Bed downtime: the novel use of a quality metric allows inpatient providers to improve patient flow from the emergency department.

BACKGROUND: Emergency department (ED) boarding time is associated with increased length of stay (LOS) and inpatient mortality. Despite the documented impact of ED boarding on inpatient outcomes, a disparity continues to exist between the attention paid to the issue by inpatient and ED providers. A perceived lack of high yield strategies to address ED boarding from the perspective of the inpatient provider may discourage involvement in improvement initiatives on the subject. As such, further work is needed to identify inpatient metrics and strategies to address patient flow problems, and which may improve ED boarding time. METHODS: After initial system analysis, our multidisciplinary quality improvement (QI) group defined the process time metric 'bed downtime'-the time from which a bed is vacated by a discharged patient to the time an ED patient is assigned to that bed. Using the Lean Sigma QI approach, this metric was targeted for improvement on the internal medicine hospitalist service at a tertiary care academic medical centre. INTERVENTIONS: Interventions included improving inpatient provider awareness of the problem, real-time provider notification of empty beds, a weekly retrospective emailed performance dashboard and the creation of a guideline document for admission procedures. RESULTS: This package of interventions was associated with a 125 min reduction in mean bed downtime for incoming ED patients (254 min to 129 min) admitted to the intervention unit. CONCLUSION: Use of the bed downtime metric as a QI target was associated with marked improvements in process time during our project. The use of this metric may enhance the ability of inpatient providers to participate in QI efforts to improve patient flow from the ED. Further study is needed to determine if use of the metric may be effective at reducing boarding time without requiring alterations to LOS or discharge patterns.

Optimal Urine Culture Diagnostic Stewardship Practice-Results from an Expert Modified-Delphi Procedure.

BACKGROUND: Urine cultures are nonspecific and often lead to misdiagnosis of urinary tract infection and unnecessary antibiotics. Diagnostic stewardship is a set of procedures that modifies test ordering, processing, and reporting in order to optimize diagnosis and downstream treatment. In this study, we aimed to develop expert guidance on best practices for urine culture diagnostic stewardship. METHODS: A RAND-modified Delphi approach with a multidisciplinary expert panel was used to ascertain diagnostic stewardship best practices. Clinical questions to guide recommendations were grouped into three thematic areas (ordering, processing, reporting) in practice settings of emergency department, inpatient, ambulatory, and long-term care. Fifteen experts ranked recommendations on a 9-point Likert scale. Recommendations on which the panel did not reach agreement were discussed during a virtual meeting, then a second round of ranking by email was completed. After secondary review of results and panel discussion, a series of guidance statements was developed. RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-five questions were reviewed. The panel reaching agreement on 104, leading to 18 overarching guidance statements. The following strategies were recommended to optimize ordering urine cultures: requiring documentation of symptoms, sending alerts to discourage ordering in the absence of symptoms, and cancelling repeat cultures. For urine culture processing, conditional urine cultures and urine white blood cell count as criteria were supported. For urine culture reporting, appropriate practices included nudges to discourage treatment under specific conditions and selective reporting of antibiotics to guide therapy decisions. CONCLUSIONS: These 18 guidance statements can optimize use of urine cultures for better patient outcomes.

A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Impact of a Nurse-Driven Urine Culture Diagnostic Stewardship Intervention on Urine Cultures in the Acute Care Setting.

BACKGROUND: The role of nurses in diagnostic stewardship in hospitals remains largely unknown. METHODS: In this before-after study, researchers assessed the impact of a nurse-driven urine culture (UrCx) stewardship intervention for adults with and without urinary catheters on a general medicine unit of a large hospital. The intervention included education on principles of diagnostic stewardship, identification of a nurse champion to serve as liaison between nursing and the antibiotic stewardship program, and implementation of an algorithm to guide discussions with hospitalists about situations when UrCx may not be needed. The primary outcome was the total number of UrCx. The secondary outcome was the rate of inappropriate UrCx. Changes in UrCx rates per 100 patient-days before and after the intervention were calculated using incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Balancing metrics included readmission within 30 days of unit discharge, length of hospital stay, and all-cause in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: With the intervention, the mean UrCx rate per 100 patient-days decreased from 2.30 to 1.52 (IRR = 0.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.50-0.87, p < 0.01), while in the control unit it increased from 2.17 to 3.10 (IRR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.22-1.84, p < 0.01). In the intervention unit, the rate of inappropriate UrCx was 0.83 and 0.71 before and after algorithm implementation (IRR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.58-1.33, p = 0.55). CONCLUSION: Nursing education and a clinical tool to enhance discussions on the necessity of UrCx among nurses and hospitalists were associated with a reduction in UrCx.