Utilization of West Virginia Pediatric Medicaid Claims Data to Guide Outpatient Antimicrobial Stewardship Interventions.

West Virginia consistently ranks in the top two nationally for per capita antibiotic prescription rates in both pediatric and adult outpatient populations. We present the first descriptive analysis evaluating outpatient prescription rates within the WV pediatric Medicaid population, which demonstrated significant antibiotic prescribing variability by provider type, specialty, and geography.

A Quality Improvement Project to Delay Umbilical Cord Clamping Time.

Delayed cord clamping (DCC) has numerous benefits to the neonate, including increased hemoglobin levels, decreased need for red blood cell transfusions, and decreased incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis and intraventricular hemorrhage. A preliminary observational study at our institution demonstrated 12% of the observed deliveries met the DCC standard, defined as umbilical cord clamping at least 30-60 seconds after birth. Therefore, we designed a quality improvement project to increase the percentage of deliveries using DCC. METHODS: We planned a quality improvement project aiming to increase DCC rates on the university obstetrics service. Our interventions included provider education, installation of timers in the delivery suites, and modification to documentation in the electronic health record. We measured our results through the documented status of cord clamping, either: (1) greater than or equal to 30 seconds or (2) less than 30 seconds. We analyzed the DCC rates weekly and compared those results to the DCC goal of 80% of all deliveries. RESULTS: Postintervention DCC rates were 96% overall. Rates of DCC met our aim of 80% or greater each of the 6 weeks we collected data. CONCLUSION: Simple and inexpensive interventions quickly led to improvements in DCC rates on our university obstetrics service. Our interventions including, provider education, installation of timers in delivery suites, and modification to cord clamping documentation in the electronic health record can be easily instituted at other hospitals. Additionally, the simplicity of this system can produce long-term sustainability of DCC.