Assessment tool items for addressing physician-patient communication and reducing health care risk factors across multiple enterprise risk management domains.

Expertise in physician-patient communication is a primary outcome measure for physicians. We evaluated residents' communication behaviors with clinic patients following an educational intervention as measured by the Communication Assessment Tool (CAT). Thirty-five internal medicine residents were assessed by patients using the CAT for 3 months before and after the educational intervention. The intervention included a simulated, videotaped patient encounter, mock CAT, and preceptor coaching during video review. The primary outcome was the percentage of CAT items receiving an "excellent" rating from patients before and after the intervention. Research results were compared to previously published CAT studies. Within-resident improvement in the percentage of excellent ratings was small with median changes between 0 and 3 percentage points. Compared to previously published studies, similar results were found for the highest and lowest-scored communication items. Many clinical encounters are time-limited, and physicians do not pursue time-consuming conversations that could reduce health care risk. This data and other published studies suggest seven communication items taking the most time to complete (i.e., shared decision-making) were items demonstrating little or no improvement. This study identified clinical performance risk factors applicable to the Enterprise Risk Management Framework that could impact complication and readmission rates if addressed by changes in physician-patient communication.

Performance improvement, telemedicine, patient engagement, and comparative no-show rates.

No-show patient visits should be considered risk events. No-shows impact the quality and continuity of patient care. Missed visits increase health care risks by deferred or missed diagnosis and treatment, and increases costs of care. This performance improvement project proactively implemented a telemedicine system of care during a public health emergency (PHE). The goal was to improve health care access and decrease health care disparities despite emergency management changes in organizational staffing and federal stay-at-home orders. Telemedicine visits also addressed known causes of historically high in-person no-show office rates-lack of transportation, childcare issues, mobility issues, and adverse weather conditions. Despite location in a Hospital Census Tract where 50% of our population is below the Federal Poverty Level, with less access to technology, telemedicine proved to be successful. The Revised Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE 2.0) guidelines were the planning framework. The Model for Healthcare Improvement including Part 1 (AIM) and Part 2 (Plan-Do-Study-Act) was used to develop interventions, outcomes, and rationale for use. Data was collected from January 2020 thru March 2022, with 22,831 total scheduled visits (15,837 in-person, 6994 telemedicine). The average monthly no-show rate for in-person visits was 35% compared to 9% for telemedicine visits.

Effects of a Labor Dispute on a Hospital-Based Helicopter Air Ambulance Service's Volume and Destinations.

OBJECTIVE: In the United States, there are few unionized hospitals with air medical transport agencies. When labor disputes and strikes occur, information about the effect on helicopter air ambulances and critical care ground transport services is limited. For this study, a helicopter air ambulance and critical care ground transport agency's volume of transports was examined before, during, and after a strike and compared with volumes from the prior year. METHODS: This was a retrospective, descriptive comparative review of a unionized hospital's air ambulance and critical care mobile ground transport service records from March 28 to July 22, 2018 (control year, 872 transports) and March 28 to July 22, 2019 (strike year, 863 transports). RESULTS: Compared with the prior year, during the strike period alone, the volume of flight transports remained stable; however, there was a significant 31% loss in transports for time-critical diseases including trauma, stroke, and myocardial infarction. CONCLUSION: The unionized helicopter air ambulance experienced little change in overall volume, but there was a statistically and financially significant decline in flight transports for patients with time-critical diseases. When preparing for labor disputes, potential declines in the transportation of this population type should be considered, and future studies should look at patient and requesting agency preferences during strikes.

Initial distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to front-line hospital workers and community first responders-A prospective descriptive study.

As one of the initial ten sites in Ohio designated to receive and distribute the first COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020, we initiated a self-reported IRB-approved research survey to describe the demographics, side-effects, and missed work time experienced by front-line health care workers in an urban tertiary care center and a rural regional hospital. First responders from both the urban and rural surrounding communities were also included in the initial Tier 1A vaccine distribution. The primary outcome measure was to identify the most frequently experienced side effects from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, based on type of vaccine, first or second dose, age, gender, race and occupation. The secondary outcome measure was to document the total number of work shifts missed after receiving the vaccine. Of interest to health care risk managers, the survey identified the most common side effects and resulting missed time from work broken down by type of vaccine and first or second dose. This information will be helpful for those institutions who have not yet vaccinated a majority of their work force, employees who still need their second dose, and for strategic scheduling of employees when booster doses become available later in the year.

