Benchmarking the use of a rapid response team by surgical services at a tertiary care hospital.

BACKGROUND: Rapid response teams (RRT) are used to prevent adverse events in patients with acute clinical deterioration, and to save costs of unnecessary transfer in patients with lower-acuity problems. However, determining the optimal use of RRT services is challenging. One method of benchmarking performance is to determine whether a department's event rate is commensurate with its volume and acuity. STUDY DESIGN: Using admissions between 2009 and 2011 to 18 distinct surgical services at a tertiary care center, we developed logistic regression models to predict RRT activation, accounting for days at-risk for RRT and patient acuity, using claims modifiers for risk of mortality (ROM) and severity of illness (SOI). The model was used to compute observed-to-expected (O/E) RRT use by service. RESULTS: Of 45,651 admissions, 728 (1.6%, or 3.2 per 1,000 inpatient days) resulted in 1 or more RRT activations. Use varied widely across services (0.4% to 6.2% of admissions; 1.39 to 8.73 per 1,000 inpatient days, unadjusted). In the multivariable model, the greatest contributors to the likelihood of RRT were days at risk, SOI, and ROM. The O/E RRT use ranged from 0.32 to 2.82 across services, with 8 services having an observed value that was significantly higher or lower than predicted by the model. CONCLUSIONS: We developed a tool for identifying outlying use of an important institutional medical resource. The O/E computation provides a starting point for further investigation into the reasons for variability among services, and a benchmark for quality and process improvement efforts in patient safety.

Randomized trial of automated, electronic monitoring to facilitate early detection of sepsis in the intensive care unit*.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether automated identification with physician notification of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome in medical intensive care unit patients expedites early administration of new antibiotics or improvement of other patient outcomes in patients with sepsis. DESIGN: : A prospective randomized, controlled, single center study. SETTING: Medical intensive care unit of an academic, tertiary care medical center. PATIENTS: Four hundred forty-two consecutive patients admitted over a 4-month period who met modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria in a medical intensive care unit. INTERVENTION: Patients were randomized to monitoring by an electronic "Listening Application" to detect modified (systemic inflammatory response syndrome) criteria vs. usual care. The listening application notified physicians in real time when modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria were detected, but did not provide management recommendations. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The median time to new antibiotics was similar between the intervention and usual care groups when comparing among all patients (6.0 hr vs. 6.1 hr, p = .95), patients with sepsis (5.3 hr vs. 5.1 hr; p = .90), patients on antibiotics at enrollment (5.2 hr vs. 7.0 hr, p = .27), or patients not on antibiotics at enrollment (5.2 hr vs. 5.1 hr, p = .85). The amount of fluid administered following detection of modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria was similar between groups whether comparing all patients or only patients who were hypotensive at enrollment. Other clinical outcomes including intensive care unit length of stay, hospital length of stay, and mortality were not shown to be different between patients in the intervention and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: Realtime alerts of modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria to physicians in one tertiary care medical intensive care unit were feasible and safe but did not influence measured therapeutic interventions for sepsis or significantly alter clinical outcomes.

Intraoperative risk factors for acute respiratory distress syndrome in critically ill patients.

BACKGROUND: Risk factors for the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in the intensive care unit (ICU) include positive fluid balance, high tidal volumes (TVs), high airway pressures, and transfusion of blood products. However, research examining intraoperative factors such as fluid resuscitation, mechanical ventilation strategies, and blood administration on the postoperative development of ARDS is lacking. METHODS: We assessed patients admitted to the ICU with postoperative hypoxemic respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation for the development of ARDS in the first 7 postoperative days using established clinical and radiological criteria. Data on risk factors for ARDS were obtained from the electronic anesthetic and medical records. Logistic regression was used to examine the independent association between fluid resuscitation, TV per ideal body weight, and number of blood products transfused during surgery and the postoperative development of ARDS, adjusting for important clinical covariates. RESULTS: Of the 89 patients with postoperative respiratory failure, 25 developed ARDS. Compared with those who received <10 mL/kg/h fluid resuscitation in the operating room, patients receiving >20 mL/kg/h fluid resuscitation had a 3.8 times higher adjusted odds of developing ARDS (P = 0.04), and those receiving 10 to 20 mL/kg/h had a 2.4 times higher adjusted odds of developing ARDS (P = 0.14). TV per ideal body weight and the number of blood units transfused were not associated with ARDS development in this study. CONCLUSIONS: This cohort study provides evidence to suggest a relationship between intraoperative fluid resuscitation and the development of ARDS. Larger prospective trials are required to confirm these findings.

Association of telemedicine for remote monitoring of intensive care patients with mortality, complications, and length of stay.

CONTEXT: Telemedicine technology, which can enable intensivists to simultaneously monitor several intensive care units (ICUs) from an off-site location, is increasingly common, but there is little evidence to support its use. OBJECTIVE: To assess the association of remote monitoring of ICU patients (ICU telemedicine [tele-ICU]) with mortality, complications, and length of stay (LOS). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS: Observational study conducted in 6 ICUs of 5 hospitals in a large US health care system to assess the use of tele-ICU. The study included 2034 patients in the preintervention period (January 2003 to August 2005) and 2108 patients in the postintervention period (July 2004 to July 2006). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Hospital and ICU mortality, complications, and hospital and ICU survivors' LOS, with outcomes adjusted for severity of illness. RESULTS: Local physicians delegated full treatment authority to the tele-ICU for 655 patients (31.1%) and authority to intervene only in life-threatening events for the remainder. Observed hospital mortality rates were 12.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.6% to 13.5%) in the preintervention period and 9.9% (95% CI, 8.6% to 11.2%) in the postintervention period (preintervention to postintervention decrease, 2.1%; 95% CI, 0.2% to 4.1%; P = .03); observed ICU mortality rates were 9.2% (95% CI, 8.0% to 10.5%) in the preintervention period and 7.8% (95% CI, 6.7% to 9.0%) in the postintervention period (preintervention to postintervention decrease, 1.4%; 95% CI, -0.3% to 3.2%; P = .12). After adjustment for severity of illness, there were no significant differences associated with the telemedicine intervention for hospital mortality (relative risk, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.71 to 1.03) or for ICU mortality (relative risk, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.71 to 1.08). There was a significant interaction between the tele-ICU intervention and severity of illness (P < .001), in which tele-ICU was associated with improved survival in sicker patients but with no improvement or worse outcomes in less sick patients. There were no significant differences between the preintervention and postintervention periods for hospital or ICU LOS. CONCLUSION: Remote monitoring of ICU patients was not associated with an overall improvement in mortality or LOS.

Possible liposomal amphotericin B-induced nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.

OBJECTIVE: To report the development of nephrogenic diabetes insipidus (NDI) associated with the use of high-dose liposomal amphotericin B. CASE SUMMARY: A 38-year-old white man with relapsed acute myelogenous leukemia underwent a matched unrelated donor allogeneic bone marrow transplant with adequate engraftment and mild graft-versus-host disease responding to corticosteroids. Approximately 11 months after transplant, the patient was admitted to the hospital with suspected fungal pneumonia and started on liposomal amphotericin B (baseline serum creatinine 1.4-1.5 mg/dL). The dose was increased due to his immunosuppression and poor response, as the fungal etiology was identified as Torulopsis glabrata. The patient required mechanical ventilation due to biopsy-proven bronchiolitis olbiterans organizing pneumonia. Additionally, he developed diffuse alveolar hemorrhage and received intravenous desmopressin, with a reduction in bloody secretions. He also developed hypernatremia (serum sodium 155 mEq/L) on day 3 of the desmopressin and had an inappropriately increased urine output consistent with NDI. The most likely etiology for the NDI was liposomal amphotericin B and its associated hypokalemia. DISCUSSION: The observation of worsening hypernatremia (serum sodium increased from 135 to 164 mEq/L) with polyuria was associated with an increasing cumulative dosage of liposomal amphotericin B for fungal pneumonia despite the concurrent use of intravenous desmopressin. Aggressive water replacement was an effective treatment option in this patient. The Naranjo probability scale classified this as a possible adverse reaction because of the temporal sequence of NDI after high-dose liposomal amphotericin B and previously reported cases of NDI associated with amphotericin B desoxycholate. CONCLUSIONS: Amphotericin B desoxycholate has been implicated as an etiology for NDI, and the use of the newer liposomal amphotericin B reportedly avoids this rare complication. We observed the development of NDI despite the use of liposomal amphotericin B in a critically ill patient with bone marrow transplant.

Steps toward mapping the human vasculature by phage display.

The molecular diversity of receptors in human blood vessels remains largely unexplored. We developed a selection method in which peptides that home to specific vascular beds are identified after administration of a peptide library. Here we report the first in vivo screening of a peptide library in a patient. We surveyed 47,160 motifs that localized to different organs. This large-scale screening indicates that the tissue distribution of circulating peptides is nonrandom. High-throughput analysis of the motifs revealed similarities to ligands for differentially expressed cell-surface proteins, and a candidate ligand-receptor pair was validated. These data represent a step toward the construction of a molecular map of human vasculature and may have broad implications for the development of targeted therapies.