Disseminated Granulomatous Disease from Intravesical Instillation of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin.

Intravesical instillation of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin is one of the standard treatment options for superficial bladder cancer. While Bacillus Calmette-Guerin therapy is usually well tolerated with most patients experiencing only cystitis, in rare cases, it can lead to disseminated granulomatous disease. We present a case of a 72-year-old man with disseminated granulomatous disease from intravesical BCG instillation whose treatment was complicated by antimycobacterial drug toxicity.

The Clinical Quality Fellowship Program: Developing Clinical Quality Leadership in the Greater New York Region.

The Institute of Medicine has noted that a key factor underlying patient safety problems in the United States is a paucity of quality and safety training programs for clinicians. The Greater New York Hospital Association and United Hospital Fund created the Clinical Quality Fellowship Program (CQFP) to develop quality improvement leaders in the New York region. The goals of this article are to describe the CQFP's structure and curriculum, program participants' perceived value, improvement projects, and career paths. Eighty-seven participants completed the CQFP from 2010 to 2014. Among program participants completing self-assessment evaluations, significant improvements were observed across all quality improvement skill areas. Capstone project categories included inpatient efficiency, transitional care, and hospital infection. Fifty-six percent of participants obtained promotions following program completion. A training program emphasizing diverse curricular elements, varied learning approaches, and applied improvement projects increased participants' self-perceived skills, generated diverse improvement initiatives, and was associated with career advancement.

Pay for performance improves quality across demographic groups.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate quality and the effect of pay for performance among minority patient groups, during a pay-for-performance program in 22 primary care practice sites. METHODS: Data were collected on 26 standardized measures of care for 2 measurement cycles. Proportions of recommended care received across 5 composite quality domains were analyzed by demographic group. Regression models including significant covariates were constructed. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were derived to assess the effect of pay of performance within demographic groups. RESULTS: Improvements were observed from 2007 to 2009 for all patients in each of 5 composite quality domains of diabetes, coronary artery disease, heart failure, screening and prevention, and all care. With the exception of heart failure care for Hispanic/Latino and Spanish language-preferring patients, improvement was observed in all domains for African American/black race, Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, and Spanish language-preferred groups. Following adjustment for covariates, pay for performance was associated with significant improvement in all-patient diabetes care (adjusted OR = 1.15; [95% confidence interval [CI], 1.09-1.22), screening and prevention (adjusted OR = 1.55; 95% CI, 1.41-1.69), and all care (adjusted OR = 1.27; 95% CI, 1.20-1.35). Significant improvements were also observed within the minority demographic groups noted earlier. CONCLUSIONS: Pay-for-performance programs structured as additional incentive monies for providers improved care for all patients and among minority groups, in whom disparities have historically been observed.

Antimicrobial stewardship and automated pharmacy technology improve antibiotic appropriateness for community-acquired pneumonia.

BACKGROUND: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS's) Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program includes the initial selection of antibiotics for adult community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) patients as a performance measure. A multidisciplinary team defined opportunities for improving performance in appropriate antibiotic use among CAP patients. The team consisted of personnel from the emergency department (ED), the antimicrobial stewardship program (infectious disease, pharmacy), and performance improvement. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental before-after study. SETTING: A large, urban, multicampus academic medical center. Interventions. Interventions included an algorithm for ED providers identifying appropriate antibiotic selections, development of a CAP kit consisting of appropriate antibiotics and dosing regimens bundled with the treatment algorithm, and preloading an automated ED medication dispensing and management system. A quality improvement methodology ("plan, do, check, act") was used to pilot stewardship interventions at one ED campus and later at a second ED campus. RESULTS: In the pilot ED, appropriate antibiotic selection for CAP improved from 54.9% before the intervention in 2008 to 93.4% after the intervention in 2011 (P = .001). Subsequently, in the second ED appropriate antibiotic regimens for CAP improved from 64.6% before the intervention in 2008 to 91.3% after the intervention in 2011 (P = .004)). The rates of another CMS measure, antibiotic administration within 6 hours, were not statistically different before and after the interventions. In an interrupted time series logistic regression analysis, the intervention was found to be significantly associated with the improved prescribing ([Formula: see text]). DISCUSSION: The combination of interdisciplinary teamwork, antibiotic stewardship, education, and information technology is associated with replicable and sustained prescribing improvements.

Improving hospital venous thromboembolism prophylaxis with electronic decision support.

