Enteral nutrition: An underappreciated source of patient safety events.

Enteral nutrition (EN) therapies are prescribed for patients not able to maintain adequate nutrition through the oral route. Medical errors and close calls associated with the provision of EN therapy leading to actual and potential patient harm have been reported. The purpose of this study was to determine the number, type, and severity of safety events related to the provision of EN therapies reported to a national database and provide workable recommendations from the literature to improve safety. An interdisciplinary team queried the National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) Joint Patient Safety Reporting (JPSR) system using keywords related to EN therapy use. The team reviewed the number, type, and severity of reported events and safety codes as categorized by the NCPS and then thematically classified the narratives using the Medication Use Process (MUP). Our query revealed 1227 safety events related to the EN keywords. Thematic analysis of the top five event subtypes (n = 1030) revealed that there were 691 EN safety reports directly related to an MUP step, and the majority fell into the steps of administering (31%), followed by monitoring (28%), dispensing (26%), prescribing (11%), and transcription (4%), with many events involving more than one MUP step. Safety events associated with the provision of EN therapies leading to patient harm have been reported to the JPSR system. To improve safety related to EN use, modifications to prescribing, transcribing/documenting, dispensing, administering, and monitoring of prescribed EN therapies are needed.

Guiding Post-Hospital Recovery by 'What Matters:' Implementation of Patient Priorities Identification in a VA Community Living Center.

BACKGROUND: Patient priorities care (PPC) is an effective age-friendly health systems (AFHS) approach to aligning care with goals derived from 'what matters'. The purpose of this quality improvement program was to evaluate the fidelity and feasibility of the health priorities identification (HPI) process in VA Community Living Centers (CLC). METHODS: PPC experts worked with local CLC staff to guide the integration of HPI into the CLC and utilized a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model for this quality improvement project. PPC experts reviewed health priorities identification (HPI) encounters and interdisciplinary team (IDT) meetings for fidelity to the HPI process of PPC. Qualitative interviews with local CLC staff determined the appropriateness of the health priorities identification process in the CLC. RESULTS: Over 8 months, nine facilitators completed twenty HPI encounters. Development of a Patient Health Priorities note template, staff education and PPC facilitator training improved fidelity and documentation of HPI encounters in the electronic health record. Facilitator interviews suggested that PPC is appropriate in this setting, not burdensome to staff and fostered a person-centered approach to AFHS. CONCLUSIONS: The HPI process is an acceptable and feasible approach to ask the 'what matters' component of AFHS in a CLC setting.

Importance of public-private partnerships for nutrition support research: An ASPEN Position Paper.

Parenteral and enteral nutrition support are key components of care for various medical and physiological conditions in infants, children, and adults. Nutrition support practices have advanced over time, driven by the goals of safe and sufficient delivery of needed nutrients and improved patient outcomes. These advances have been, and continue to be, dependent on research and development studies. Such studies address aspects of enteral and parenteral nutrition support: formulations, delivery devices, health outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and related metabolism. The studies are supported by public funding from the government and by private funding from foundations and from the nutrition support industry. To build public trust in nutrition support research findings, it is important to underscore ethical research conduct and reporting of results for all studies, including those with industry sponsors. In 2019, American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition's (ASPEN's) Board of Directors established a task force to ensure integrity in nutrition support research that is done as collaborative partnerships between the public (government and individuals) and private groups (foundations, academia, and industry). In this ASPEN Position Paper, the Task Force presents principles of ethical research to guide administrators, researchers, and funders. The Task Force identifies ways to curtail bias and to minimize actual or perceived conflict of interests, as related to funding sources and research conduct. Notably, this paper includes a Position Statement to describe the Task Force's guidance on Public-Private Partnerships for research and funding. This paper has been approved by the ASPEN Board of Directors.

ASPEN Consensus Recommendations for Refeeding Syndrome.

