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Increasing Timely Family Meetings in Neonatal Intensive Care: A Quality Improvement Project.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:Timely multidisciplinary family meetings (TMFMs) promote shared decision-making. Despite guidelines that recommend meetings for all patients with serious illness, our NICU TMFM rate was 10%. In this study, we aimed to document a meeting within 5 days of hospitalization for 50% of all new NICU patients hospitalized for ?5 days within 1 year of introducing interventions. METHODS:A multidisciplinary improvement team used the Model for Improvement to achieve the study aim by targeting key drivers of change. To make meetings easier, we introduced scheduling and documentation tools. To make meetings more customary, we provided education and reminders to professionals. We defined a TMFM as a documented discussion between a parent, a neonatologist, and a nonphysician professional, such as a nurse, within 5 days of hospitalization. We used statistical process control charts to assess the monthly proportion of new patients with a TMFM. In surveys and feedback sessions, family and clinician satisfaction with communication was assessed. RESULTS:TMFM documentation tripled during the intervention year when compared with the previous year (28 of 267 [10.5%] vs 70 of 224 [31.3%]; P < .001), revealing evidence of special cause variation on the statistical process control chart. Clinicians predominantly used ad hoc documentation instead of our scheduling and documentation tools. Parental satisfaction with care and communication did not vary significantly after interventions. Most physicians reported satisfaction with meetings. Nurses reported feeling empowered to request meetings. CONCLUSIONS:An academic, quaternary-care NICU tripled TMFM documentation after introducing a multifaceted intervention. This improvement may represent changes in professionals' attitudes about providing and documenting family meetings.

SUBMITTER: Sabnis A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7104716 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Increasing Timely Family Meetings in Neonatal Intensive Care: A Quality Improvement Project.

Sabnis Animesh A Hagen Eunice E Tarn Derjung M DM Zeltzer Lonnie L

Hospital pediatrics 20181011 11

<h4>Objectives</h4>Timely multidisciplinary family meetings (TMFMs) promote shared decision-making. Despite guidelines that recommend meetings for all patients with serious illness, our NICU TMFM rate was 10%. In this study, we aimed to document a meeting within 5 days of hospitalization for 50% of all new NICU patients hospitalized for ≥5 days within 1 year of introducing interventions.<h4>Methods</h4>A multidisciplinary improvement team used the Model for Improvement to achieve the study aim b ...[more]

PMID: 30309897

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Project description:Importance:Professional guidelines have identified key communication skills for shared decision-making for critically ill patients, but it is unclear how intensivists interpret and implement them. Objective:To compare the self-evaluations of intensivists reviewing transcripts of their own simulated intensive care unit family meetings with the evaluations of trained expert colleagues. Design, Setting, and Participants:A posttrial web-based survey of intensivists was conducted between January and March 2019. Intensivists reviewed transcripts of simulated intensive care unit family meetings in which they participated in a previous trial from October 2016 to November 2017. In the follow-up survey, participants identified if and how they performed key elements of shared decision-making for an intensive care unit patient at high risk of death. Transcript texts that intensivists self-identified as examples of key communication skills recommended by their professional society's policy on shared decision-making were categorized. Main Outcomes and Measures:Comparison of the evaluations of 2 blinded nonparticipant intensivist colleagues with the self-reported responses of the intensivists. Results:Of 116 eligible intensivists, 76 (66%) completed the follow-up survey (mean [SD] respondent age was 43.1 [8.1] years; 72% were male). Sixty-one of 76 intensivists reported conveying prognosis; however, blinded colleagues who reviewed the deidentified transcripts were less likely to report that prognosis had been conveyed than intensivists reviewing their own transcripts (42 of 61; odds ratio, 0.10; 95% CI, 0.01-0.44; P < .001). When reviewing their own transcript, intensivists reported presenting many choices, with the most common choice being code status. They also provided a variety of recommendations, with the most common being to continue the current treatment plan. Thirty-three participants (43%) reported that they offered care focused on comfort, but blinded colleagues rated only 1 (4%) as explaining this option in a clear manner. Conclusions and Relevance:In this study, guidelines for shared decision-making and end of life care were interpreted by intensivists in disparate ways. In the absence of training or personalized feedback, self-assessment of communication skills may not be interpreted consistently.

