The Experience of Children With Neuroblastoma and Their Parents During Single-Room Isolation for 131I-Metaiodobenzylguanidine Therapy: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Background: Administration of 131I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (131I-MIBG) for neuroblastoma requires hospitalization in single-room isolation and limits caregiver physical contact due to the child's radioactive burden. Though used for decades, there is a dearth of research on the experiences of children and their parents while isolated. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study evaluated the experience of children with neuroblastoma undergoing single-room isolation for 131I-MIBG therapy and their parents. Ten nurses, nine parents, and five children were interviewed; transcripts were analyzed applying a conventional content analysis approach. Results: Child themes included overall experiences ranging from positive to negative; emotional stress was common; symptoms were common but mostly managed; the children were adequately prepared for isolation; and audiovisual technology and entertainment helped. The indwelling urinary catheter was a source of emotional stress and/or pain for several children. Parent themes included I thought it was going to be a lot worse; it gets better with time; feeling concerned and overwhelmed; prepared as much as you can be; and you feel like you're not alone. Discussion: Findings suggest that children and parents would benefit from additional coping support interventions to address emotional distress. Efforts should be made to identify other sources of technology or room designs that can maximize the child's sense of connection with parents and healthcare professionals. Additional research is needed to examine the impact of this isolation experience on the long-term psychological outcomes of children and parents.

Improving Hospitalized Children's Sleep by Reducing Excessive Overnight Blood Pressure Monitoring.

BACKGROUND: Although required for healing, sleep is often disrupted during hospitalization. Blood pressure (BP) monitoring can be especially disruptive for pediatric inpatients and has few clinical indications. Our aim in this pilot study was to reduce unnecessary overnight BP monitoring and improve sleep for pediatric inpatients. METHODS: The intervention in June 2018 involved clinician education sessions and updated electronic health record (EHR) orders that enabled the forgoing of overnight BP checks. The postintervention period from July 2018 to May 2019 examined patient-caregiver surveys as outcome measures. These surveys measured inpatient sleep and overnight disruptions and were adopted from validated surveys: the Patient Sleep Questionnaire, expanded Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire, and Potential Hospital Sleep Disruptions and Noises Questionnaire. Uptake of new sleep-friendly EHR orders was a process measure. Reported patient care escalations served as a balancing measure. RESULTS: Interrupted time series analysis of EHR orders (npre = 493; npost = 1472) showed an increase in intercept for the proportion of patients forgoing overnight BP postintervention (+50.7%; 95% confidence interval 41.2% to 60.3%; P < .001) and a subsequent decrease in slope each week (-0.16%; 95% confidence interval -0.32% to -0.01%; P = .037). Statistical process control of surveys (npre = 263; npost = 131) showed a significant increase in sleep duration for patients older than 2, and nighttime disruptions by clinicians decreased by 19% (P < .001). Annual estimated cost savings were $15 842.01. No major adverse events in patients forgoing BP were reported. CONCLUSIONS: A pilot study combining EHR changes and clinician education safely decreased overnight BP checks, increased pediatric inpatient sleep duration, and reduced nighttime disruptions by clinicians.

Evaluation of the Order SMARTT: An Initiative to Reduce Phlebotomy and Improve Sleep-Friendly Labs on General Medicine Services.

We assessed the effectiveness of a quality improvement project to reduce routine labs in clinically stable patients, while also promoting sleep-friendly lab timing. The electronic health record was modified with an "Order Sleep" shortcut to facilitate sleep-friendly lab draws. A "4 AM Labs" column was added to electronic patient lists to signal which patients had early morning labs ordered. Among 7,045 patients over 50,951 total patient-days, on average we observed 26.3% fewer routine lab draws per patient-day per week postintervention (4.68 before vs 3.45 after; difference, 1.23; 95% CI, 0.82-1.63; P < .05). In interrupted time series analysis, the "Order Sleep" tool was associated with a significant increase in sleep-friendly lab orders per encounter per week on resident medicine services (intercept, 1.03; standard error (SE), 0.29; P < .001). The "4 AM Labs" column was associated with a significant increase in sleep-friendly lab orders per patient encounter per week on the hospitalist medical service (intercept, 1.17; SE, 0.50; P = .02). We demonstrate the success of an initiative to simultaneously reduce daily labs and improve sleep-friendly ordering.