INTRODUCTION: In the spring of 2017, the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) Parenteral Nutrition Safety Committee and the Clinical Practice Committee convened an interprofessional task force to develop consensus recommendations for identifying patients with or at risk for refeeding syndrome (RS) and for avoiding and managing the condition. This report provides narrative review and consensus recommendations in hospitalized adult and pediatric populations. METHODS: Because of the variation in definitions and methods reported in the literature, a consensus process was developed. Subgroups of authors investigated specific issues through literature review. Summaries were presented to the entire group for discussion via email and teleconferences. Each section was then compiled into a master document, several revisions of which were reviewed by the committee. FINDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS: This group proposes a new clinical definition, and criteria for stratifying risk with treatment and screening strategies. The authors propose that RS diagnostic criteria be stratified as follows: a decrease in any 1, 2, or 3 of serum phosphorus, potassium, and/or magnesium levels by 10%-20% (mild), 20%-30% (moderate), or >30% and/or organ dysfunction resulting from a decrease in any of these and/or due to thiamin deficiency (severe), occurring within 5 days of reintroduction of calories. CONCLUSIONS: These consensus recommendations are intended to provide guidance regarding recognizing risk and identifying, stratifying, avoiding and managing RS. This consensus definition is additionally intended to be used as a basis for further research into the incidence, consequences, pathophysiology, avoidance, and treatment of RS.

Towards implementing SNOMED CT in nursing practice: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Currently, it is rare for nursing data to be available in data repositories due to the quality of nursing data collected in clinical practice. To improve the quality of nursing data, the American Nurses Association recommends the use of Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) for coding nursing problems, interventions, and observations in electronic health records. OBJECTIVE: To determine "what is known about the use of SNOMED terminology (Pre-SNOMED CT and SNOMED CT) in nursing". METHODS: We searched four databases and two search engines. We identified 29 articles for review. A modified version of System Development Life Cycle (SDLC), and Mapping Evaluation Assessment (MEA), created by the authors were used for quality assessment. RESULTS: All 29 studies mapped standardized (n = 19) or local nursing terms (n = 10) to the SNOMED terminology. MEA scores ranged from 2-8 (range 0-11) with 25 receiving scores from 5-8. On the modified SDLC (range 0-5), all studies exhibited activities of stage 0 (pre-application integration), with two studies describing integration and preliminary testing of SNOMED CT coded nursing content in applications (stage 2). CONCLUSION: Though efforts are underway to ensure adequate coverage of nursing in SNOMED CT, there were no studies indicating use in nursing practice. The authors offer recommendations for achieving the widespread collection of interoperable SNOMED CT coded nursing data in clinical applications to evaluate nursing's impact on patient outcomes. These include creating a clear professional vision and path to our data goals that builds on sound rationale and evidence, abundant stakeholder engagement, and sufficient resources.

Improving Insulin Administration Through Redesigning Processes of Care: A Multidisciplinary Team Approach.

OBJECTIVES: This article describes a quality improvement project using a multidisciplinary team approach to improve the rate of errors of omission of preprandial subcutaneous coverage insulin orders. METHODS: A Diabetic Management Work Group was created to evaluate the system processes that affect success and failure of timely administration and documentation of preprandial coverage insulin, commonly referred to as sliding scale coverage. Data before and after the project were collected to evaluate the effectiveness of a process change through the bar code medication administration system, in which preprandial coverage insulin order sets were changed to eliminate errors of omission and improve documentation. RESULTS: A review of 833 random blood glucose measurements with corresponding short- or rapid-acting insulin coverage orders was conducted. A mean error of omission rate of 23.4% was identified with respect to coverage insulin that was clinically indicated by provider-ordered insulin set but not administered or documented in the electronic medication record. After process redesign and implementation, 951 blood glucose measurements with corresponding insulin coverage orders were randomly reviewed, and a mean of 10.7% of omission rate for coverage insulin administration was identified. This represented a decrease in omission of coverage insulin by 54% compared with preprocess improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Decreased errors of omission as well as improved administration and documentation of coverage insulin were demonstrated by this multimodal process change. Scheduled standardized order sets, extensive nursing staff education, and enhanced efficiency of the existing process led to improved outcomes.