BACKGROUND: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) disease prophylaxis rates among medical inpatients have been noted to be <50%. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a computerized decision support application to improve VTE prophylaxis. DESIGN: Observational cohort study. SETTING: Academic medical center. PATIENTS: Adult inpatients on hospital medicine and nonmedicine services. INTERVENTION: A decision support application designed by a quality improvement team was implemented on medicine services in September 2009. MEASUREMENTS: Effectiveness and safety parameters were compared on medicine services and nonmedicine (nonimplementation) services for 6-month periods before and after implementation. Effectiveness was evaluated by retrospective information system queries for rates of any VTE prophylaxis, pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis, and hospital-acquired VTE incidence. Safety was evaluated by queries for bleeding and thrombocytopenia rates. RESULTS: Medicine service overall VTE prophylaxis increased from 61.9% to 82.1% (P < 0.001), and pharmacologic VTE prophylaxis increased from 59.0% to 74.5% (P < 0.001). Smaller but significant increases were observed on nonmedicine services. Hospital-acquired VTE incidence on medicine services decreased significantly from 0.65% to 0.42% (P = 0.008) and nonsignificantly on nonmedicine services. Bleeding rates increased from 2.9% to 4.0% (P < 0.001) on medicine services and from 7.7% to 8.6% (P = 0.043) on nonmedicine services, with nonsignificant changes in thrombocytopenia rates observed on both services. CONCLUSIONS: An electronic decision support application on inpatient medicine services can significantly improve VTE prophylaxis and hospital-acquired VTE rates with a reasonable safety profile.

Designing a comprehensive strategy to improve one core measure: discharge of patients with myocardial infarction or heart failure on ACE inhibitors/ARBs.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ACEs/ARBs) have proven benefit for patients with myocardial infarction and heart failure; their use is a core measure of hospital quality for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The authors' urban medical center has lower-than-average performance on this measure. The authors used published best practices to design and implement a comprehensive strategy to improve ACE/ARB performance with existing decision support and human resources. Chart reminders were targeted to providers of patients eligible for ACEs/ARBs but not receiving them. ACE/ARB performance increased 8.5% in postintervention patients compared with historical controls. The increase was 20.7% among patients not on ACEs/ARBs on admission (P =.03). Chronic kidney disease (CKD) was inversely associated with the effectiveness of the intervention. A comprehensive strategy can be effective in narrowing the performance gap even for populations with a high prevalence of CKD. However, future work is needed to improve performance among patients whose ACEs/ARBs are withheld during hospitalization.

A quality improvement framework for equity in cardiovascular care: results of a national collaborative.

Disparities in the quality of cardiovascular care provided to minorities have been well documented, but less is known about the use of quality improvement methods to eliminate these disparities. Measurement is also often impeded by a lack of reliable patient demographic data. The objective of this study was to assess the ability of hospitals with large minority populations to measure and improve the care rendered to Black and Hispanic patients. The Expecting Success: Excellence in Cardiac Care project utilized the standardized collection of self-reported patient race, ethnicity, and language data to generate stratified performance measures for cardiac care coupled with evidence-based practice tools in a national competitively selected sample of 10 hospitals with high cardiac volumes and largely minority patient populations. Main outcomes included changes in nationally recognized measures of acute myocardial infarction and heart failure quality of care and 2 composite measures, stratified by patient demographic characteristics. Quality improved significantly at 7 of the 10 hospitals as gauged by composite measures (p < .05), and improvements exceeded those observed nationally for all hospitals. Three of 10 hospitals found racial or ethnic disparities which were eliminated in the course of the project. Clinicians and institutions were able to join the standardized collection of self-reported patient demographic data to evidence-based measures and quality improvement tools to improve the care of minorities and eliminate disparities in care. This framework may be replicable to ensure equity in other clinical areas.

Standardizing race, ethnicity, and preferred language data collection in hospital information systems: results and implications for healthcare delivery and policy.

The Institute of Medicine has identified the need for healthcare organizations to collect standardized demographic data as a step toward reducing healthcare disparities. This observational study of patients discharged from a large academic medical center between 2005 and 2009, evaluates an organizational effort to standardize demographic data collection, characterizes limitations of the implementation, and assesses its utility in quality improvement and disparity reduction efforts. Primary measures include percentages of inpatient discharges with unknown race, ethnicity, and language data. Secondary measures include "ideal" cardiovascular care and readmission rates. From 2005 to 2009, the proportion of discharges with unknown race, ethnicity, or preferred language data decreased significantly. Among discharges with known ethnicity in 2009, Hispanic/Latino patients were significantly more likely to decline to specify their race or designate their race as a "Multiracial: Other Combination." No significant differences in ideal cardiovascular care were observed across demographic groups. Differences in readmission rates were observed among some groups. A provider organization can effectively standardize demographic data collection practices for use in quality improvement efforts. Current federal race categories are of limited utility for persons of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, and performance measurement approaches that exclude demographic variables may fail to address healthcare disparities.

