Interdisciplinary Quality Improvement Project Increases Vitamin D Supplementation in Infants.

BACKGROUND: American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines recommend 400 IU of vitamin D supplementation daily for certain infants <1 year of age. We aimed to increase the proportion of reported appropriate vitamin D supplementation for infants born at our institution and those who followed up in our resident clinic through 6 months from 49% to 80% over 24 months. METHODS: Our interdisciplinary quality improvement effort included vitamin D medication delivery before nursery discharge and family and staff education. The process measure was the percentage of families discharged from birth hospitalization with vitamin D and teaching. The outcome measure was the percentage of families reporting appropriate vitamin D supplementation at 2-, 4-, and 6-month well child visits. The balancing measure was the percentage of infants discharged from the nursery by 2 pm. Data were displayed on Statistical Process Control p charts and established rules for detecting special causes were applied. RESULTS: Baseline and improvement data were collected for 587 hospital discharges and 220 outpatient encounters. The percentage of families discharged with vitamin D increased from 24.8% to 98% from 2016 to 2018. Percent of families reporting appropriate vitamin D supplementation at well child visits increased from 49% to 89% from 2016 to 2018. Overall, the percentage of discharges by 2 pm remained stable at 60%. CONCLUSION: Bedside medication delivery and education in the newborn nursery improved reported vitamin D supplementation rates in the first 6 months of life. The intervention did not delay newborn hospital discharge.

Addressing Transportation Insecurity Improves Attendance at Posthospitalization Appointments.

BACKGROUND: Transportation influences attendance at posthospitalization appointments (PHAs). In 2017, our pediatric hospital medicine group found that our patients missed 38% of their scheduled PHAs, with several being due to transportation insecurity. To address this, we implemented a quality improvement project to perform inpatient assessment of transportation insecurity and provide mitigation with the goal of improving attendance at PHAs. METHODS: The process measure was the percentage of patients with completed transportation insecurity screening, and the outcome measure was PHA attendance. An interprofessional team performed plan-do-study-act cycles. These included educating staff about the significance of transportation insecurity, its assessment, and documentation; embedding a list of local transportation resources in discharge instructions and coaching families on using these resources; notifying primary care providers of families with transportation insecurity; and auditing PHA attendance. RESULTS: Between July 2018 and December 2019, electronic health record documentation of transportation insecurity assessment among patients on the pediatric hospital medicine service and discharged from the hospital (n = 1731) increased from 1% to 94%, families identified with transportation insecurity increased from 1.2% to 5%, and attendance at PHAs improved for all patients (62%-81%) and for those with transportation insecurity (0%-57%). Our balance measure, proportion of discharges by 2 pm, remained steady at 53%. Plan-do-study-act cycles revealed that emphasizing PHA importance, educating staff about transportation insecurity, and helping families identify and learn to use transportation resources all contributed to improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions implemented during the inpatient stay to assess for and mitigate transportation insecurity led to improvement in pediatric PHA attendance.

Pediatric Patient-Centered Transitions From Hospital to Home: Improving the Discharge Medication Process.

OBJECTIVES: Medications prescribed at hospital discharge can lead to patient harm if there are access barriers or misunderstanding of instructions. Filling prescriptions before discharge can decrease these risks. We aimed to increase the percentage of patients leaving the hospital with new discharge medications in hand to 70% by 18 months. METHODS: We used sequential plan-do-study-act cycles from January 2015 to September 2016. We used statistical process control charts to track process measures, new medications filled before discharge, and rates of bedside delivery with pharmacist teaching to the inpatient pediatric unit. Outcome measures included national patient survey data, collected and displayed quarterly, as well as caregiver understanding, comparing inaccuracy of medication teach-back with and without medications in hand before discharge. RESULTS: Rates of patients leaving the hospital with medications in hand increased from a baseline of 2% to 85% over the study period. Bedside delivery reached 71%. Inaccuracy of caregiver report during a postdischarge phone call decreased from 3.3% to 0.7% (P < .05) when medications were in hand before discharge. Patient satisfaction with education of new medication side effects increased from 50% to 88%. CONCLUSIONS: By using an engaged interprofessional team, we optimized use of our on-site outpatient pharmacy and increased the percentage of pediatric patients leaving the hospital with new discharge medications in hand to >80%. This, accompanied by increased rates of bedside medication delivery and pharmacist teaching, was associated with improvements in caregiver discharge-medication related experience and understanding.