Hyperaldosteronism Screening and Findings From a Large Diverse Population With Resistant Hypertension Within an Integrated Health System.

INTRODUCTION: Hyperaldosteronism (HA) is a common cause of secondary hypertension and may contribute to resistant hypertension (RH). The authors sought to determine and characterize HA screening, positivity rates, and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) use among patients with RH. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed within Kaiser Permanente Southern California (7/1/2012-6/30/2017). Using contemporary criteria, RH was defined as blood pressure uncontrolled (≥ 130/80) on ≥ 3 medications or requiring ≥ 4 antihypertensive medications. The primary outcome was screening rate for HA defined as any aldosterone and plasma renin activity measurement. Secondary outcomes were HA screen positive rates and MRA use among all patients with RH. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratio (with 95% confidence intervals) for factors associated with HA screening and for patients that screened positive. RESULTS: Among 102,480 patients identified as RH, 1977 (1.9%) were screened for HA and 727 (36.8%) screened positive for HA. MRA use was 6.5% among all patients with RH (22.5% among screened, 31.2% among screened positive). Black race, potassium < 4, bicarbonate > 29, chronic kidney disease, obstructive sleep apnea, and systolic blood pressure were associated with HA screening, but only Black race (1.55 [1.20-2.01]), potassium (1.82 [1.48-2.24]), bicarbonate levels (1.39 [1.10-1.75]), and diastolic blood pressure (1.15 [1.03-1.29]) were associated with positive screenings. CONCLUSION: The authors' findings demonstrate low screening rates for HA among patients with difficult-to-control hypertension yet a high positivity rate among those screened. Factors associated with screening did not always correlate with screening positive. Screening and targeted use of MRA may lead to improved blood pressure control and outcomes among patients with RH.

Clinical Assessment Specialists: A New Faculty Role to Improve Clerkship Assessment.

INTRODUCTION: Ambulatory clerkships, including longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs), face challenges to assessment, including time pressure and clinical demands on preceptors. High-quality clinical assessment is critical to implementing competency-based medical education, generating valid grades, and supporting learning. This importance is further heightened with the new pass/fail scoring for US Medical Licensing Exam Step 1, discontinuation of US Medical Licensing Exam Step 2 Clinical Skills, and the growing concern for bias in assessment. METHODS: The Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine's LIC spans the first 2 years with 50 students per class. In 2021-2022, the authors created a new faculty role, the clinical assessment specialist (CASp). CASps are highly trained clinical teachers who directly observe clerkship students in the ambulatory setting, provide feedback, and complete competency-based assessment forms. RESULTS: CASps completed 186 assessments of first-year (Y1) LIC students and 333 assessments of second-year (Y2) LIC students. Y2 students achieved average higher milestones and were rated as requiring less supervision compared to Y1 students. Y1 students rated CASps more favorably than Y2 students. Preceptors rated the contribution of CASps similarly across both years. Clerkship directors described benefits including identification of at-risk students and value of augmenting preceptor assessments. DISCUSSION: The CASp role may offer an innovative way to generate valid assessment of student performance, offset clinical pressures faced by preceptors, identify at-risk students, and mitigate bias, especially in an LIC. Future studies may examine assessment validity, including use in summative assessment. CONCLUSION: CASps are an innovative approach to clinical clerkship assessment.

Safety Net Program to Improve Statin Initiation Among Adults With High Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol.

INTRODUCTION: Despite their effectiveness in reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and cardiovascular disease risk, high-intensity statins are underutilized among adults with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol ≥190 mg/dL. This study determined whether a safety net program (SureNet) facilitating medication and laboratory test orders improved statin initiation and laboratory test completions after (SureNet period: April 2019-September 2021) and before implementation (pre-SureNet period: January 2016-September 2018). METHODS: Kaiser Permanente Southern California members aged 20-60 years with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol ≥190 mg/dL and no statin use in previous 2-6 months were included in this retrospective cohort study. Statin orders within 14 days and statin fills, laboratory test completions, and improved low-density lipoprotein cholesterol within 180 days of the high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (pre-SureNet) or outreach (SureNet period) were compared. Analyses were conducted in 2022. RESULTS: Overall, 3,534 and 3,555 adults were eligible for statin initiation during the pre-SureNet and SureNet periods, respectively. Overall, 759 (21.5%) and 976 (27.5%) had a statin approved by their physician during pre-SureNet and SureNet periods, respectively (p<0.001). After multivariable adjustment for demographics and clinical characteristics, adults during the SureNet period had a higher likelihood of receiving a statin order (prevalence ratio=1.36, 95% CI=1.25, 1.48), filling their statin (prevalence ratio=1.32, 95% CI=1.26, 1.38), completing their laboratories (prevalence ratio=1.41, 95% CI=1.26, 1.58), and improving low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (prevalence ratio=1.21, 95% CI=1.07, 1.37) than in pre-Surenet period. CONCLUSIONS: The SureNet program was able to improve prescription orders, fills, laboratory test completions, and lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Optimizing both physician adherence to treatment guidelines; and patient adherence to the program may improve low-density lipoprotein cholesterol lowering.