Bundled Consent in US Intensive Care Units.

BACKGROUND: Bundled consent, the practice of obtaining anticipatory consent for a predefined set of intensive care unit procedures, increases the rate of informed consent conversations and incorporation of patients' wishes into medical decision-making without sacrificing patients' or surrogates' understanding. However, the adoption rate for this practice in academic and nonacademic centers in the United States is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the national prevalence of use of bundled consent in adult intensive care units and opinions related to bundled consent. METHODS: A random sample of US hospitals with medical/surgical intensive care units was selected from the AHA [American Hospital Association] Guide. One intensive care unit provider (bedside nurse, nurse manager, or physician) from each hospital was asked to self-reportuse of per-procedure consent versus bundled consent, consent rate for intensive care unit procedures, and opinions about bundled consent. RESULTS: Of the 238 hospitals contacted, respondents from 100 (42%) completed the survey; 94% of respondents were nurses. The prevalence of bundled consent use was 15% (95% CI, 9%-24%). Respondents using per-procedure consent were more likely than those using bundled consent to self-report performing invasive procedures without consent. Users of bundled consent unanimously recommended the practice, and 49% of respondents using per-procedure consent reported interest in implementing bundled consent. RESULTS: Bundled consent use is uncommon in academic and nonacademic intensive care units, most likely because of conflicting evidence about the effect on patients and surrogate decision makers. Future work is needed to determine if patients, family members, and providers prefer bundled consent over per-procedure consent.

Accuracy of Clinicians' Ability to Predict the Need for Intensive Care Unit Readmission.

Rationale: Determining when an intensive care unit (ICU) patient is ready for discharge to the ward is a complex daily challenge for any ICU care team. Patients who experience unplanned readmissions to the ICU have increased mortality, length of stay, and cost compared with those not readmitted during their hospital stay. The accuracy of clinician prediction for ICU readmission is unknown.Objectives: To determine the accuracy of ICU physicians and nurses for predicting ICU readmissionsMethods: We conducted a prospective study in the medical ICU of an academic hospital from October 2015 to September 2017. After daily rounding for patients being transferred to the ward, ICU clinicians (nurses, residents, fellows, and attendings) were asked to report the likelihood of readmission within 48 hours (using a 1-10 scale, with 10 being "extremely likely"). The accuracy of the clinician prediction score (1-10) was assessed for all clinicians and by clinician type using sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) for the receiver operating characteristic curve for predicting the primary outcome, which was ICU readmission within 48 hours of ICU discharge.Results: A total of 2,833 surveys was collected for 938 ICU-to-ward transfers, of which 40 (4%) were readmitted to the ICU within 48 hours of transfer. The median clinician likelihood of readmission score was 3 (interquartile range, 2-4). When physician and nurse likelihood scores were combined, the median clinician likelihood score had an AUC of 0.70 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.62-0.78) for predicting ICU readmission within 48 hours. Nurses were significantly more accurate than interns at predicting 48-hour ICU readmission (AUC, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.64-0.82] vs. AUC, 0.60 [95% CI, 0.49-0.71]; P = 0.03). All other pairwise comparisons were not significantly different for predicting ICU readmission within 48 hours (P > 0.05 for all comparisons).Conclusions: We found that all clinicians surveyed in our ICU, regardless of the level of experience or clinician type, had only fair accuracy for predicting ICU readmission. Further research is needed to determine if clinical decision support tools would provide prognostic value above and beyond clinical judgment for determining who is ready for ICU discharge.