283 preintervention patients. Compared with control, prompting increased median ventilator-free duration, decreased empirical antibiotic and central venous catheter duration, and increased rates of deep vein thrombosis and stress ulcer prophylaxis. Prompted group patients had lower risk-adjusted ICU mortality compared with the control group (odds ratio, 0.36; 95% confidence interval, 0.13-0.96; P = 0.041) and lower hospital mortality compared with the control group (10.0 vs. 20.8%; P = 0.014), which remained significant after risk adjustment (odds ratio, 0.34; 95% confidence interval, 0.15-0.76; P = 0.008). Observed-to-predicted ICU length of stay was lower in the prompted group compared with control (0.59 vs. 0.87; P = 0.02). Checklist availability alone did not improve mortality or length of stay compared with preintervention patients.

Conclusions

In this single-site, preliminary study, checklist-based prompting improved multiple processes of care, and may have improved mortality and length of stay, compared with a stand-alone checklist. The manner in which checklists are implemented is of great consequence in the care of critically ill patients.

SUBMITTER: Weiss CH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3208596 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Prompting physicians to address a daily checklist and process of care and clinical outcomes: a single-site study.

Weiss Curtis H CH Moazed Farzad F McEvoy Colleen A CA Singer Benjamin D BD Szleifer Igal I Amaral Luís A N LA Kwasny Mary M Watts Charles M CM Persell Stephen D SD Baker David W DW Sznajder Jacob I JI Wunderink Richard G RG

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 20110526 6

<h4>Rationale</h4>Checklists may reduce errors of omission for critically ill patients.<h4>Objectives</h4>To determine whether prompting to use a checklist improves process of care and clinical outcomes.<h4>Methods</h4>We conducted a cohort study in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) of a tertiary care university hospital. Patients admitted to either of two independent MICU teams were included. Intervention team physicians were prompted to address six parameters from a daily rounding checkli ...[more]

PMID: 21616996

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Project description:Inefficient processes of care delivery during acute resuscitation can compromise the "Golden Hour," the time when quick interventions can rapidly determine the course of the patient's outcome. Checklists have been shown to be an effective tool for standardizing care models. We developed a novel electronic tool, the Checklist for Early Recognition and Treatment of Acute Illness (CERTAIN) to facilitate standardized evaluation and treatment approach for acutely decompensating patients. The checklist was enforced by the use of a "prompter," a team member separate from the leader who records and reviews pertinent CERTAIN algorithms and verbalizes these to the team. Our hypothesis was that the CERTAIN model, with the use of the tool and a prompter, can improve clinician performance and satisfaction in the evaluation of acute decompensating patients in a simulated environment.Volunteer clinicians with valid adult cardiac life support (ACLS) certification were invited to test the CERTAIN model in a high-fidelity simulation center. The first session was used to establish a baseline evaluation in a standard clinical resuscitation scenario. Each subject then underwent online training before returning to a simulation center for a live didactic lecture, software knowledge assessment, and practice scenarios. Each subject was then evaluated on a scenario with a similar content to the baseline. All subjects took a post-experience satisfaction survey. Video recordings of the pre-and post-test sessions were evaluated using a validated method by two blinded reviewers.Eighteen clinicians completed baseline and post-education sessions. CERTAIN prompting was associated with reduced omissions of critical tasks (46 to 32%, p?<?0.01) and 12 out of 14 general assessment tasks were completed in a more timely manner. The post-test survey indicated that 72% subjects felt better prepared during an emergency scenario using the CERTAIN model and 85% would want to be treated with the CERTAIN if they were critically ill.Prompting with electronic checklist improves clinicians' performance and satisfaction when dealing with medical emergencies in high-fidelity simulation environment.

Project description:ObjectivesTo determine whether face-to-face prompting of critical care physicians reduces empirical antibiotic utilization compared to an unprompted electronic checklist embedded within the electronic health record.DesignRandom allocation design.SettingMedical ICU with high-intensity intensivist coverage at a tertiary care urban medical center.PatientsTwo hundred ninety-six critically ill patients treated with at least 1 day of empirical antibiotics.InterventionsFor one medical ICU team, face-to-face prompting of critical care physicians if they did not address empirical antibiotic utilization during a patient's daily rounds. On a separate medical ICU team, attendings and fellows were trained once to complete an electronic health record-embedded checklist daily for each patient, including a question asking whether listed empirical antibiotics could be discontinued.Measurements and main resultsPrompting led to a more than four-fold increase in discontinuing or narrowing of empirical antibiotics compared to use of the electronic checklist. Prompted group patients had a lower proportion of patient-days on which empirical antibiotics were administered compared to electronic checklist group patients (63.1% vs 70.0%, p = 0.002). Mean proportion of antibiotic-days on which empirical antibiotics were used was also lower in the prompted group, although not statistically significant (0.78 [0.27] vs 0.83 [0.27], p = 0.093). Each additional day of empirical antibiotics predicted higher risk-adjusted mortality (odds ratio, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.05-1.23). Risk-adjusted ICU length of stay and hospital mortality were not significantly different between the two groups.ConclusionsFace-to-face prompting was superior to an unprompted electronic health record-based checklist at reducing empirical antibiotic utilization. Sustained culture change may have contributed to the electronic checklist having similar empirical antibiotic utilization to a prompted group in the same medical ICU 2 years prior. Future studies should investigate the integration of an automated prompting mechanism with a more generalizable electronic health record-based checklist.

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Project description:BACKGROUND: We investigated the association of process of care measures with adverse limb and systemic events in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with PAD, as defined by an ankle-brachial index (ABI) <0.9. The index date was defined as the date, during 1995 to 1998, when the patient was seen in the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center noninvasive vascular laboratory and found to have PAD. We conducted a chart review for process of care variables starting 3 years before the index date and ending at the time of the first event or the final visit (December 31, 2001), whichever occurred first. We examined the association between PAD process of care measures, including risk factor control, and prescribing of medication, with time of the patient's first major limb event or death. RESULTS: Of the 796 patients (mean age, 65 +/- 9.9 years), 230 (28.9% experienced an adverse limb event (136 lower-extremity bypass, 94 lower-extremity amputation), and 354 (44.5%) died. Of the patients who died, 247 died without a preceding limb event. Glucose control was protective against death or a limb event with a hazard ratio (HR) of 0.74 (95% confidence limits [CL] 0.60, 0.91, P = 0.004). African Americans were at 2.8 (95% CL 1.7, 4.5) times the risk of Whites or Hispanics for an adverse limb event. However, this risk was no longer significant if their glucose was controlled. For process measures, the dispensing of PAD specific medication (HR 1.4, 95% CL 1.1, 1.7) was associated an increased risk for an adverse outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that glucose control is key to reducing the risk for adverse outcomes, particularly limb events in African Americans. Certain process of care measures, as markers of disease severity and disease management, are associated with poor outcomes in patients with PAD. Further work is needed to determine the role of early disease intervention to reduce poor outcomes in patients with PAD.

Project description:Patients admitted to general medicine inpatient services are increasingly cared for by hospital-based physicians rather than their primary care providers (PCPs). This separation of hospital and ambulatory care may result in important care discontinuities after discharge. We sought to determine whether communication between hospital-based physicians and PCPs influences patient outcomes.We approached consecutive patients admitted to general medicine services at six US academic centers from July 2001 to June 2003. A random sample of the PCPs for consented patients was contacted 2 weeks after patient discharge and surveyed about communication with the hospital medical team. Responses were linked with the 30-day composite patient outcomes of mortality, hospital readmission, and emergency department (ED) visits obtained through follow-up telephone survey and National Death Index search. We used hierarchical multi-variable logistic regression to model whether communication with the patient's PCP was associated with the 30-day composite outcome.A total of 1,772 PCPs for 2,336 patients were surveyed with 908 PCPs responses and complete patient follow-up available for 1,078 patients. The PCPs for 834 patients (77%) were aware that their patient had been admitted to the hospital. Of these, direct communication between PCPs and inpatient physicians took place for 194 patients (23%), and a discharge summary was available within 2 weeks of discharge for 347 patients (42%). Within 30 days of discharge, 233 (22%) patients died, were readmitted to the hospital, or visited an ED. In adjusted analyses, no relationship was seen between the composite outcome and direct physician communication (adjusted odds ratio 0.87, 95% confidence interval 0.56 - 1.34), the presence of a discharge summary (0.84, 95% CI 0.57-1.22), or PCP awareness of the index hospitalization (1.08, 95% CI 0.73-1.59).Analysis of communication between PCPs and inpatient medical teams revealed much room for improvement. Although communication during handoffs of care is important, we were not able to find a relationship between several aspects of communication and associated adverse clinical outcomes in this multi-center patient sample.

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Dataset Information

Prompting physicians to address a daily checklist and process of care and clinical outcomes: a single-site study.

Rationale

Objectives

Methods

Measurements and main results

Conclusions

Publications

Prompting physicians to address a daily checklist and process of care and clinical outcomes: a single-site study.

Similar Datasets

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