Creating a Safety Net Process to Improve Colon Cancer Diagnosis in Patients With Rectal Bleeding.

Background Failure to follow up on patients with rectal bleeding is common and may result in a delay in diagnosis of colorectal cancer or in missing high-risk adenomas. The authors' purpose was to create an electronic patient safety net for those diagnosed with rectal bleeding but who did not have colonoscopy to ensure proper detection of colonic abnormalities, including colon cancer. Methods In an integrated health delivery system serving < 4.6 million patients in Southern California, from 2014 to 2019, the authors electronically identified patients with rectal bleeding aged 45 to 80 years but with no recently documented colonoscopy. These cases were reviewed by a gastroenterologist to determine if colonoscopy was appropriate. The physician looked for known documentation as to the cause of rectal bleeding and verified no contraindications to the procedure; if indicated, testing was offered. Results Using the authors' safety net program, 1430 patients with rectal bleeding who needed and completed a colonoscopy were identified. Of those patients, 7.5% had an advanced adenoma or cancer, with a total of 20 cancers, and 34% had findings that warranted more frequent colonoscopy. Conclusions The authors designed a safety net system that was able to capture information on patients with rectal bleeding who had not had a colonoscopy and detected in 34% colonic pathology that would have otherwise gone undetected. The program did not require many resources to implement and had the ability to potentially prevent harm from reaching patients whose rectal bleeding did not get prompt workup. Other health systems and practices should consider implementing a similar system.

The e-Autopsy/e-Biopsy: a systematic chart review to increase safety and diagnostic accuracy.

Solving diagnostic errors is difficult and progress on preventing those errors has been slow since the 2015 National Academy of Medicine report. There are several methods used to improve diagnostic and other errors including voluntary reporting; malpractice claims; patient complaints; physician surveys, random quality reviews and audits, and peer review data which usually evaluates single cases and not the systems that allowed the error. Additionally, manual review of charts is often labor intensive and reviewer dependent. In 2010 we developed an e-Autopsy/e-Biopsy (eA/eB) methodology to aggregate cases with quality/safety/diagnostic issues, focusing on a specific population of patients and conditions. By performing a hybrid review process (cases are first filtered using administrative data followed by standardized manual chart reviews) we can efficiently identify patterns of medical and diagnostic error leading to opportunities for system improvements that have improved care for future patients. We present a detailed methodology for eA/eB studies and describe results from three successful studies on different diagnoses (ectopic pregnancy, abdominal aortic aneurysms, and advanced colon cancer) that illustrate our eA/eB process and how it reveals insights into creating systems that reduce diagnostic and other errors. The eA/eB process is innovative and transferable to other healthcare organizations and settings to identify trends in diagnostic error and other quality issues resulting in improved systems of care.

Beyond Screening: An Interim Report and Analysis of a Multimodal Initiative to Decrease Colon Cancer Mortality.

BACKGROUND: Colon cancer, a potentially preventable and curable cancer, remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related death in the United States. In 2010 the researchers undertook a multifaceted initiative to reduce colon cancer mortality rates by 50% over 10 years. METHODS: A baseline literature review of preventable causes of colon cancer mortality and review of 50 deaths from colon cancer in one institution identified a set of care process improvements that could be implemented to decrease colon cancer mortality. In 2017 a second mortality review identified a second set of care process improvements that were subsequently implemented. Compliance with these processes was monitored along with age and gender-adjusted mortality rates. RESULTS: Identified care process improvements included improving the follow-up of patients with rectal bleeding and presumed iron deficiency anemia and improving the reliability of postsurgical surveillance for cancer recurrence, decreasing elapsed time from surgery to chemotherapy, increasing surgical referrals for patients with advanced colon cancer, increasing the upper age limit and overall rate of colon cancer screening, increasing vitamin D and aspirin use, and monitoring and increasing the adenoma detection rate. Compliance with these processes improved for most measures, including screening (73.7% to 79.9%), adenoma detection rates on screening colonoscopy (30% to 36% for women and 42% to 49% for men), and chemotherapy within 35 days of surgery for colon cancer (39.0% to 51.9%). Age- and gender-adjusted mortality decreased from 13.8 per 100,000 in 2009-2011 to 10.5 per 100,000 in 2016-2018. CONCLUSIONS: This quality improvement program was feasible to implement, resulted in process improvements, and decreased colon cancer mortality over seven years.