Retrospective analysis of small intracranial hemorrhage in trauma: Is acute care surgery team management alone safe?

Background: The Brain Injury Guidelines (BIG) provide a validated framework for categorizing patients with small intracranial haemorrhages (ICH) who could be managed by acute care surgery without neurosurgical consultation or repeat head computed tomography in the absence of neurological deterioration. This replication study retrospectively applied BIG criteria to ICH subjects and only included BIG1 and BIG2 subjects.Methods: The trauma registry was queried from 2014 to 2019 for subjects with a traumatic ICH <1 cm, Glasgow Coma Scale score of 14/15 and not on anticoagulation therapy. Patients were then categorized under BIG 1 or BIG2 and outcomes were evaluated.Results: Two hundred fourteen subjects were reviewed (88 BIG1 and 126 BIG2). Twenty-three subjects had worse repeat imaging, but only one had worsening exam that resolved spontaneously. None required neurosurgical intervention. One died of non-neurological causes.Conclusions: Retrospective analysis supported our hypothesis that patients categorized as BIG1 or BIG2 could have been safely managed by acute care surgeons without neurosurgical consultation or repeat head imaging. A review of minor worsening on repeat imaging without changes in neurological exams and no need for neurosurgical interventions supports this evidence-based approach to the management of small intracranial haemorrhages.

The impact of clinical crisis management on trauma team outcomes following a prolonged strike by nursing, technical, and support staff.

There is a paucity of literature describing the preparation of hospital institutions prior to a nursing strike and the quality outcomes during and after a prolonged nursing strike. No published study was found describing the effects of a prolonged strike on quality outcomes specific to trauma patients. The American College of Surgeons (ACS) suggests specific critiques and complications data that each trauma program may choose to track as quality indicators, and those metrics are submitted to regional, state and national databanks and closely examined during site accreditations. This research study analyzed data from three equal time periods following a multiservices strike involving both nurses and service/technical staff lasting 63 days. The purposes of this study were to (1) evaluate the effects of prestrike organizational leadership and crisis management planning on organizational staffing and emergency management to reduce health care risk during the strike, (2) describe outcomes data from three equal time periods: prestrike, strike, and poststrike, and (3) specifically compare the trauma program's selected ACS trauma metrics for critiques and complication rates for our high-risk/high-volume population as a level 1 trauma center.

Evaluation of Maternal Functioning in Mothers of Infants Admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Objective: Factors associated with maternal functioning in biological mothers whose infants were admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) were identified as measured by a modified version of the Barkin Index of Maternal Functioning. Materials and Methods: This multivariable regression analysis explored sociodemographic and clinical data from 146 mother-infant dyads admitted to a Level III NICU between February 2015 and May 2016. Eligible dyads included: (1) adult biological mothers with singleton infants discharged home alive after NICU admission meeting criteria and (2) infants discharged home alive from the NICU with adult, biological mothers after a minimum 6-day admission. Results: Lower scores on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (p < 0.0001), and an infant admission diagnosis of hypoglycemia (p = 0.0295) were significantly associated with higher levels of maternal functioning. Conclusions: The significant association between maternal functioning and depressive symptom score is corroborated by the literature. Results relative to a diagnosis of infant hypoglycemia and higher levels of maternal functioning are intriguing, considering current literature linking increased postpartum depression to gestational diabetes. The severity of other possible admission diagnoses may provide a partial explanation. We believe this is the first study suggesting a potential role between infant admission diagnosis and the level of maternal functioning.

Do emergency physicians rely on point-of-care ultrasound for clinical decision making without additional confirmatory testing?

