Dataset Information

A Quality Improvement Approach to Reduce Unplanned Extubation in the NICU While Avoiding Sedation and Restraints.

ABSTRACT: The unplanned extubation (UE), a common adverse event in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), may result in airway trauma, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and, in extreme cases, death. As part of the Nationwide Children's Hospital NICU's effort to optimize NICU graduates' neurodevelopmental outcomes, skin-to-skin care of intubated infants is encouraged, while sedation and restraints to prevent UE are strongly discouraged. This project aimed to decrease the UE rate from 1.85 to 1.5 per 100 endotracheal tube (ETT) days.

Methods

The project occurred in a 114-bed, level-IV NICU with approximately 850 admissions per year and 100% outborn infants. A multidisciplinary team began biweekly meetings to review all UE events, later separating these into preventable and nonpreventable. Important ongoing tests of change included assigning a single process owner for UE reporting, ensuring proper ETT securement, and using 2 clinical staff during patient and/or ETT manipulation.

Results

Early in the project, enhanced detection led to an increased rate from 1.85 to 3.26 per 100 ETT days. However, identifying preventable events empowered staff to decrease the frequency to 2.03 per 100 ETT days. In August 2017, an ETT taping method change produced an increase in special causes due to decreased compliance. However, when securement methods were enhanced, noncompliance reversed and is now trending favorably.

Conclusions

Decreasing UE in a neurodevelopmentally friendly unit, which avoids sedation and restraints, is challenging. Using a multidisciplinary quality improvement approach and after appropriately capturing events, we reduced UE, with the highest impact of intervention being ETT securement standardization.

SUBMITTER: Bertoni CB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8487773 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:ImportanceUnplanned extubations (UEs) in children contribute to significant morbidity and mortality, with an arbitrary benchmark target of less than 1 UE per 100 ventilator days. However, there have been no multicenter initiatives to reduce these events.ObjectiveTo determine if a multicenter quality improvement initiative targeting all intubated neonatal and pediatric patients is associated with a reduction in UEs and morbidity associated with UE events.Design, setting, and participantsThis multicenter quality improvement initiative enrolled patients from pediatric, neonatal, and cardiac intensive care units (ICUs) in 43 participating children's hospitals from March 2016 to December 2018. All patients with an endotracheal tube requiring mechanical ventilation were included in the study.InterventionsParticipating hospitals implemented a quality improvement bundle to reduce UEs, which included standardized anatomic reference points and securement methods, protocol for high-risk situations, and multidisciplinary apparent cause analyses.Main outcomes and measuresThe main outcome measures for this study included bundle compliance with each factor tested and UE rates on the center level and on the cohort level.ResultsAmong the 43 children's hospitals, the quality improvement initiative was associated with an aggregate 24.1% reduction in UE events, from a baseline rate of 1.135 UEs per 100 ventilator days to 0.862 UEs per 100 ventilator days. Across ICU settings studied, the pediatric ICU and neonatal ICU demonstrated centerline shifts, with an absolute reduction in events of 20.6% (from a baseline rate of 0.729 UEs per 100 ventilator days to 0.579 UEs per 100 ventilator days) and 17.6% (from a baseline rate of 1.555 UEs per 100 ventilator days to 1.282 UEs per 100 ventilator days), respectively. Most UEs required reintubation within 1 hour (mean of 120 of 206 events per month [58.3%]), followed by UEs that did not require reintubation (mean of 78 of 206 events per month [37.9%]) and UEs that resulted in cardiovascular collapse (mean of 8 of 206 events per month [3.9%]). Cardiovascular collapse events represented the most significant consequence of UE studied, and the collaborative reduced these UE events by 36.6%, from a study baseline rate of 0.041 UEs per 100 ventilator days to 0.026 UEs per 100 ventilator days.Conclusions and relevanceThis multicenter quality improvement initiative was associated with a reduction in UEs across different pediatric populations in diverse settings. A significant reduction in event rate and rate of harm (cardiovascular collapse) was observed, which was sustained over the time course of the intervention. This quality improvement process and UE bundle may be considered standard of care for pediatric hospitals in the future.