Differences in rapid increases in county-level COVID-19 incidence by implementation of statewide closures and mask mandates - United States, June 1-September 30, 2020.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Community mitigation strategies could help reduce COVID-19 incidence, but there are few studies that explore associations nationally and by urbanicity. In a national county-level analysis, we examined the probability of being identified as a county with rapidly increasing COVID-19 incidence (rapid riser identification) during the summer of 2020 by implementation of mitigation policies prior to the summer, overall and by urbanicity. METHODS: We analyzed county-level data on rapid riser identification during June 1-September 30, 2020 and statewide closures and statewide mask mandates starting March 19 (obtained from state government websites). Poisson regression models with robust standard error estimation were used to examine differences in the probability of rapid riser identification by implementation of mitigation policies (P-value< .05); associations were adjusted for county population size. RESULTS: Counties in states that closed for 0-59 days were more likely to become a rapid riser county than those that closed for >59 days, particularly in nonmetropolitan areas. The probability of becoming a rapid riser county was 43% lower among counties that had statewide mask mandates at reopening (adjusted prevalence ratio = 0.57; 95% confidence intervals = 0.51-0.63); when stratified by urbanicity, associations were more pronounced in nonmetropolitan areas. CONCLUSIONS: These results underscore the potential value of community mitigation strategies in limiting the COVID-19 spread, especially in nonmetropolitan areas.

Pediatric Trainees' Speaking Up About Unprofessional Behavior and Traditional Patient Safety Threats.

OBJECTIVE: Speaking up is increasingly recognized as essential for patient safety. We aimed to determine pediatric trainees' experiences, attitudes, and anticipated behaviors with speaking up about safety threats including unprofessional behavior. METHODS: Anonymous, cross-sectional survey of 512 pediatric trainees at 2 large US academic children's hospitals that queried experiences, attitudes, barriers and facilitators, and vignette responses for unprofessional behavior and traditional safety threats. RESULTS: Responding trainees (223 of 512, 44%) more commonly observed unprofessional behavior than traditional safety threats (57%, 127 of 223 vs 34%, 75 of 223; P < .001), but reported speaking up about unprofessional behavior less commonly (48%, 27 of 56 vs 79%, 44 of 56; P < .001). Respondents reported feeling less safe speaking up about unprofessional behavior than patient safety concerns (52%, 117 of 223 vs 78%, 173 of 223; P < .001). Respondents were significantly less likely to speaking up to, and use assertive language with, an attending physician in the unprofessional behavior vignette than the traditional safety vignette (10%, 22 of 223 vs 64%, 143 of 223, P < .001 and 12%, 27 of 223 vs 57%, 128 of 223, P < .001, respectively); these differences persisted even among respondents that perceived high potential for patient harm in both vignettes (20%, 16 of 81 vs 69%, 56 of 81, P < .001 and 20%, 16 of 81 vs 69%, 56 of 81, P < .001, respectively). Fear of conflict was the predominant barrier to speaking up about unprofessional behavior and more commonly endorsed for unprofessional behavior than traditional safety threats (67%, 150 of 223 vs 45%, 100 of 223, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest pediatric trainee reluctance to speak up when presented with unprofessional behavior compared to traditional safety threats and highlight a need to improve elements of the clinical learning environment to support speaking up.

Speaking up about traditional and professionalism-related patient safety threats: a national survey of interns and residents.

BACKGROUND: Open communication between healthcare professionals about care concerns, also known as 'speaking up', is essential to patient safety. OBJECTIVE: Compare interns' and residents' experiences, attitudes and factors associated with speaking up about traditional versus professionalism-related safety threats. DESIGN: Anonymous, cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Six US academic medical centres, 2013-2014. PARTICIPANTS: 1800 medical and surgical interns and residents (47% responded). MEASUREMENTS: Attitudes about, barriers and facilitators for, and self-reported experience with speaking up. Likelihood of speaking up and the potential for patient harm in two vignettes. Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) teamwork and safety scales; and Speaking Up Climate for Patient Safety (SUC-Safe) and Speaking Up Climate for Professionalism (SUC-Prof) scales. RESULTS: Respondents more commonly observed unprofessional behaviour (75%, 628/837) than traditional safety threats (49%, 410/837); p<0.001, but reported speaking up about unprofessional behaviour less commonly (46%, 287/628 vs 71%, 291/410; p<0.001). Respondents more commonly reported fear of conflict as a barrier to speaking up about unprofessional behaviour compared with traditional safety threats (58%, 482/837 vs 42%, 348/837; p<0.001). Respondents were also less likely to speak up to an attending physician in the professionalism vignette than the traditional safety vignette, even when they perceived high potential patient harm (20%, 49/251 vs 71%, 179/251; p<0.001). Positive perceptions of SAQ teamwork climate and SUC-Safe were independently associated with speaking up in the traditional safety vignette (OR 1.90, 99% CI 1.36 to 2.66 and 1.46, 1.02 to 2.09, respectively), while only a positive perception of SUC-Prof was associated with speaking up in the professionalism vignette (1.76, 1.23 to 2.50). CONCLUSIONS: Interns and residents commonly observed unprofessional behaviour yet were less likely to speak up about it compared with traditional safety threats even when they perceived high potential patient harm. Measuring SUC-Safe, and particularly SUC-Prof, may fill an existing gap in safety culture assessment.

'Speaking up' about patient safety concerns and unprofessional behaviour among residents: validation of two scales.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and test the psychometric properties of two new survey scales aiming to measure the extent to which the clinical environment supports speaking up about (a) patient safety concerns and (b) unprofessional behaviour. METHOD: Residents from six large US academic medical centres completed an anonymous, electronic survey containing questions regarding safety culture and speaking up about safety and professionalism concerns. RESULTS: Confirmatory factor analysis supported two separate, one-factor speaking up climates (SUCs) among residents; one focused on patient safety concerns (SUC-Safe scale) and the other focused on unprofessional behaviour (SUC-Prof scale). Both scales had good internal consistency (Cronbach's α>0.70) and were unique from validated safety and teamwork climate measures (r<0.85 for all correlations), a measure of discriminant validity. The SUC-Safe and SUC-Prof scales were associated with participants' self-reported speaking up behaviour about safety and professionalism concerns (r=0.21, p<0.001 and r=0.22, p<0.001, respectively), a measure of concurrent validity, while teamwork and safety climate scales were not. CONCLUSIONS: We created and provided evidence for the reliability and validity of two measures (SUC-Safe and SUC-Prof scales) associated with self-reported speaking up behaviour among residents. These two scales may fill an existing gap in residency and safety culture assessments by measuring the openness of communication about safety and professionalism concerns, two important aspects of safety culture that are under-represented in existing metrics.

Severe narrowing of left cavernous carotid artery associated with Fusobacterium necrophorum infection.

Severe oropharyngeal infection can result in Lemierre's disease, a syndrome with high mortality secondary to inflammation and thrombosis of cervical and intracranial veins with involvement of contiguous structures; however arterial involvement is rare. We report a case of Lemierre's disease in a 12 year old boy with severe narrowing of the left cavernous carotid artery.