The Reliability of Graduate Medical Education Quality of Care Clinical Performance Measures.

Background: Graduate medical education (GME) program leaders struggle to incorporate quality measures in the ambulatory care setting, leading to knowledge gaps on how to provide feedback to residents and programs. While nationally collected quality of care data are available, their reliability for individual resident learning and for GME program improvement is understudied. Objective: To examine the reliability of the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) clinical performance measures in family medicine and internal medicine GME programs and to determine whether HEDIS measures can inform residents and their programs with their quality of care. Methods: From 2014 to 2017, we collected HEDIS measures from 566 residents in 8 family medicine and internal medicine programs under one sponsoring institution. Intraclass correlation was performed to establish patient sample sizes required for 0.70 and 0.80 reliability levels at the resident and program levels. Differences between the patient sample sizes required for reliable measurement and the actual patients cared for by residents were calculated. Results: The highest reliability levels for residents (0.88) and programs (0.98) were found for the most frequently available HEDIS measure, colorectal cancer screening. At the GME program level, 87.5% of HEDIS measures had sufficient sample sizes for reliable measurement at alpha 0.7 and 75.0% at alpha 0.8. Most resident level measurements were found to be less reliable. Conclusions: GME programs may reliably evaluate HEDIS performance pooled at the program level, but less so at the resident level due to patient volume.

Decreasing Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Expenditures and Improving Quality at the Health System Level.

OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to evaluate a multicomponent health system intervention designed to reduce escalating disease-modifying treatment (DMT) expenditures and improve multiple sclerosis (MS) outcomes by increasing use of preferred formulary and highly effective DMTs (HETs). METHODS: We conducted a trend study of treatment utilization and expenditure outcomes prior to (2009-2011) and during (2012-2018) MS Treatment Optimization Program (MSTOP) implementation in Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) compared to a Kaiser Permanente region of similar size. Annual relapse rates (ARRs) were obtained from KPSC's electronic health records. RESULTS: Adherence to preferred formulary DMTs increased from 25.4% in 2011 to 72.2% in 2017 following MSTOP implementation in KPSC and 22.1% to 43.8%, respectively, in the comparator. KPSC's annual DMT expenditures in 2018 were less than in 2011 despite an 11.3% increase in DMT-treated members. The decline in average per patient per year of treatment expenditures from a peak of $43.1 K in 2014 to $26.3 K in 2018 in KPSC was greater than the comparator, which peaked at $52.1 K and declined to $40.0 K in 2018. Over the 7 years following initiation of MSTOP, cumulative MS DMT expenditures were $161.6 million less than the comparator. HET use increased to 62.5% of per patient treatment-years versus 32.4% in the comparator. This corresponded to a 69% decline in adjusted ARR (95% confidence interval = 64.1-73.2%; p < 0.0001) among DMT-treated patients in KPSC. INTERPRETATION: A novel, expert-led health system intervention reduced MS DMT expenditures despite rising prices while simultaneously reducing MS relapse rates. Our focus on health system progress toward meaningful, measurable targets could serve as a model to improve quality and affordability of MS care in other settings. ANN NEUROL 2022;92:164-172.

Potentially Harmful Medication Dispenses After a Fall or Hip Fracture: A Mixed Methods Study of a Commonly Used Quality Measure.

