Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety最新文献

Background

Health care providers, particularly nursing staff, are at risk of physical or emotional abuse from patients. This abuse has been associated with increased use of physical and pharmacological restraints on patients, poor patient outcomes, high staff turnover, and reduced job satisfaction.

Methods

In this study, a multidisciplinary team at Tufts Medical Center implemented the Brøset Violence Checklist (BVC), a screening tool administered by nurses to identify patients displaying agitated behavior. Patients who scored high on the BVC received a psychiatry consultation, followed by assessments and recommendations. This tool was implemented in an inpatient medical setting in conjunction with a one-hour de-escalation training led by nursing and Public Safety. The intervention design was executed through a series of three distinct Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles.

Results

This study measured the number of BVCs completed and their scores, the number of psychiatric consults placed, the number of calls to Public Safety, the number of staff assaults, nursing restraint use, and staff satisfaction. During the study period, restraint use decreased 17.6% from baseline mean and calls to Public Safety decreased 60.0% from baseline mean. In the staff survey, nursing staff reported feeling safer at work and feeling better equipped to care for agitated patients.

Conclusion

The BVC is an effective, low-cost tool to proactively identify patients displaying agitated or aggressive behavior. Simple algorithms for next steps in interventions and training help to mitigate risk and increase feelings of safety among staff. Regular psychiatric rounding and the identification of champions were key components in a successful implementation.

Background

There is a lack of framework to incorporate equity into event analysis. This quality improvement initiative involved the development of equity tools that were introduced in a two-hour interactive, case-based training across 11 acute care facilities at the largest municipal health care system in the United States. A pre and post survey (which included analysis of a clinical vignette) was also conducted to assess for knowledge and comfort embedding equity in patient safety event analysis, and to measure discomfort or distress during the training. A separate assessment was used to evaluate the tools.

Equity Tools

A visual aid, the Patient Equity Wheel, was created to facilitate more comprehensive and robust health equity discussions by compiling a comprehensive list of equity categories, including internal, external, and organizational dimensions of equity. The Wheel was designed for use during each phase of event analysis. An Embedding Equity in Root Cause Analysis Worksheet was developed to aid in assessing considerations of equitable care in the investigation process and includes questions to ask staff to further assess bias or equitable care factors.

Initiative Outcome and Key Insights

Participant knowledge and level of comfort increased after training. The most commonly unrecognized categories of bias were Training/Competencies, Structural Workflow, and Culture/Norms. Most participants responded that they had no discomfort or distress during the training. Post-training feedback noted that the tools were being used across the system in various stages of event analysis and have been reported to improve health equity conversations.

Background

INFORM (Improving Nursing Home Care through Feedback on Performance Data) was a research intervention that equipped nursing home managers with skills to conduct local improvement projects and supported them in improving performance through modifiable elements in their units. Prior reports have found positive and sustained outcomes from INFORM intervention. In this article, the authors report findings from a formative service evaluation of INFORM as modified for implementation in real-world settings.

Methods

INFORM was transformed for real-world implementation with an initial cohort of 26 nursing homes in British Columbia, Canada (INFORM BC). Three stakeholder groups were involved: nursing home teams, an academic team that modified INFORM for implementation, and a BC team that implemented INFORM and coached participating nursing home teams in applying it locally. Service evaluation was conducted drawing on participants from all three stakeholder groups, using convenience sampling, with numbers varying by data source. Using a mixed methods design, outcome data included qualitative and quantitative assessment of surveys, discussions, observations, and a review of documents and resources.

Results

The majority of nursing home teams reported positive outcomes relative to the usefulness and relevance of the initiative for local needs despite a number of operational challenges during implementation. A key factor in their success was combining targeted external support with the opportunity to set goals and measure success locally. Challenges included a lack of time at the nursing home level, COVID-19–related disruptions, and issues with role clarity and alignment of expectations among the academic and BC teams.

Conclusion

INFORM BC advanced the processes of change planning and transferable learning among nursing home managers and their local teams. Success was facilitated externally but defined and achieved locally. Future iterations should probe outcome sustainability and how nursing home teams adapt the INFORM approach in practice.

Objective

This study was conducted to determine if there were racial/ethnic disparities in pain assessment and management from labor throughout the postpartum period.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of all births from January 2019 to December 2021 in a single urban, quaternary care hospital, excluding patients with hysterectomy, ICU stay, transfusion of more than 3 units of packed red blood cells, general anesthesia, or evidence of a substance abuse disorder. We characterized and compared patterns of antepartum and postpartum pain assessments, epidural use, pain scores, and postpartum pain management by racial/ethnic group with bivariable analyses. Multivariable regression was performed to test for an association between race/ethnicity and amount of opioid pain medication in milligram equivalent units, stratified by delivery mode.

Results

There were 18,085 births between 2019 and 2021 with available race/ethnicity data. Of these, 58.3% were white, 15.0% were Hispanic, 11.9% were Asian, 7.4% were Black, and the remaining 7.4% were classified as Other/Declined. There were no significant differences by race/ethnicity in the number of antepartum or postpartum pain assessments or the proportion of patients who received epidural analgesia. Black and Hispanic patients reported the highest maximum postpartum pain scores after vaginal and cesarean birth compared to white and Asian patients. However, Black and Hispanic patients received lower daily doses of opioid medications than white patients, regardless of delivery mode. After adjusting for patient factors and non-opioid medication dosages, all other racial/ethnic groups received less opioid medication than white patients.

Conclusion

Inequities were found in postpartum pain treatment, including among patients reporting the highest pain levels.

Background

Quality improvement (QI) programs require significant financial investment. The authors evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a physician-led, performance-incentivized, QI intervention that increased appropriate peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) use.

Methods

The authors used an economic evaluation from a health care sector perspective. Implementation costs included incentive payments to hospitals and costs for data abstractors and the coordinating center. Effectiveness was calculated from propensity score-matched observations across two time periods for complications (venous thromboembolism [VTE], central line–associated bloodstream infection [CLABSI], and catheter occlusion): preintervention period (January 2015 through December 2016) and intervention period (January 2017 through December 2021). Cost-effectiveness was presented as the cost-offset per averted complication, reflecting the health care costs avoided due to having lower complication rates.

Results

Across 35 hospitals, this study sampled 17,418 PICCs placed preintervention and 26,004 placed during the intervention period. PICC complications decreased significantly following the intervention. CLABSIs decreased from 2.1% to 1.5%, VTEs from 3.2% to 2.3%, and catheter occlusions from 10.8% to 7.0% (all p < 0.01). Estimated number of complications prevented included 871 CLABSIs, 2,535 VTEs, and 8,743 catheter occlusions. Project implementation costs were $31.8 million, and the cost-offset related to avoided complications was $64.4 million. Each participating hospital averaged $932,073 in cost-offset over seven years, and the average cost-offset per complication averted was $2,614 (95% CI [confidence interval] $2,314–$3,003).

Conclusion

A large-scale, multihospital QI initiative to improve appropriate PICC use yielded substantial return on investment from cost-offset of prevented complications.

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