Cost-Benefit Analysis of Allowing Additional Time in Cleaning Hospital Contact Precautions Rooms.

Increasing cleaning time may reduce hospital-acquired transmission of Clostridioides difficile, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE). We constructed a cost-benefit model to estimate the impact of implementing an enhanced cleaning protocol, allowing hospital housekeepers an additional 15 minutes to terminally clean contact precautions rooms. The enhanced cleaning protocol saved the hospital $758 per terminally-cleaned room when accounting for only C. difficile. Scaling up to a hospital with 100 cases of C. difficile/year, and the US annual C. difficile incidence, cost savings were $75,832/year and $169.8 million/year, respectively. These results may inform infection control strategic decision-making and resource allocation.

Room Costs for Common Pediatric Hospitalizations and Cost-Reducing Quality Initiatives.

BACKGROUND: Improvement initiatives promote safe and efficient care for hospitalized children. However, these may be associated with limited cost savings. In this article, we sought to understand the potential financial benefit yielded by improvement initiatives by describing the inpatient allocation of costs for common pediatric diagnoses. METHODS: This study is a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of pediatric patients aged 0 to 21 years from 48 children's hospitals included in the Pediatric Health Information System database from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017. We included hospitalizations for 8 common inpatient pediatric diagnoses (seizure, bronchiolitis, asthma, pneumonia, acute gastroenteritis, upper respiratory tract infection, other gastrointestinal diagnoses, and skin and soft tissue infection) and categorized the distribution of hospitalization costs (room, clinical, laboratory, imaging, pharmacy, supplies, and other). We summarized our findings with mean percentages and percent of total costs and used mixed-effects models to account for disease severity and to describe hospital-level variation. RESULTS: For 195 436 hospitalizations, room costs accounted for 52.5% to 70.3% of total hospitalization costs. We observed wide hospital-level variation in nonroom costs for the same diagnoses (25%-81% for seizure, 12%-51% for bronchiolitis, 19%-63% for asthma, 19%-62% for pneumonia, 21%-78% for acute gastroenteritis, 21%-63% for upper respiratory tract infection, 28%-69% for other gastrointestinal diagnoses, and 21%-71% for skin and soft tissue infection). However, to achieve a cost reduction equal to 10% of room costs, large, often unattainable reductions (>100%) in nonroom cost categories are needed. CONCLUSIONS: Inconsistencies in nonroom costs for similar diagnoses suggest hospital-level treatment variation and improvement opportunities. However, individual improvement initiatives may not result in significant cost savings without specifically addressing room costs.

Education practices: research-action with nurses of Family Health Strategy.

OBJECTIVE: to identify the factors that determine the implementation of educational practices of health promotion and to construct proposals to implement the educational actions of the nurses of the Family Health Units (FHU). METHOD: research-action in which individual interviews and focus group were conducted, with 17 nurses from 12 FHU in the city of Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre state, Brazil. The results were organized by the thematic analysis method. RESULTS: the thematic units emerged from the analysis: dichotomy between knowledge and doing in the production of care and health; the nurse's qualification for educational practices; and conditions favorable to health education practices. CONCLUSION: the thematic analysis showed that the educational practice is hampered by the high demand for care in the unit, lack of physical structure and professional qualification for health education. In the action phase, nurses and local managers agreed on actions to improve the quality of educational practices.

Education practices: research-action with nurses of Family Health Strategy / Prácticas educativas: investigación-acción con enfermeros de la Estrategia de Salud de la Familia / Práticas educativas: pesquisa-ação com enfermeiros da Estratégia de Saúde da Família

ABSTRACT Objective: to identify the factors that determine the implementation of educational practices of health promotion and to construct proposals to implement the educational actions of the nurses of the Family Health Units (FHU). Method: research-action in which individual interviews and focus group were conducted, with 17 nurses from 12 FHU in the city of Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre state, Brazil. The results were organized by the thematic analysis method. Results: the thematic units emerged from the analysis: dichotomy between knowledge and doing in the production of care and health; the nurse's qualification for educational practices; and conditions favorable to health education practices. Conclusion: the thematic analysis showed that the educational practice is hampered by the high demand for care in the unit, lack of physical structure and professional qualification for health education. In the action phase, nurses and local managers agreed on actions to improve the quality of educational practices.

