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Item Association Between Hospital-Acquired Harm Outcomes and Membership in a National Patient Safety Collaborative(American Medical Association, 2022) Coffey, Maitreya; Marino, Miguel; Lyren, Anne; Purcell, David; Hoffman, James M.; Brilli, Richard; Muething, Stephen; Hyman, Daniel; Saysana, Michele; Sharek, Paul J.; Pediatrics, School of MedicineImportance: Hospital engagement networks supported by the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Partnership for Patients program have reported significant reductions in hospital-acquired harm, but methodological limitations and lack of peer review have led to persistent questions about the effectiveness of this approach. Objective: To evaluate associations between membership in Children's Hospitals' Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS), a federally funded hospital engagement network, and hospital-acquired harm using standardized definitions and secular trend adjustment. Design, setting, and participants: This prospective hospital cohort study included 99 children's hospitals. Using interrupted time series analyses with staggered intervention introduction, immediate and postimplementation changes in hospital-acquired harm rates were analyzed, with adjustment for preexisting secular trends. Outcomes were further evaluated by early-adopting (n = 73) and late-adopting (n = 26) cohorts. Exposures: Hospitals implemented harm prevention bundles, reported outcomes and bundle compliance using standard definitions to the network monthly, participated in learning events, and implemented a broad safety culture program. Hospitals received regular reports on their comparative performance. Main outcomes and measures: Outcomes for 8 hospital-acquired conditions were evaluated over 1 year before and 3 years after intervention. Results: In total, 99 hospitals met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. A total of 73 were considered part of the early-adopting cohort (joined between 2012-2013) and 26 were considered part of the late-adopting cohort (joined between 2014-2016). A total of 42 hospitals were freestanding children's hospitals, and 57 were children's hospitals within hospital or health systems. The implementation of SPS was associated with an improvement in hospital-acquired condition rates in 3 of the 8 conditions after accounting for secular trends. Membership in the SPS was associated with an immediate reduction in central catheter-associated bloodstream infections (coefficient = -0.152; 95% CI, -0.213 to -0.019) and falls of moderate or greater severity (coefficient = -0.331; 95% CI, -0.594 to -0.069). The implementation of the SPS was associated with a reduction in the monthly rate of adverse drug events (coefficient = -0.021; 95% CI, -0.034 to -0.008) in the post-SPS period. The study team observed larger decreases for the early-adopting cohort compared with the late-adopting cohort. Conclusions and relevance: Through the application of rigorous methods (standard definitions and longitudinal time series analysis with adjustment for secular trends), this study provides a more thorough analysis of the association between the Partnership for Patients hospital engagement network model and reductions in hospital-acquired conditions. These findings strengthen previous claims of an association between this model and improvement. However, inconsistent observations across hospital-acquired conditions when adjusted for secular trends suggests that some caution regarding attributing all effects observed to this model is warranted.Item Billing by residents and attending physicians in family medicine: the effects of the provider, patient, and visit factors(BMC, 2018-06-13) Al Achkar, Morhaf; Kengeri-Srikantiah, Seema; Yamane, Biniyam M.; Villasmil, Jomil; Busha, Michael E.; Gebke, Kevin B.; Family Medicine, School of MedicineBACKGROUND: Medical billing and coding are critical components of residency programs since they determine the revenues and vitality of residencies. It has been suggested that residents are less likely to bill higher evaluation and management (E/M) codes compared with attending physicians. The purpose of this study is to assess the variation in billing patterns between residents and attending physicians, considering provider, patient, and visit characteristics. METHOD: A retrospective cohort study of all established outpatient visits at a family medicine residency clinic over a 5-year period was performed. We employed the logistic regression methodology to identify residents' and attending physicians' variations in coding E/M service levels. We also employed Poisson regression to test the sensitivity of our result. RESULTS: Between January 5, 2009 and September 25, 2015, 98,601 visits to 116 residents and 18 attending physicians were reviewed. After adjusting for provider, patient, and visit characteristics, residents billed higher E/M codes less often compared with attending physicians for comparable visits. In comparison with attending physicians, the odds ratios for billing higher E/M codes were 0.58 (p = 0.01), 0.56 (p = 0.01), and 0.63 (p = 0.01) for the third, second, and first years of postgraduate training, respectively. In addition to the main factors of patient age, medical conditions, and number of addressed problems, the gender of the provider was also implicated in the billing variations. CONCLUSION: Residents are less likely to bill higher E/M codes than attending physicians are for similar visits. While these variations are known to contribute to lost revenues, further studies are required to explore their effect on patient care in relation to attendings' direct involvement in higher E/M-coded versus their indirect involvement in lower E/M-coded