Quality care for children: inpatient medication use in a mid-Atlantic hospital system 2000-2003.

The authors report on a preliminary analysis of an electronic database that includes more than 32 000 pediatric hospitalizations during 2000-2003. They analyzed pediatric inpatient medication use in a defined geographic area, the catchment area for the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, serving Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The study population included 18 108 female and 14 375 male children. The authors calculated the percentages of children receiving at least 1 administration of each drug. More than 700 drugs were received by children in the study population; 9 were received by at least 10% of all patients. The probability of receiving specific medications varied with patient age, sex, and race, but much further work is needed to quantify the variations. The database has the potential to inform pediatric health services research and pediatric comparative effectiveness research, and it may be the first analysis of hospitalizations for a pediatric population comprising all ages from 0 to 18.

Closing the gap in children's quality measures: a collaborative model.

The need for measures of the quality of healthcare provided to children and adolescents is well documented. However, children have been underrepresented in national healthcare quality measurement and reporting efforts. The Pediatric Data Quality Systems (Pedi-QS) Collaborative is addressing this gap. Two consensus measure sets and an assessment of nursing-sensitive indicators in pediatric care have been produced through the collaborative. The framework and measure set development process are described. Lessons learned from applying the process are summarized, and future directions are suggested. Voluntary collaborative efforts are vital for advancing children's measures, and national support and funding are also needed.

Improving physician communication through an automated, integrated sign-out system.

Communication failures among physicians are a leading cause of medical errors. The resident sign-out sheet is the primary tool used by house staff to facilitate the sign-out process. The resident sign-out sheet is a structured report, with patient-specific information including demographics, such a patient's name, age, sex, room number, and attending physician; problem list; medications; and allergies. Some physicians use handwritten notes to keep track of this information, while others use freestanding word processor or database programs. In a previous study, the authors described serious inaccuracies in a manually updated word-processor based resident sign-out sheet used by pediatric residents at a tertiary-care children's hospital. An automated and integrated sign-out system (AISS) was subsequently developed that retrieves pertinent patient information from a computerized provider order entry (CPOE) system. The AISS generates a resident sign-out sheet, which includes demographic information, weight, current medications, allergies, and diet orders, as well as optional free-text information. The AISS has proven to be enormously popular, increasing physician acceptance of CPOE throughout the organization. This paper discusses lessons learned, including technical, design, and workflow aspects of an integrated resident sign-out sheet. The authors recommend that all future commercial CPOE systems incorporate physician sign-out tools such as the one described in this article.

A simplified analysis to determine the impact of surgical procedure time on pediatric anesthesia productivity.

With fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursement, anesthesiologists benefit financially from cases that take longer than expected. Capitation, or fixed anesthesia reimbursement (FAR), might result in financial losses for such inefficient cases. In this investigation, we used the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' average anesthesia times as benchmarks for efficiency and examined case time characteristics for three surgical services: otorhinolaryngology, general surgery, and orthopedics. Our model demonstrated that some inefficient cases would be better billed FAR rather than FFS.

A model of determining a fair market value for teaching residents: who profits?

CONTEXT: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Health Resources and Services Administration Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (GME) Payment Program now supports freestanding children's teaching hospitals. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the fair market value impact of GME payment on resident teaching efforts in our pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). DESIGN: Cost-accounting model, developed from a 1-year retrospective, descriptive, single-institution, longitudinal study, applied to physician teachers, residents, and CMS. SETTING: Sixteen-bed PICU in a freestanding, university-affiliated children's teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Pediatric critical care physicians, second-year residents. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cost of physician opportunity time; CMS investment return; the teaching physicians' investment return; residents' investment return; service balance between CMS and teaching service investment margins; economic balance points; fair market value. RESULTS: GME payments to our hospital increased 4.8-fold from 577 886 dollars to 2 772 606 dollars during a 1-year period. Critical care physicians' teaching opportunity cost rose from 250 097 dollars to 262 215 dollars to provide 1523 educational hours (6853 relative value units). Residents' net financial value for service provided to the PICU rose from 245 964 dollars to 317 299 dollars. There is an uneven return on investment in resident education for CMS, critical care physicians, and residents. Economic balance points are achievable for the present educational efforts of the CMS, critical care physicians, and residents if the present direct medical education payment increases from 29.38% to 36%. CONCLUSIONS: The current CMS Health Resources and Services Administration Children's Hospitals GME Payment Program produces uneven investment returns for CMS, critical care physicians, and residents. We propose a cost-accounting model, based on perceived production capability measured in relative value units and available GME funds, that would allow a clinical service to balance and obtain a fair market value for the resident education efforts of CMS, physician teachers, and residents.

Intraoperative ultrasound reduces ECMO catheter malposition requiring surgical correction.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: One hundred ninety-three cannulation procedures for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) have been performed at the authors' institution from 1994 to now. Before 1996, their practice had been to position these catheters exclusively by clinical assessment and chest radiograph. Since then, the authors have utilized intraoperative ultrasound guidance during cannulation procedures to confirm proper tip position. This retrospective analysis was undertaken to establish whether this practice has reduced the rate of surgical repositioning of ECMO catheters in these patients. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed for all infants who underwent ECMO cannulation procedures at the authors' institution. Numbers of infants requiring surgery to readjust ECMO catheter position were totaled. Cases were categorized according to the presence or absence of intraoperative ultrasound scan. Statistical significance was determined using X(2) analysis, Student's t test, or analysis of variance where appropriate. RESULTS: There were 193 ECMO cannulations performed. Of the 101 procedures done without ultrasound scan, 18 necessitated surgical repositioning. In contrast, only 3 of the 92 catheters placed with ultrasound assistance required reoperation. This represents a reduction the rate of repositioning from 17.8% to 3.3% of cannulations (P =.003). CONCLUSIONS: Based on these findings, the authors advocate the use of intraoperative ultrasound imaging to optimize the position of ECMO catheters. This high rate of initial success helps avoid the potential morbidity of ECMO circuit malfunction, repeat neck dissection, and catheter manipulation in these critically ill, anticoagulated patients.