BACKGROUND: High-risk medication dispenses to patients with a prior fall or hip fracture represent a potentially dangerous disease-drug interaction among older adults. The research team quantified the prevalence, identified risk factors, and generated patient and provider insights into high-risk medication dispenses in a large, community-based integrated health system using a commonly used quality measure. METHODS: This was a mixed methods study with a convergent design combining a retrospective cohort study using electronic health record (EHR) data, individual interviews of primary care physicians, and a focus group of patient advisors. RESULTS: Of 113,809 patients ≥ 65 years with a fall/fracture in 2009-2015, 35.4% had a potentially harmful medication dispensed after their fall/fracture. Most medications were prescribed by primary care providers. Older age, male gender, and race/ethnicity other than non-Hispanic White were associated with a reduced risk of high-risk medication dispenses. Patients with a pre-fall/fracture medication dispense were substantially more likely to have a post-fall/fracture medication dispense (hazard ratio [HR] = 13.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 12.91-13.61). Both patients and providers noted that providers may be unaware of patient falls due to inconsistent assessments and patient reluctance to disclose falls. Providers also noted the lack of a standard location to document falls and limited decision support alerts within the EHR. CONCLUSION: High-risk medication dispenses are common among older patients with a history of falls/fractures. Future interventions should explore improved assessment and documentation of falls, decision support, clinician training strategies, patient educational resources, building trusting patient-clinician relationships to facilitate long-term medication discontinuation among persistent medication users, and a focus on fall prevention.

Laboratory monitoring to reduce adverse drug-related events: a mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: Therapy with angiotensinconverting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) requires laboratory monitoring to avoid hyperkalemia and acute kidney failure. OBJECTIVE: To assess the frequency of recommended annual serum potassium and creatinine monitoring and determine potential factors associated with care gaps among adults dispensed an ACEI or ARB. METHODS: This mixed-methods study integrated findings from a retrospective cohort study and individual patient interviews. Adults aged 21 years and over within Kaiser Permanente Southern California with at least 180 treatment days of an ACEI and/or ARB in 2015 were included. Patients invited for qualitative interviews included those who did and did not complete the recommended laboratory tests. We assessed the proportion of patients completing both recommended laboratory tests, factors associated with not receiving laboratory monitoring, and patients' insights into barriers and facilitators of recommended monitoring. RESULTS: Of 437,544 patients who received an ACEI or ARB, 9.0% did not receive both a serum potassium and creatinine laboratory test during treatment (defined as a care gap). Lower risk of a care gap was observed for patients with increasing age (rate ratio [RR] per 10-year increase = 0.78, 95% CI = 0.77-0.79); diabetes mellitus (RR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.60-0.64); hypertension (RR = 0.71, 95% CI = 0.71-0.74); Charlson Comorbidity Index score of at least 2 (RR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.60-0.64); those who changed medication classes (RR = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.51-0.56); and patients with a cardiologist (RR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.73-0.90) or nephrologist (RR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.52-0.69) as their prescribing provider. Twenty-five patients completed the qualitative interviews. Patients often lacked knowledge about the need for laboratory monitoring, cited logistical barriers to accessing the laboratory, and deemed the reminders they received through an outpatient safety program as a facilitator to completing tests. CONCLUSIONS: Given the large patient population on ACEI and ARB medications, monitoring and support strategies such as electronic clinical surveillance could be important in addressing care gaps and potentially reducing adverse drug effects. DISCLOSURES: This project was supported by grant number R01HS024437 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The funder had no role in the design of the study; collection, analyses, or interpretation of the data, or decision to submit this manuscript for publication. Harrison, Reynolds, Hahn, Munoz-Plaza, Yi, Fischer, Luong, Sim, Brettler, Handler, and Mittman are employees of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group. Danworth was employed by the Southern California Permanente Medical Group at the time of this study. Singh was partially supported by the Houston VA HSR&D Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (CIN13-413). Reynolds reports grants from Novartis, Amgen Inc., and Vital Strategies, Resolve to Save Lives, unrelated to this work. Yi reports grants from Novartis unrelated to this work. Kanter has nothing to disclose.

The Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Optimization Program.

OBJECTIVE: To design and implement a health system level intervention to reduce escalating multiple sclerosis (MS) disease modifying treatment (DMT) expenditures and improve outcomes. METHODS: We conducted stakeholder meetings, reviewed pharmacy utilization data, and abstracted information in subsets of persons with MS (pwMS) from the electronic health record to identify gaps in, and barriers to improving, quality, and affordability of MS care in Kaiser Permanente Southern California. These results informed the development and implementation of the MS Treatment Optimization Program (MSTOP). RESULTS: The two main gaps identified were under-prescribing of highly effective DMTs (HET, 4.9%) and the preferred formulary DMT (20.9%) among DMT-treated pwMS. The main barriers identified were prescribers' fear of rare but serious HET side effects, lack of MS-specific and health systems science knowledge, Pharma influence, evidence gaps, formulary decisions-based solely on costs, and multidirectional mistrust between neurologists, practice leaders, and health plan pharmacists. To overcome these barriers MSTOP developed four strategies: (1) risk-stratified treatment algorithm to increase use of HETs; (2) an expert-led ethical, cost-sensitive, risk-stratified, preferred formulary; (3) proactive counter-launch campaigns to minimize uptake of new, low-value DMTs; and (4) discontinuation of ineffective DMTs in progressive, non-relapsing MS. The multicomponent MSTOP was implemented through education, training, and expanding access to MS-trained providers, audit and feedback, and continual evidence reviews. INTERPRETATION: The causes of wasteful spending on MS DMTs are complex and require multiple strategies to resolve. We provide herein granular details of how we designed and implemented our health system intervention to facilitate its adaption to other settings and conditions.

An exploratory data quality analysis of time series physiologic signals using a large-scale intensive care unit database.

Physiological data, such as heart rate and blood pressure, are critical to clinical decision-making in the intensive care unit (ICU). Vital signs data, which are available from electronic health records, can be used to diagnose and predict important clinical outcomes; While there have been some reports on the data quality of nurse-verified vital sign data, little has been reported on the data quality of higher frequency time-series vital signs acquired in ICUs, that would enable such predictive modeling. In this study, we assessed the data quality issues, defined as the completeness, accuracy, and timeliness, of minute-by-minute time series vital signs data within the MIMIC-III data set, captured from 16009 patient-ICU stays and corresponding to 9410 unique adult patients. We measured data quality of four time-series vital signs data streams in the MIMIC-III data set: heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), and arterial blood pressure (ABP). Approximately, 30% of patient-ICU stays did not have at least 1 min of data during the time-frame of the ICU stay for HR, RR, and SpO2. The percentage of patient-ICU stays that did not have at least 1 min of ABP data was ∼56%. We observed ∼80% coverage of the total duration of the ICU stay for HR, RR, and SpO2. Finally, only 12.5%%, 9.9%, 7.5%, and 4.4% of ICU lengths of stay had ≥ 99% data available for HR, RR, SpO2, and ABP, respectively, that would meet the three data quality requirements we looked into in this study. Our findings on data completeness, accuracy, and timeliness have important implications for data scientists and informatics researchers who use time series vital signs data to develop predictive models of ICU outcomes.

Concordance of End-of-Life Care With End-of-Life Wishes in an Integrated Health Care System.

Importance: There is widespread consensus on the challenges to meeting the end-of-life wishes of decedents in the US. However, there is broad but not always recognized success in meeting wishes among decedents 65 years and older. Objective: To assess how well end-of-life wishes of decedents 65 years and older are met in the last year of life. Design, Setting, and Participants: This quality improvement study involved 3 planned samples of family members or informants identified as the primary contact in the medical record of Kaiser Permanente Southern California decedents. The first sample was 715 decedents, 65 years or older, who died between April 1 and May 31, 2017. The second was a high-cost sample of 332 decedents, 65 years or older, who died between June 1, 2016, and May 31, 2017, and whose costs in the last year of life were in the top 10% of the costs of all decedents. The third was a lower-cost sample with 655 decedents whose costs were not in the top 10%. The survey was fielded between December 19, 2017, and February 8, 2018. Main Outcomes and Measures: Meeting end-of-life wishes, discussions with next of kin and physicians, types of discordant care, and perceptions of amount of care received. Results: Surveys were completed by 715 of the 2281 next of kin in the all-decedent sample (mean [SD] decedent age, 80.9 [8.9] years; 361 [50.5%] male) for a 31% response rate; in 332 of the 1339 next of kin in the high-cost sample (mean [SD] decedent age, 75.5 [7.1] years; 194 [48.4%] male) for a 25% response rate; and in 659 of 2058 in the lower-cost sample (mean [SD] decedent age, 81.6 [8.8] years) for a 32% response rate. Respondents noted that high percentages of decedents received treatment that was concordant with their desires: 601 (88.9%) had their wishes met, 39 (5.9%) received a treatment they did not want, and 554 (84.1%) filled out an advance directive. A total of 509 respondents (82.5%) believed the amount of care was the right amount. Those with the highest costs had their wishes met at lower rates than those with lower costs (250 [80.1%] vs 553 [89.6%]). Conclusions and Relevance: In this Kaiser Permanente Southern California cohort, a large proportion of decedents 65 years and older had end-of-life discussions and documentation, had their wishes met, and received the amount of care they thought appropriate.