visits.Item Care Coordination Strategies and Barriers during Medication Safety Incidents: a Qualitative, Cognitive Task Analysis(Springer, 2021) Russ-Jara, Alissa L.; Luckhurst, Cherie L.; Dismore, Rachel A.; Arthur, Karen J.; Ifeachor, Amanda P.; Militello, Laura G.; Glassman, Peter A.; Zillich, Alan J.; Weiner, Michael; Medicine, School of MedicineBackground: Medication errors are prevalent in healthcare institutions worldwide, often arising from difficulties in care coordination among primary care providers, specialists, and pharmacists. Greater knowledge about care coordination surrounding medication safety incidents can inform efforts to improve patient safety. Objectives: To identify strategies that hospital and outpatient healthcare professionals (HCPs) use, and barriers encountered, when they coordinate care during a medication safety incident involving an adverse drug reaction, drug-drug interaction, or drug-renal concern. Design: We asked HCPs to complete a form whenever they encountered these incidents and intervened to prevent or mitigate patient harm. We stratified incidents across HCP roles and incident categories to conduct follow-up cognitive task analysis interviews with HCPs. Participants: We invited all physicians and pharmacists working in inpatient or outpatient care at a tertiary Veterans Affairs Medical Center. We examined 24 incidents: 12 from physicians and 12 from pharmacists, with a total of 8 incidents per category. Approach: Interviews were transcribed and analyzed via a two-stage inductive, qualitative analysis. In stage 1, we analyzed each incident to identify decision requirements. In stage 2, we analyzed results across incidents to identify emergent themes. Key results: Most incidents (19, 79%) were from outpatient care. HCPs relied on four main strategies to coordinate care: cognitive decentering; collaborative decision-making; back-up behaviors; and contingency planning. HCPs encountered four main barriers: role ambiguity and constraints, breakdowns (e.g., delays) in care, challenges related to the electronic health record, and factors that increased coordination complexity. Each strategy and barrier occurred across all incident categories and HCP groups. Pharmacists went to extra effort to ensure safety plans were implemented. Conclusions: Similar strategies and barriers were evident across HCP groups and incident types. Strategies for enhancing patient safety may be strengthened by deliberate organizational support. Some barriers could be addressed by improving work systems.Item Content counts, but context makes the difference in developing expertise: a qualitative study of how residents learn end of shift handoffs(BMC, 2018-11-03) Rattray, Nicholas A.; Ebright, Patricia; Flanagan, Mindy E.; Militello, Laura G.; Barach, Paul; Franks, Zamal; Rehman, Shakaib U.; Gordon, Howard S.; Frankel, Richard M.; Anthropology, School of Liberal ArtsBACKGROUND: Handoff education is both formal and informal and varies widely across medical school and residency training programs. Despite many efforts to improve clinical handoffs, little evidence has shown meaningful improvement. The objective of this study was to identify residents' perspectives and develop a deeper understanding on the necessary training to conduct safe and effective patient handoffs. METHODS: A qualitative study focused on the analysis of cognitive task interviews targeting end-of-shift handoff experiences with 35 residents from three geographically dispersed VA facilities. The interview data were analyzed using an iterative, consensus-based team approach. Researchers discussed and agreed on code definitions and corresponding case examples. Grounded theory was used to analyze the transcripts. RESULTS: Although some residents report receiving formal training in conducting handoffs (e.g., medical school coursework, resident boot camp/workshops, and handoff debriefing), many residents reported that they were only partially prepared for enacting them as interns. Experiential, practice-based learning (i.e., giving handoffs, covering night shift to match common issues to handoff content) was identified as the most suited and beneficial for delivering effective handoff training. Six skills were described as critical to learning effective handoffs: identifying pertinent information, providing anticipatory guidance, applying acquired clinical knowledge, being concise, incorporating delivery strategies, and appreciating the styles/preferences of handoff recipients. CONCLUSIONS: Residents identified the immersive performance and the experience of covering night shifts as the most important aspects of learning to execute effective handoffs. Formal education alone can miss the critical role of real-time sense-making throughout the process of handing off from one trainee to another. Interventions targeting senior resident mentoring and night shift could positively influence the cognitive and performance capacity for safe, effective handoffs.Item Daily Situational Brief, February 6, 2015(MESH Coalition, 2015-02-06) MESH CoalitionItem Daily Situational Brief, February 6, 2015(MESH Coalition, 2/6/2015) MESH CoalitionItem Development of the Barriers to Error Disclosure Assessment Tool(Wolters Kluwer, 2017-06-30) Welsh, Darlene; Zephyr, Dominique; Pfeifle, Andrea L.; Carr, Douglas E.; Fink III, Joseph L.; Jones, Mandy; Surgery, School of MedicineOBJECTIVES: An interprofessional group of health colleges' faculty created and piloted the Barriers to Error Disclosure Assessment tool as an instrument to measure barriers to medical error disclosure among health care providers. METHODS: A review of the literature guided the creation of items describing influences on the decision to disclose a medical error. Local and national experts in error disclosure used a modified Delphi process to gain consensus on the items included in the pilot. After receiving university institutional review board approval, researchers distributed the tool to a convenience sample of physicians (n = 19), pharmacists (n = 20), and nurses (n = 20) from an academic medical center. Means and SDs were used to describe the sample. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to examine test-retest correspondence between the continuous items on the scale. Factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to determine factor loadings and examine internal consistency reliability. Cronbach α coefficients were calculated during initial and subsequent administrations to assess test-retest reliability. RESULTS: After omitting 2 items with intraclass correlation coefficient of less than 0.40, intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.43 to 0.70, indicating fair to good test-retest correspondence between the continuous items on the final draft. Factor analysis revealed the following factors during the initial administration: confidence and knowledge barriers, institutional barriers, psychological barriers, and financial concern barriers to medical error disclosure. α Coefficients of 0.85 to 0.93 at time 1 and 0.82 to 0.95 at time 2 supported test-retest reliability. CONCLUSIONS: The final version of the 31-item tool can be used to measure perceptions about abilities for disclosing, impressions regarding institutional policies and climate, and specific barriers that inhibit disclosure by health care providers. Preliminary evidence supports the tool's validity and reliability for measuring disclosure variables.Item Empowering telemetry technicians and enhancing communication to improve in-hospital cardiac arrest survival(BMJ, 2023) McCoy, Cody; Keshvani, Neil; Warsi, Maryam; Brown, L. Steven; Girod, Carlos; Chu, Eugene S.; Hegde, Anita A.; Medicine, School of MedicineDelays in treatment of in-hospital cardiac arrests (IHCAs) are associated with worsened survival. We sought to assess the impact of a bundled intervention on IHCA survival in patients on centralised telemetry. A retrospective quality improvement study was performed of a bundled intervention which incorporated (1) a telemetry hotline for telemetry technicians to reach nursing staff; (2) empowerment of telemetry technicians to directly activate the IHCA response team and (3) a standardised escalation system for automated critical alerts within the nursing mobile phone system. In the 4-year study period, there were 75 IHCAs, including 20 preintervention and 55 postintervention. Cox proportional hazard regression predicts postintervention individuals have a 74% reduced the risk of death (HR 0.26, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.84) during a code and a 55% reduced risk of death (HR 0.45, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.89) prior to hospital discharge. Overall code survival improved from 60.0% to 83.6% (p=0.031) with an improvement in ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) code survival from 50.0% to 100.0% (p=0.035). There was no difference in non-telemetry code survival preintervention and postintervention (71.4% vs 71.3%, p=0.999). The bundled intervention, including improved communication between telemetry technicians and nurses as well as empowerment of telemetry technicians to directly activate the IHCA response team, may improve IHCA survival, specifically for VT/VF arrests.Item Implementation of a Quality and Patient Safety Curriculum for Pathology Residency Training(Elsevier, 2021-03-18) Sapatnekar, Suneeti; Demkowicz, Ryan; Chute, Deborah J.; Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of MedicineQuality and Patient Safety education for resident physicians is necessary to prepare them for independent practice and to meet accreditation requirements. Integrating such education into the residents' routine work can provide them with valuable practical experience, while advancing the institution's quality priorities. We committed to Quality and Patient Safety education for our pathology residents but found no published program that met their specific needs. To fill this gap in pathology residency education, we designed and implemented a new curriculum that spans the 4-year duration of residency training. Curriculum content was drawn from the pathology milestones, and educational strategies were based on the principles of adult learning. The curriculum was implemented in the 2018 to 19 academic year, and residents were assessed before and after their participation. The residents engaged in several Quality and Patient Safety activities and projects under faculty supervision, and improved their scores on objective assessments (Quality and Patient Safety quiz and in-service examination). Implementation was facilitated by a Quality and Patient Safety chief resident, and the recruitment of faculty with demonstrated Quality and Patient Safety interest. Our comprehensive Quality and Patient Safety curriculum is feasible to implement and can help pathology residents develop the knowledge and skills needed to lead quality initiatives. We believe that the curriculum framework is readily adaptable to other residency programs.Item Navigating Minority and Gender Discrimination, Substance Use Disorder, Financial Distress, and Workplace Politics: Lessons for Work-Life Wellness in Academic Medicine: Part 2 of 3(University of Kansas Libraries, 2023-06-20) Ahmed, Rami; Hartwell, Jennifer L.; Farley, Heather; MacRae, Julia; Rogers, David A.; Lawrence, Elizabeth C.; Brazeau, Chantal Mlr; Park, Eliza M.; Cassidy, Anna; Hartsock, Jane; Holmes, Emily; Schroeder, Kristen; Barach, Paul; Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine