A Multicenter Collaborative Effort to Reduce Preventable Patient Harm Due to Retained Surgical Items.

BACKGROUND: Unintentional retention of surgical items is severe but preventable patient harm in surgical procedures. One multicenter health care organization experienced a harm event due to retained surgical items (RSIs) every eight days in 2019-2020. The research team sought to reduce the incidence of harm due to RSIs, improve near-miss reporting, and increase process reliability in operating rooms across the organization. METHODS: A total of 114 health care facilities in the organization were invited to participate in a multistate, multicenter patient safety initiative to reduce patient harm caused by RSIs. A national-level workgroup comprising various disciplines proposed an evidence-based best practice bundle with five elements: surgical stop, surgical debrief, visual counter, imaging, and reporting of deviations. The workgroup ensured that extensive education and support were accessible to all the participating sites. The researchers monitored the process reliability of bundle elements and improvement milestones of all the sites, along with rates of harm related to RSIs. RESULTS: Implementing the evidence-based RSI reduction bundle across 114 health care facilities resulted in a 14.3% reduction in the rate of harm caused by RSIs and a 59.1% increase in RSI near-miss reporting. The compliance to the RSI bundle reached an average of 70.5%, and 63.2% of the facilities are actively performing Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycles to improve bundle compliance continually. CONCLUSION: Implementation of an RSI bundle can be done reliably, can improve near-miss reporting, and can reduce patient harm. Variation in process reliability between centers suggests the significance of overcoming cultural and organizational barriers.

Improving Psychosocial Risk Assessment and Service Provision for Craniofacial Team Patients: A Quality Improvement Project.

To improve psychosocial risk assessment and service provision for children with craniofacial conditions presenting for annual interdisciplinary team visits.Institute for Healthcare quality improvement model.U.S. pediatric academic medical center.Caregivers of children ages 0-17 years with craniofacial conditions presenting for 1692 team visits between August 2017 and July 2019.Key drivers included: (1) standardizing pre-visit triage processes; (2) administering the Psychosocial Assessment Tool-Craniofacial Version (PAT-CV); (3) utilizing PAT-CV scores in real time to add patients to psychosocial provider schedules; and (4) family education. Interventions included improving patient screening, increasing PAT-CV completion rate, altering clinic flow, providing patient and parent education about psychosocial services, and altering team member roles to fully integrate PAT-CV administration and scoring in the clinic.The primary outcome was the percentage of patients identified for psychosocial consultations via nurse triage, PAT-CV score, family or provider request who completed consultations. The secondary outcome was the percentage of patients completing needed psychosocial consultations based on elevated PAT-CV scores.Use of the PAT-CV resulted in an increase in the percentage of patients with elevated psychosocial risk who received a psychosocial consultation from 86.7% to 93.4%. The percentage of children receiving psychosocial consultation at their annual team visit due to elevated PAT-CV scores increased from 72% to 90%.Integrating a validated psychosocial risk screening instrument can improve risk identification and psychosocial consultation completion. A combination of risk screening approaches may be indicated to identify patients in need of psychosocial services.

Improving Pediatrician's Behavioral Health Competencies Through the Project ECHO Teleconsultation Model.

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a teleconsultation model for enhancing the treatment of underserved patients in primary care. Previous behavioral health (BH) adaptations of Project ECHO have primarily focused on adults or specific diagnoses and have relied on self-reported outcomes. The purpose of this pilot was to adapt Project ECHO to support pediatric primary care providers in addressing common BH needs and to conduct an initial evaluation of its effectiveness. Overall, participants reported high levels of satisfaction and a statistically significant improvement in their overall knowledge and skills (P = 0.001). Participation was also associated with a reduction in the use of psychotropic polypharmacy. This pilot adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that Project ECHO is a promising workforce development approach to build competencies for the management of BH issues in primary care.

Quality Improvement and Behavior Analysis: A Dynamic Duo.

Behavior analysis as a discipline prides itself on the systematic use of consistent, measured observations to drive specific and clearly defined changes in behavior. The need for diversification of practice is becoming increasingly focused on the topic. We posit that one such area of growth for behavior analysts could be quality improvement (QI). The field of health care QI utilizes specific tools and techniques to drive advancement in the quality and delivery of health care. There are deep corollaries between the methodologies used in QI and behavior analysis. We describe these corollaries through explanation and examples across the 7 dimensions of behavior analysis. We conclude that strong similarities exist between these fields, providing potential pathways for behavior analysts to expand our scope while maintaining the field's core values.

Writing Group Increases Quality Improvement Writing Competency.

Quality improvement (QI) is critically important in current medical practice. Although many QI courses teach improvement science and methods, formal education in writing QI manuscripts for academic journal publication is lacking. The authors developed a QI Writing program, consisting of educational sessions with both coach and peer mentors, to improve comfort and productivity in preparing QI manuscripts for publication. Program participants conducted pre- and post-course QI writing skills self-evaluations in 4 competency domains: SQUIRE guidelines, writing for peer-reviewed journals, QI publication submission steps, and critically examining QI results. Course success was measured by the number of manuscripts submitted for publication. QI writing competencies doubled in 3 of 4 domains and increased 70% in the fourth. Fifteen of 17 (88%) course participants submitted manuscripts to a peer-reviewed journal, and 12 have been accepted to date. A formal writing group with didactic content and committed mentors increases QI writing competencies and manuscript submissions to peer-reviewed journals.

Implementing Outcome-based Care in Pediatric Psychiatry: Early Results and Overcoming Barriers.

BACKGROUND: Poor utilization of standardized outcome measures for monitoring patient care and progress in mental health services is evident. The objective of this work was to implement computerized diagnostic and history assessments for outpatient mental health visits in the ambulatory psychiatric clinic of a large pediatric health system. METHODS: A computerized assessment system was created for the iPad to administer and score a series of validated diagnostics before new patient and follow-up appointments with a psychiatry provider. Outcome measures were a percentage of completed assessments, provider satisfaction, and patient satisfaction. RESULTS: Across all outpatient psychiatry clinics, screener completion rate for new patients increased from 0% to 90% within 1 year of implementation and sustained within 3σ process control limits for 2 years. Return visit assessment completion increased from 0% to 80%. The most substantial completion rate increase was related to scheduling assessment time as part of the visit. Assessment of provider and patient satisfaction through surveys before and after the implementation showed 94% of providers felt that visit efficiency had improved, and overall opinion of the system was highly positive. Patients also reported high satisfaction with the assessment process (4.1 on Likert scale 0-5, 5 = very positive). CONCLUSIONS: This quality improvement program demonstrates strategies for overcoming barriers to the use of standardized assessments in outpatient psychiatry. We show that a large pediatric mental health system can achieve systematic outcome data collection with minimal disruption to routine clinical care.

Timely Access to Mental Health Services for Patients with Pain.

Efficient access to pediatric mental health services is a growing concern as the number of patients increases and outpaces efforts to expand services. This study outlines interventions implemented using quality improvement (QI) science and methodology to demonstrate how a clinic embedded in a large children's hospital can improve access to the first appointment for a population seeking pain management services. METHODS: A process improvement project started with a QI team, whose members designed interventions to change scheduling practices. Initial changes involved decreased time between calls to families, and efforts to streamline notifications among clinicians. Additional interventions included a close examination of waitlist assignment based on appropriateness and assessing patient interest in treatment. RESULTS: Within 3 months of implementation, a significant decline in wait time occurred for patients seeking services for pain management, from 106 to 48 days. This change remained stable for 6 months. In light of a sharp increase in referrals and wait time during the study period, efforts to engage additional clinicians in managing referrals resulted in wait time to stabilize at an average of 63 days to the first appointment. This change remained for 10 months. Scheduling changes did not negatively affect other providers. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the application of QI science to improve patient access to mental health care. Future directions will focus on enhancing the use of the electronic health record, along with previsit family engagement.

Decreasing Radiograph Errors in Pediatric Sports Medicine Clinic.

BACKGROUND: Radiographs are frequently ordered for general musculoskeletal complaints in the outpatient setting. However, incorrect laterality, incorrect location, or unnecessary radiographs have been reported as errors in our clinics. This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to reduce incorrect duplicate radiographs in outpatient pediatric sports medicine clinic. The overall global goal was to stop unnecessary radiation exposure in our pediatric patients. METHODS: Using QI methodology, we evaluated the current clinic flow, the process of ordering radiographs, and the completion of radiographs at the main sports medicine outpatient clinic. Staff communication, staff education, and patient participation were identified as the prominent gaps in our clinic process. We implemented interventions using progressive biweekly Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles to promote change and to reduce our radiographic errors. RESULTS: Retrospective baseline data demonstrated baseline errors of 9% (10/106) in the main outpatient clinic. After 6 months of PDSA cycles, we found no duplicate errors. Highly successful interventions included radiograph screening survey for families, staff education, and improved staff communication. The project was expanded to a second outpatient clinic with baseline errors of 6% (4/64). After 2 months of PDSA cycles, no duplicate errors were found. CONCLUSION: Our goal was to reduce incorrect duplicate radiographs in outpatient sports medicine clinic and limit unnecessary radiation exposure in our pediatric patients. A reduction in duplicate errors at 2 clinics occurred using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement model to facilitate change. Effective communication between physicians, clinical athletic trainers, radiology technologists, patients, and families drove the success of this quality improvement initiative.

Implementation of an Outcome Measure in Pediatric Behavioral Health: A Process Improvement Initiative.

INTRODUCTION: Efforts to monitor outcomes in pediatric behavioral health are becoming a quality, financial, and regulatory imperative. The implementation of a broad-based measure to assess patient functioning at the start of pediatric psychology services, as well as at subsequent visits, has not been demonstrated. This article describes the systematic implementation of a measure of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) to assess functional impairment across an entire clinic population using quality improvement science and methodologies. METHODS: The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory Generic Core 4.0 (PedsQL) was administered at initial and subsequent visits for all patients seeking treatment at a large, tertiary care pediatric psychology clinic in an academic pediatric medical center (Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio). The goal of this project was to design a process change to support a 90% completion rate of this measurement tool by all clinicians. RESULTS: Within 16 months, the completion rate of the PedsQL increased from a baseline of 39% to the identified goal of 90%. This process change was within control limits (over 80%) for over 12 months. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the implementation of a systematic process for collection of outcome measures in a pediatric behavioral health care setting. Successful administration of an outcome measure at multiple time points during the care of children and adolescents in a large psychology clinic can allow for quantitative assessment of treatment progress and identify a pathway for administration of additional measures.

Increasing Patient Portal Activation in a Pediatric Subspecialty Clinic.

BACKGROUND: Online patient portals are not widely used, despite their advantages for efficient communication, especially for patients with chronic conditions. A hospital-based group practice of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatricians initiated this quality improvement (QI) project with a goal to increase the percentage of patients with an active MyChart (Epic Systems Corporation's patient portal) account and ultimately improve efficiency of communication between families and clinical staff. METHODS: Using QI methodology, we identified staff commitment, workflow issues, and family awareness as gaps and implemented progressive Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles aimed at developing standard processes for activating families on MyChart. We tracked our project measures with statistical process control methodology and sustained our progress with improving awareness and regular feedback. RESULTS: Patient portal activations increased from 1.8% to 30% in a 6-month time period. Highly successful interventions included development and implementation of a standard process for activation, staff education to ensure comfort and commitment, having families opt out instead of opt in, and completed activation of accounts before families leaving clinic. CONCLUSIONS: Patient portal activation can be significantly increased through systematic application of QI methodology to address staff training and workflow in a busy subspecialty clinic. Engagement of operations staff and completion of the activation process while the family is still in clinic seemed to be effective in getting families activated in MyChart. It is possible to improve patient portal activation with minimal impact to workflow.