Use of a Checklist and Clinical Decision Support Tool Reduces Laboratory Use and Improves Cost (original) (raw)
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Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, 2018
Unnecessary pathology tests performed in intensive care units (ICU) might lead to increased costs of care and potential patient harm due to unnecessary phlebotomy. We hypothesised that a multimodal intervention program could result in a safe and effective reduction in the pathology tests ordered in our ICU. We conducted a single-centre pre- and post-study using multimodal interventions to address commonly ordered routine tests. The study was performed during the same six month period (August to February) over three years: 2012 to 2013 (pre-intervention), 2013 to 2014 (intervention) and 2014 to 2015 (post-intervention). Interventions consisted of staff education, designing new pathology forms, consultant-led pathology test ordering and intensive monitoring for a six-month period. The results of the study showed that there was a net savings of over A$213,000 in the intervention period and A$175,000 in the post-intervention period compared to the pre-intervention period. There was a 28...
American Journal of Hematology, 2007
Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) has the potential for cost containment in critically ill patients through practice standardization and elimination of unnecessary interventions. Previous study demonstrated the beneficial short-term effect of adding a decision support for red blood cell (RBC) transfusion into the hospital CPOE. We evaluated the effect of such intervention on RBC resource utilization during the two-year study period. From the institutional APACHE III database we identified 2,200 patients with anemia, but no active bleeding on admission: 1,100 during a year before and 1,100 during a year after the intervention. The mean number of RBC transfusions per patient decreased from 1.5 ± 1.9 units to 1.3 ± 1.8 units after the intervention (P ¼ 0.045). RBC transfusion cost decreased from 616,442to616,442 to 616,442to556,226 after the intervention. Hospital length of stay and adjusted hospital mortality did not differ before and after protocol implementation. In conclusion, the implementation of an evidenced-based decision support system through a CPOE can decrease RBC transfusion resource utilization in critically ill patients. Am. J. Hematol. 82:631-633, 2007. V V C 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Computerized Physician Order Entry With Decision Support Decreases Blood Transfusions in Children
Pediatrics, 2011
OBJECTIVE: Timely provision of evidence-based recommendations through computerized physician order entry with clinical decision support may improve use of red blood cell transfusions (RBCTs). METHODS: We performed a cohort study with historical controls including inpatients admitted between February 1, 2008, and January 31, 2010. A clinical decision-support alert for RBCTs was constructed by using current evidence. RBCT orders resulted in assessment of the patient's medical record with prescriber notification if parameters were not within recommended ranges. Primary end points included the average pretransfusion hemoglobin level and the rate of RBCTs per patient-day. RESULTS: In total, 3293 control discharges and 3492 study discharges were evaluated. The mean (SD) control pretransfusion hemoglobin level in the PICU was 9.83 (2.63) g/dL (95% confidence interval [CI]: 9.65–10.01) compared with the study value of 8.75 (2.05) g/dL (95% CI: 8.59–8.90) (P < .0001). The wards' c...
Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, 2020
Background Implementation of checklists has been shown to be effective in improving patient safety. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of implementation of a checklist for daily care processes into clinical practice of pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) with limited resources. Methods Prospective before–after study in eight PICUs from China, Congo, Croatia, Fiji, and India after implementation of a daily checklist into the ICU rounds. Results Seven hundred and thirty-five patients from eight centers were enrolled between 2015 and 2017. Baseline stage had 292 patients and post-implementation 443. The ICU length of stay post-implementation decreased significantly [9.4 (4–15.5) vs. 7.3 (3.4–13.4) days, p = 0.01], with a nominal improvement in the hospital length of stay [15.4 (8.4–25) vs. 12.6 (7.5–24.4) days, p = 0.055]. The hospital mortality and ICU mortality between baseline group and post-implementation group did not show a significant difference, 14.4% vs. 11.3%; p...