Project description:BackgroundClinician utilization of practice guidelines can reduce inappropriate opioid prescribing and harm in chronic non-cancer pain; yet, implementation of "opioid guidelines" is subpar. We hypothesized that a multi-component quality improvement (QI) augmentation of "routine" system-level implementation efforts would increase clinician adherence to the opioid guideline-driven policy recommendations.MethodsOpioid policy was implemented system-wide in 26 primary care clinics. A convenience sample of 9 clinics received the QI augmentation (one-hour academic detailing; 2 online educational modules; 4-6 monthly one-hour practice facilitation sessions) in this non-randomized stepped-wedge QI project. The QI participants were volunteer clinic staff. The target patient population was adults with chronic non-cancer pain treated with long-term opioids. The outcomes included the clinic-level percentage of target patients with a current treatment agreement (primary outcome), rates of opioid-benzodiazepine co-prescribing, urine drug testing, depression and opioid misuse risk screening, and prescription drug monitoring database check; additional measures included daily morphine-equivalent dose (MED), and the percentages of all target patients and patients prescribed ≥90 mg/day MED. T-test, mixed-regression and stepped-wedge-based analyses evaluated the QI impact, with significance and effect size assessed with two-tailed p < 0.05, 95% confidence intervals and/or Cohen's d.ResultsTwo-hundred-fifteen QI participants, a subset of clinical staff, received at least one QI component; 1255 patients in the QI and 1632 patients in the 17 comparison clinics were prescribed long-term opioids. At baseline, more QI than comparison clinic patients were screened for depression (8.1% vs 1.1%, p = 0.019) and prescribed ≥90 mg/day MED (23.0% vs 15.5%, p = 0.038). The stepped-wedge analysis did not show statistically significant changes in outcomes in the QI clinics, when accounting for the comparison clinics' trends. The Cohen's d values favored the QI clinics in all outcomes except opioid-benzodiazepine co-prescribing. Subgroup analysis showed that patients prescribed ≥90 mg/day MED in the QI compared to comparison clinics improved urine drug screening rates (38.8% vs 19.1%, p = 0.02), but not other outcomes (p ≥ 0.05).ConclusionsAugmenting routine policy implementation with targeted QI intervention, delivered to volunteer clinic staff, did not additionally improve clinic-level, opioid guideline-concordant care metrics. However, the observed effect sizes suggested this approach may be effective, especially in higher-risk patients, if broadly implemented.Trial registrationNot applicable.

Project description:ProblemTen percent of infants born will require admission to a neonatal facility. Coordinated activity to monitor and improve the quality of care for this high risk, high cost group of infants is considered a high priority. At the time of initiation of this project no system for collection and analysis of neonatal data existed in Northern Ireland.DesignIn 1994 an ongoing prospective centralised data collection system was implemented to facilitate quality improvement and research in neonatal care. We aim to ascertain if there has been a demonstrable improvement in the quality of care provided since the initiation of this system.SettingAll nine Northern Ireland neonatal intensive care units returned prospectively collected socioeconomic, obstetric and neonatal episode data.Key measures for improvementAchievement of the agreed quality indicators relating to transfer patterns, thermoregulation, antenatal steroid administration, and timing of administration of surfactant during the period 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000 were compared with data for the period 1 April 1994 to 31 March 1996.Strategies for changeMonitoring included audit and annual feedback of timely clear and relevant data where results were provided confidentially as standardised reports, together with anonymised comparisons with other similar sized units. Draft recommendations were made at regional level and units were asked to adopt finalized consensus guidelines at the local level and to implement changes to clinical practice.Effects of changeThe proportion of transfers taking place in utero increased from 26% to 42% and antenatal steroid administration from 68% to 82%. Normothermia on first admission improved from 66% to 71% for inborn infants. The proportion of infants receiving surfactant where the first dose was given within an hour of birth increased from 13% to 66%.Lessons learntA multi-professional regional care network can facilitate the development of agreed standards and a culture of regular evaluation leading to quality improvement.

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Increasing Timely Family Meetings in Neonatal Intensive Care: A Quality Improvement Project.

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Increasing Timely Family Meetings in Neonatal Intensive Care: A Quality Improvement Project.

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