PURPOSE: It is unknown if Emergency Physicians (EPs) rely solely on Emergency Medicine performed Point-Of-Care Ultrasound (EM-POCUS) for clinical decision making or if they proceed to subsequent "gold standard" studies for confirmatory diagnosis. METHODS: After Institutional Review Board approval, an online survey was distributed by the Ohio Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians to its members. RESULTS: The most common EM-POCUS procedures used without confirmatory testing were: determination of cardiac activity during cardiac arrest (81.3%), differentiating cellulitis from abscess (63.2%), central venous catheter placement confirmation (43.2%), pericardial effusion evaluation (41.9%) and focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST-37.4%). The responses regarding remaining procedures suggest most physicians do not use EM-POCUS or verify EM-POCUS findings with additional testing. One hundred fifty-five survey responses provided a confidence interval of >90%. Two-thirds (67.7%) of respondents were board-certified EPs with 43.8% in practice for less than 5 years. EM-POCUS examinations were performed at least weekly by 37.4% of respondents; 28.4% performed at least 1 EM-POCUS examination per shift. Nearly half (47.7%) responded they had no concerns regarding use of EM-POCUS. CONCLUSIONS: This study describes the results of a survey on the use of EM-POCUS for clinical decision making by Ohio EPs. A majority of them continues to rely on gold standard testing for confirmatory diagnosis, in addition to EM-POCUS.

The Day I Died.

When I began experiencing chest pain that was different from my usual heartburn symptoms, I denied I could possibly be having a heart attack, but chewed 4 baby aspirin just in case. Despite years of community education about the need to call 911 and seek immediate emergency care when experiencing signs and symptoms of a heart attack, more than 350,000 individuals experienced an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in 2016. Of those, only 12% survived. Bystander recognition of cardiac arrest and prompt intervention with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and rapid defibrillation is essential for out-of-hospital survival. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the right people with the right equipment in the right place at the right time. I don't know why, but I was one of the lucky ones.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Environmental Stressors and Supports.

The relationship between maternal mental health and infant development has been established in the literature. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a particularly challenging environment for new mothers as several natural processes are disrupted. The objective of this study is to elucidate protective factors and environmental deficits associated with the NICU. The experiences of forty-six (n = 46) mothers of infants admitted to a Level III NICU in the Midwestern United States, who responded to a related open-ended question, were analyzed thematically. Five themes related to the NICU environment emerged as being either stressful or helpful: (1) amount and quality of communication with medical staff, (2) bedside manner of medical staff, (3) feeling alienated from infant's care, (4) support from other NICU mothers and families, and (5) NICU Physical Environment and Regulations. There is a need for medical staff training on awareness, communication, empathy, and other behaviors that might improve maternal (and parental) experiences in the NICU. The physical environment, including rules and regulations of the NICU, should be reexamined with family comfort in mind in addition to the clinical care of the infant.

Using SQUIRE 2.0 as a Guide for Planning Your Quality Improvement Project.

This article is the third of a 4-part quality improvement resource series for critical care nurses interested in implementing system process or performance improvement projects. Part 1 defined the differences between research and quality improvement. Part 2 discussed how nurses and managers could identify meaningful quality improvement projects that will make a real difference in their critical care unit while fitting within their time constraints and resources. Part 3 uses the recently revised Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence guidelines as a basis for designing, implementing, documenting, and publishing quality improvement projects.

Making It Meaningful: Finding Quality Improvement Projects Worthy of Your Time, Effort, and Expertise.

This article is the second of a 4-part quality improvement resource series for critical care nurses interested in implementing system process or performance improvement projects. The article is a brainstorming session on paper, written to assist nurses and managers in identifying possible quality improvement projects that are meaningful to them and will make a real difference in their critical care units. Every unit and institution has its own unique mix of resources, culture, physical environment, patient population, technology, documentation processes, health care providers, and multiple other factors. Thus specific patient care and safety challenges must be identified and prioritized individually for quality improvement by each unit. Projects also must be manageable and within the scope of time, effort, and expertise available-no quality improvement project is "too small" if it is applicable to your critical care area and will improve outcomes.