BMJ Quality Improvement Reports, 2017
Between January and October 2014, Great Ormond Street Hospital Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) was spending an average £23,392 on blood tests per month. Blood tests should be requested based on previous results and the patient's clinical condition, medication and nutritional status. However, more blood tests were being ordered than clinically indicated: an audit in October 2014 showed liver function tests (LFTs) were requested daily on most patients, even with previous normal results. A driver diagram identified three primary drivers for blood test requesting: decision-making, situational awareness and computer-based ordering. Decisionmaking for routine blood tests was the responsibility of the bedside nurses on each night shift. The communication between the nurses and doctors was an identified secondary driver. The project's primary aim was to reduce unnecessary LFTs requests on PICU over 6 months by implementing a blood test request form, a table of common investigations to facilitate and document discussion between the nursing and medical teams. The secondary aims were to reduce other unnecessary blood test requests, including full blood counts (FBC), coagulation screens and CRP. This project was conducted in three phases: construction, testing and implementation of the blood test form. PDSA cycles were used within each phase. Two PICU nurse champions were engaged to provide bedside support, education and feedback. In the 8-month period following implementation, there was a significant sustained reduction in LFTs requests. A similar pattern of sustained reduction also occurred for FBC, coagulation screens and CRP requests. This sustained reduction in blood tests requested equated to a saving in excess of £36,000. This project was successful: the reduction in the number of inappropriate blood tests had clear financial benefit for PICU and reduced blood loss for patients. Early engagement and support from key stakeholders avoided conflict, guaranteed data sharing and aided engagement of bedside nurses.
Transfusion, 2015
BACKGROUND: Two necessary components of a patient blood management program are education regarding evidence-based transfusion guidelines and computerized provider order entry (CPOE) with clinician decision support (CDS). This study examines changes in red blood cell (RBC) utilization associated with each of these two interventions. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We reviewed 5 years of blood utilization data (2009-2013) for 70,118 surgical patients from 10 different specialty services at a tertiary care academic medical center. Three distinct periods were compared: 1) before blood management, 2) education alone, and 3) education plus CPOE. Changes in RBC unit utilization were assessed over the three periods stratified by surgical service. Cost savings were estimated based on RBC acquisition costs. RESULTS: For all surgical services combined, RBC utilization decreased by 16.4% with education alone (p 5 0.001) and then changed very little (2.5% increase) after subsequent addition of CPOE (p 5 0.64). When we compared the period of education plus CPOE to the preblood management period, the overall decrease was 14.3% (p 5 0.008; 2102 fewer RBC units/year, or a cost avoidance of $462,440/year). Services with the highest massive transfusion rates (!10 RBC units) exhibited the least reduction in RBC utilization. CONCLUSIONS: Adding CPOE with CDS after a successful education effort to promote evidence-based transfusion practice did not further reduce RBC utilization. These findings suggest that education is an important and effective component of a patient blood management program and that CPOE algorithms may serve to maintain compliance with evidence-based transfusion guidelines. ABBREVIATIONS: BPA 5 best practice alert; CDS 5 clinician decision support; CPOE 5 computerized provider order entry; OB/GYN 5 obstetrics/gynecology.
Implementing Rounding Checklists in a Pediatric Oncologic Intensive Care Unit
Children
Standardized rounding checklists during multidisciplinary rounds (MDR) can reduce medical errors and decrease length of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and hospital stay. We added a standardized process for MDR in our oncologic PICU. Our study was a quality improvement initiative, utilizing a four-stage Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) model to standardize MDR in our PICU over 3 months, from January 2020 to March 2020. We distributed surveys to PICU RNs to assess their understanding regarding communication during MDR. We created a standardized rounding checklist that addressed key elements during MDR. Safety event reports before and after implementation of our initiative were retrospectively reviewed to assess our initiative’s impact on safety events. Our intervention increased standardization of PICU MDR from 0% to 70% over three months, from January 2020 to March 2020. We sustained a rate of zero for CLABSI, CAUTI, and VAP during the 12-month period prior to, during, and post-interve...
BMJ Quality Improvement Reports, 2017
Many hospitals deploy Medical Emergency (MET) and Cardiac Arrest teams to improve the management and treatment of patients who become critically ill. In many cases, blood results are key in allowing the clinicians involved in these teams to make definitive management decisions for these patients. Following anecdotal reports that these results were often delayed, we assessed the process of blood tests being reported in emergency calls, identified the key factors causing delays and sought to make improvements. The initial intervention involved implementing a new blood form that specified the nature of the call, the tests required and a contact number for laboratory staff to contact the clinical team with results. We also developed a streamlined process within the laboratory for these samples to be fast-tracked. Successive improvement cycles sought to increase awareness of the project, improve accessibility to the new forms and embed spontaneous practices that contributed to improvement. Results demonstrated an overall reduction in the time taken for blood samples in emergencies to be reported from 130 minutes to 97 minutes. This project demonstrates that using a specific blood request form for emergency calls, and tying this to a specified laboratory process, improves the time taken for these tests to be reported. In addition, the project provides some insight into challenges faced when implementing change in new departments.