Developing a multidisciplinary model of comparative effectiveness research within a clinical and translational science award.

The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) were initiated to improve the conduct and impact of the National Institutes of Health's research portfolio, transforming training programs and research infrastructure at academic institutions and creating a nationwide consortium. They provide a model for translating research across disciplines and offer an efficient and powerful platform for comparative effectiveness research (CER), an effort that has long struggled but enjoys renewed hope under health care reform. CTSAs include study design and methods expertise, informatics, and regulatory support; programs in education, training, and career development in domains central to CER; and programs in community engagement.Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center have entered a formal partnership that places their CTSA at a critical intersection for clinical and translational research. Their CTSA leaders were asked to develop a strategy for enhancing CER activities, and in 2010 they developed a model that encompasses four broadly defined "compartments" of research strength that must be coordinated for this enterprise to succeed: evaluation and health services research, biobehavioral research and prevention, efficacy studies and clinical trials, and social science and implementation research.This article provides historical context for CER, elucidates Einstein-Montefiore's CER model and strategic planning efforts, and illustrates how a CTSA can provide vision, leadership, coordination, and services to support an academic health center's collaborative efforts to develop a robust CER portfolio and thus contribute to the national effort to improve health and health care.

Improving primary percutaneous coronary intervention performance in an urban minority population using a quality improvement approach.

It has been well established that there are racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular care. Quality improvement initiatives have been recommended to proactively address these disparities. An initiative was implemented to improve timeliness of and access to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures among myocardial infarction patients at an academic medical center serving a predominantly minority population. The effort was part of a national quality improvement collaborative focused on improving cardiovascular care for Hispanic/Latino and African American/ black populations. The proportion of primary PCI procedures performed within 90 minutes improved significantly from 17% in the first quarter of 2006 to 93% in the fourth quarter of 2008 (P < .001). There were no significant differences in the frequency with which Hispanic/Latino or African American/black patients received primary PCI therapy in comparison to nonmembers of these groups. Quality improvement techniques can improve the quality of and access to acute cardiovascular care for minority populations.

Could Medicare readmission policy exacerbate health care system inequity?

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently started publicly reporting hospital readmission rates. Health care reform proposals include readmission provisions as vehicles to promote care coordination and achieve savings. Current approaches ascribe variability in hospital readmission primarily to differences in patient medical risk and hospital performance. These approaches do not adequately account for the effect of patient sociodemographic and community factors that influence health care utilization and outcomes. The evidence base on cost-effective and generalizable care management techniques to reduce readmission is still evolving. Although readmission-related policies may prove to be a transformational force in health care reform, their incorrect application in facilities serving vulnerable communities may increase health care system inequity. Policy options can mitigate this potential.

Discarding the initial aliquot of blood does not reduce contamination rates in intravenous-catheter-drawn blood cultures.

Although venipuncture is the preferred method for obtaining blood cultures, specimens often are obtained from intravenous catheters (IVC). For IVC-drawn blood cultures, some authorities recommend discarding the initial 5 to 10 ml of blood to reduce contamination and remove potential inhibitory substances. To determine whether this practice reduced contamination rates (CR), we assessed the results of IVC-drawn blood cultures for adults. Thirty milliliters of blood was obtained aseptically. The first 10 ml, rather than being discarded, was inoculated into an aerobic culture vial. Using a second sterile syringe, 20 ml of blood was obtained and inoculated in 10-ml aliquots to aerobic and anaerobic culture vials. Positive cultures were evaluated to assess clinical significance (true versus contaminant). Out of 653 IVC-drawn blood culture pairs, both vials were contaminated in 38 pairs (5.8%); only the "discard" vial was contaminated in 33 (5.1%); and only the "standard" vial was contaminated in 31 (4.7%). Overall CR were 10.9% for the discard vial versus 10.5% for the standard vial (P = 0.90). We conclude that discarding an initial aliquot of blood when obtaining blood cultures from IVCs does not reduce CR.