Surface Electromyography of the Forearm Musculature During the Windmill Softball Pitch.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies investigating the windmill softball pitch have focused primarily on shoulder musculature and function, collecting limited data on elbow and forearm musculature. Little information is available in the literature regarding the forearm. This study documents forearm muscle electromyographic (EMG) activity that has not been previously published. PURPOSE: Elbow and upper extremity overuse injuries are on the rise in fast-pitch softball pitchers. This study attempts to describe forearm muscle activity in softball pitchers during the windmill softball pitch. Overuse injuries can be prevented if a better understanding of mechanics is defined. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive laboratory study. METHODS: Surface EMG and high-speed videography was used to study forearm muscle activation patterns during the windmill softball pitch on 10 female collegiate-level pitchers. Maximum voluntary isometric contraction of each muscle was used as a normalizing value. Each subject was tested during a single laboratory session per pitcher. Data included peak muscle activation, average muscle activation, and time to peak activation for 6 pitch types: fastball, changeup, riseball, curveball, screwball, and dropball. RESULTS: During the first 4 phases, muscle activity (seen as signal strength on the EMG recordings) was limited and static in nature. The greatest activation occurred in phases 5 and 6, with increased signal strength, evidence of stretch-shortening cycle, and different muscle characteristics with each pitch style. These 2 phases of the windmill pitch are where the arm is placed in the 6 o'clock position and then at release of the ball. The flexor carpi ulnaris signal strength was significantly greater than the other forearm flexors. Timing of phases 1 through 5 was successively shorter for each pitch. There was a secondary pattern of activation in the flexor carpi ulnaris in phase 4 for all pitches except the fastball and riseball. CONCLUSION: During the 6 pitches, the greatest muscular activity was in phases 5 and 6. Flexor carpi ulnaris activity was greatest among the muscles tested. The riseball had the highest peak activity, but the curveball and dropball had the highest average signal strength. This muscle activity correlates with increasing distraction in the elbow, suggesting that flexor muscles act to counterdistract the elbow as they do for the baseball pitch. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Windmill pitchers are unique among overhead athletes as they throw, on average, more pitches per overhead athlete. Understanding the mechanics and physiology of the elbow in windmill pitchers is crucial to prevention and treatment of these increasingly common elbow injuries. This study establishes baseline data that will be useful to further prevent windmill pitch elbow injury.

Iliac Crest Herniation Secondary to Autogenous Bone Grafting Found on Osteopathic Examination.

Surgical repair of difficult or nonunion fractures is frequently performed with autogenous bone grafts, most commonly from the iliac crest. Complications from this procedure may include vessel injury, nerve injury, pelvic instability, bowel herniation, and ileus. The authors report a case of iliac crest herniation in a patient presenting with a small-bowel obstruction 2 years after anterior iliac crest graft harvest for an open reduction and internal fixation repair of a right humeral shaft fracture. An emergency operation revealed that the right colon had herniated through an opening in the right iliac crest. The appendix had adhered to new osseous bone formed postoperatively, requiring an appendectomy. The hernia defect was successfully repaired with polypropylene mesh. A high index of suspicion for graft site herniation is needed for patients with a history of iliac crest bone grafting who present with symptoms of abdominal pain, flank or hip pain, ileus, or small-bowel obstruction.

Measuring general surgery residents' communication skills from the patient's perspective using the Communication Assessment Tool (CAT).

OBJECTIVE: The Communication Assessment Tool (CAT) has been used and validated to assess Family and Emergency Medicine resident communication skills from the patient's perspective. However, it has not been previously reported as an outcome measure for general surgery residents. The purpose of this study is to establish initial benchmarking data for the use of the CAT as an evaluation tool in an osteopathic general surgery residency program. Results are analyzed quarterly and used by the program director to provide meaningful feedback and targeted goal setting for residents to demonstrate progressive achievement of interpersonal and communication skills with patients. DESIGN: The 14-item paper version of the CAT (developed by Makoul et al. for residency programs) asks patients to anonymously rate surgery residents on discrete communication skills using a 5-point rating scale immediately after the clinical encounter. Results are reported as the percentage of items rated as "excellent" (5) by the patient. SETTING: The setting is a hospital-affiliated ambulatory urban surgery office staffed by the residency program. PARTICIPANTS: Participants are representative of adult patients of both sexes across all ages with diverse ethnic backgrounds. They include preoperative and postoperative patients, as well as those needing diagnostic testing and follow-up. RESULTS: Data have been collected on 17 general surgery residents from a single residency program representing 5 postgraduate year levels and 448 patient encounters since March 2012. The reliability (Cronbach α) of the tool for surgery residents was 0.98. The overall mean percentage of items rated as excellent was 70% (standard deviations = 42%), with a median of 100%. CONCLUSIONS: The CAT is a useful tool for measuring 1 facet of resident communication skills-the patient's perception of the physician-patient encounter. The tool provides a unique and personalized outcome measure for identifying communication strengths and improvement opportunities, allowing residents to receive specific feedback and mentoring by program directors.

Quality improvement or research--deciding which road to take.

Critical care nurses are constantly challenged to provide safe, high-quality patient care at a low cost with increasingly scarce resources while implementing the latest evidence-based practices into their own clinical practice. This article is the first in a 4-part series to provide a practical quality improvement guide for critical care nurses interested in implementing system process or performance improvement projects within their own units. Part 1 is designed to answer the question "What method is better for measuring real-world patient outcomes-quality improvement or clinical research?" A broad overview of the differences between quality improvement and clinical research is provided. A newly published checklist to differentiate between attributes of each process is introduced, and readers can test their own knowledge between quality improvement and research with a quick quiz of studies recently published in Critical Care Nurse.

Right hemicolectomy in a severely anemic Jehovah's Witness patient with an extremely low preoperative hemoglobin level and the decision to operate.

Severe anemia is associated with high mortality, and patients with this condition are typically treated with packed blood red cells. Patients of Jehovah's Witness faith, however, do not accept blood transfusion therapy. The authors report the case of a Jehovah's Witness patient who presented with lower gastrointestinal bleeding secondary to Clostridium difficile colitis. Because the patient refused blood transfusion therapy, he underwent a right hemicolectomy with a preoperative hemoglobin level of 2.7 g/dL and a postoperative hemoglobin level of 1.8 g/dL. He was neurologically intact and discharged to a skilled care facility on postoperative day 10. The surgical team worked with the patient, his family, the anesthesiologists, and the Jehovah's Witness Hospital Liaison Committee physician members to devise a care plan that fully supported and respected the patient's religious beliefs and allowed him to maintain complete autonomy in his treatment decisions. Health care providers should be aware of how a patient's ethical, cultural, and religious background may impact treatment options.

Evaluation of a simulation training program for uncomplicated fishhook removal.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a fishhook removal simulation workshop using investigator-developed diagrams, practice models, and a teaching video. METHODS: This was a descriptive, prospective educational study with Institutional Review Board approval. The primary outcomes were the learner's perception of ease of learning, performance ability, and amount of tissue damage for each technique. A 2¾-minute educational video, instructional visual diagrams, and a simulated model were created to teach 4 techniques: simple retrograde, string pull, advance and cut, and needle cover. Learners performed each technique on a model to assess whether they could remove the hook on the first attempt for each technique. They then rank ordered their technique preferences for ease of learning, performance, perceived tissue damage, and overall choice. RESULTS: Of a total of 34 participants who completed the study, 71% of learners were emergency medicine residents or faculty, 65% were male, 42% were recreational fishers, and 68% had previous fishhook removal experience. On first attempt, more than 88% of participants demonstrated successful fishhook removal using all techniques except needle cover (47%). Simple retrograde was rated easiest to learn (74%) and perform (59%), was perceived to cause the least tissue damage (44%), and was the overall preferred technique. Needle cover was ranked hardest to learn (88%) and perform (82%), was perceived to cause the worst tissue damage (41%), and was the overall least preferred technique. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to describe a simulation training program for uncomplicated fishhook removal, and to experimentally evaluate physician learning and preferences for fishhook removal techniques. After a brief educational session, physicians could effectively use all techniques except needle cover. Simple retrograde was the overall preferred technique.