Hand hygiene behavior change: a review and pilot study of an automated hand hygiene reminder system implementation in a public hospital.

Objective: To review and study implementation of an automated hand hygiene reminder system (AHHRS). Design: Prospective, nonrandomized, before-after quality improvement pilot study conducted over 6 months. Setting: Medical-surgical unit (MSU) and medical intensive care unit (MICU) at a public hospital in New York City. Participants: There were 2,642 healthcare worker observations in the direct observation (DO) period versus 265,505 in the AHHRS period, excluding AHHRS observations collected during the 1-month crossover period when simultaneous DO occurred. Intervention: We compared hand hygiene adherence (HHA) measured by DO prior to the pilot and after AHHRS implementation. We compared changes in HHA and potential cross-contamination events (CCEs) (room exit and subsequent entry without HHA) from baseline for each biweekly period during the pilot. Results: Engagement, education/training, data transparency, and optimization period resulted in successful implementation and adoption of the AHHRS. Observations were greater utilizing AHHRS than DO (265,505 vs 2,642, P < .01). Due to the expected Hawthorne effect, HHA was significantly less for AHHRS than DO in MSU (90.99% vs 97.21%, P < .01) and MICU (91.21% vs 98.65%, P < .01). HHA significantly improved from 86.47% to 89.68% in MSU (P < .001) and 85.93% to 91.24% in the MICU (P < .001) from the first biweekly period of AHHRS utilization to the last. CCE decreased from 73.42% to 65.11% in the MSU and significantly decreased from 81.22% to 53.19% in the MICU (P < .05). Conclusions: We describe how an AHHRS approach was successfully implemented at our facility. With ongoing feedback and system optimization, AHHRS improved HHA and reduced CCE over time.

Tell-a provider about tele: Reducing overuse of telemetry across 10 hospitals in a safety net system.

BACKGROUND: Telemetry is often a scarce resource at hospitals and is important for arrhythmia and myocardial ischemia detection. Overuse of telemetry monitoring leads to alarm fatigue resulting in failure to respond to arrhythmias, patient harm, and possible unnecessary testing. METHODS: This quality improvement initiative was implemented across NYC Health and Hospitals, an 11-hospital urban safety net system. The electronic health record intervention involved the addition of a mandatory indication in the telemetry order and a best practice advisory (BPA) that would fire after the recommended time period for reassessment had passed. RESULTS: The average telemetry hours per patient encounter went from 60.1 preintervention to 48.4 postintervention, a 19.5% reduction (p < .001). When stratified by the 11 hospitals, decreases ranged from 9% to 30%. The BPA had a 53% accept rate and fired 52,682 times, with 27,938 "discontinue telemetry" orders placed. The true accept rate was 50.4%, as there was a 2.6% 24-h reorder rate. There was variation based on clinician specialty and clinician type (attending, fellow, resident, physician associate, nurse practitioner). CONCLUSION: We successfully reduced telemetry monitoring across a multisite safety net system using solely an electronic health record (EHR) intervention. This expands on previous telemetry monitoring reduction initiatives using EHR interventions at single academic sites. Further study is needed to investigate variation across clinician type, specialty, and post-acute sites.

Effectiveness of phosphate binders in adult patients with end stage renal disease receiving hemodialysis: a systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of the review was to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of phosphate binders on mortality and serum levels of phosphorus, calcium and parathyroid hormone in adult patients with end stage renal disease receiving hemodialysis compared to hemodialysis with no phosphate binder use. INTRODUCTION: End stage renal disease leading to hemodialysis is a common global health issue. Effective management of this population is focused on balancing alterations in bone mineral markers such as phosphorus, calcium and parathyroid hormone. Chronic imbalances are associated with all-cause mortality. Phosphate binders are a crucial element to regulating these levels. INCLUSION CRITERIA: The review considered studies including adult patients, age 18 and over, receiving hemodialysis. The intervention of interest was the use of any drug within the class of phosphate binders. Outcomes of interest were all-cause mortality and serum levels of phosphorus, calcium and parathyroid hormone. Experimental and quasi-experimental study designs were considered. METHODS: A search for relevant published and unpublished literature was conducted through November 5, 2017. Databases searched included PubMed, CINAHL, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), in addition to gray literature sources. Articles that met the inclusion criteria were further assessed for methodological validity by two independent reviewers using the standard critical appraisal instruments from Joanna Briggs Institute. Data were extracted from papers included in the review using the standardized data extraction tool from the Joanna Briggs Institute. Quantitative data were pooled for statistical meta-analysis to evaluate the impact of phosphate binders on phosphorus and calcium. RESULTS: Seven studies were included in this review. A meta-analysis of four studies showed that the use of phosphate binders resulted in a statistically significant decrease in phosphorus levels compared to placebo (mean difference -1.89 mg/dL, 95% confidence interval -2.03 mg/dL, -1.75 mg/dL); three additional studies described narratively also showed a statistically significant decrease in phosphorus. A meta-analysis of three studies showed a statistically significant increase in calcium compared to placebo (mean difference 0.57 mg/dL, 95% confidence interval 0.50 mg/dL, 0.64 mg/dL); two additional studies described narratively showed no difference in effect on calcium. Of the three studies that measured parathyroid hormone, one showed a statistically significant improvement with the use of phosphate binders (mean difference -83.0 pg/mL, 95% confidence interval -154.63 pg/mL, -11.37 pg/mL) and two showed no difference in effect. No studies measured mortality. CONCLUSION: Phosphate binders are effective in reducing serum phosphorus. The findings on parathyroid hormone and calcium did not provide adequate support for phosphate binder use. The impact on mortality was not directly measured in any of the included studies.

Effectiveness of phosphate binders in adult patients with end stage renal disease receiving hemodialysis: a systematic review protocol.

REVIEW QUESTION: The question of this review is what is the effectiveness of the use of phosphate binders on mortality and serum levels of phosphorus, calcium and intact parathyroid hormone in adult patients with end stage renal disease receiving hemodialysis?