RESUMEN Objetivo: identificar los factores que determinan la implementación de prácticas educativas de promoción de la salud y diseñar propuestas para efectuar las acciones educativas de los enfermeros de las Unidades de Salud de la Familia (USF). Método: investigación-acciones en las cuales se realizaron entrevistas individuales y grupo focal, con 17 enfermeros de 12 USFs de la ciudad Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brasil. Los resultados fueron organizados según el método de análisis temático. Resultados: han aparecido del análisis las unidades temáticas: dicotomía entre el saber y el hacer en la producción del cuidado y salud; la cualificación del enfermero para las prácticas educativas; y condiciones favorables a las prácticas de educación en salud. Conclusión: el análisis temático mostró que la práctica educativa es dificultada por la alta demanda de atención en la unidad, falta de estructura física y calificación profesional para la educación en salud. En la fase de acción, los enfermeros y gestores locales pactaron acciones para mejorar la calidad de las prácticas educativas.

RESUMO Objetivos: identificar os fatores que determinam a implementação de práticas educativas de promoção da saúde e construir propostas para efetivar as ações educativas dos enfermeiros das Unidades de Saúde da Família (USF). Método: pesquisa-ação em que foram realizadas entrevistas individuais e grupo focal, com 17 enfermeiros de 12 USFs do município de Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brasil. Os resultados foram organizados pelo método de análise temática. Resultados: emergiram da análise as unidades temáticas: dicotomia entre o saber e o fazer na produção do cuidado e saúde; a qualificação do enfermeiro para as práticas educacionais; e condições favoráveis às práticas de educação em saúde. Conclusão: a análise temática mostrou que a prática educativa é dificultada pela alta demanda de atendimento na unidade, falta de estrutura física e qualificação profissional para a educação em saúde. Na fase ação, os enfermeiros e gestores locais pactuaram ações para melhorar a qualidade das práticas educativas.

Planning for a smooth transition: evaluation of a succession planning program for prospective nurse unit managers.

The current and projected nurse workforce shortage has created significant pressure on health care organizations to examine their approach to managing talent. This includes the need for strategic development of new formal leaders. This article reports on a succession planning program for prospective nursing unit managers. Eight prospective management candidates participated in a Future Nursing Unit Managers program. The effectiveness of the program was measured through a comparison of pre- and postprogram surveys relating to participants' perception of personal managerial and leadership skills. Significant differences in scores from baseline to 6-month follow-up surveys were observed in the participants' confidence in undertaking the nursing unit manager role and in their management skills. Investment in structured programs to prepare nurses for leadership roles is strongly recommended as a management workforce strategy.

Innovative Designs for the Smart ICU.

Successfully designing a new ICU requires clarity of vision and purpose and the recognition that the patient room is the core of the ICU experience for patients, staff, and visitors. The ICU can be conceptualized into three components: the patient room, central areas, and universal support services. Each patient room should be designed for single patient use and be similarly configured and equipped. The design of the room should focus upon functionality, ease of use, healing, safety, infection control, communications, and connectivity. All aspects of the room, including its infrastructure; zones for work, care, and visiting; environment, medical devices, and approaches to privacy; logistics; and waste management, are important elements in the design process. Since most medical devices used at the ICU bedside are really sophisticated computers, the ICU needs to be capable of supporting the full scope of medical informatics. The patient rooms, the central ICU areas (central stations, corridors, supply rooms, pharmacy, laboratory, staff lounge, visitor waiting room, on-call suite, conference rooms, and offices), and the universal support services (infection prevention, finishings and flooring, staff communications, signage and wayfinding, security, and fire and safety) work best when fully interwoven. This coordination helps establish efficient and safe patient throughput and care and fosters physical and social cohesiveness within the ICU. A balanced approach to centralized and decentralized monitoring and logistics also offers great flexibility. Synchronization of the universal support services in the ICU with the hospital's existing systems maintains unity of purpose and continuity across the enterprise and avoids unnecessary duplication of efforts.

[Medical economics in tuberculosis management: what will come after the TB ward?].

Current unprofitability of medical services in tuberculosis (TB) ward in Japan has been induced by low medical fee and long-term hospital stays, aggravated by unoccupied beds due to the decrease in the number of patients. For the solution of this issue, the increase of medical fee, shortening of the length of hospital stay and drastic reduction of oversupplied beds are essential. An increment of medical fee by the change in the system would be appreciated, but even under the current system, the balance between revenue and expenditure could be obtained by reducing the length of hospital stay toward 4 weeks, and the elimination of deficit in TB ward could be accomplished by these efforts; shortening of length of hospital stay and reduction of TB beds. Although the latter might result in the difficulty of sustaining TB wards, these patients could be treated in the infectious disease ward. The integration of TB Control Law to Infectious Disease Control Law suggests that TB is not a special disease in Japan. If a true "short course therapy" era would be realized by novel anti-tuberculosis drugs, a dramatic change in TB management would occur in the near future.

Do you computer take this television ...?

Just as computerized information systems are revolutionizing the way hospitals distribute patient information around the healthcare system, interactive video technology now is revolutionizing the way television sets are used in patient rooms. The TV set is becoming a source of hospital and patient information, and helps provide patient education.