Increased risk of psychiatric disorder in patients with hearing loss: a nationwide population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Hearing loss has been shown to be a risk factor for psychiatric disorders. In addition, long-term hearing loss is associated with increased hospitalization and mortality rates; however, the increased risk and duration of effect of hearing loss in combination with other chronic diseases on each psychiatric disorder are still not clearly defined. The purpose of this article is to clarify the risk of hearing loss for each disorder over time. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study, and a national health insurance research database in Taiwan was utilized. All (n = 1,949,101) Taiwanese residents who had a medical visit between 2000 and 2015 were included. Patients with hearing loss and a comparative retrospective cohort were analyzed. Every subject was tracked individually from their index date to identify the subjects who later received a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder. The Kaplan‒Meier method was used to analyze the cumulative incidence of psychiatric disorders. Cox regression analysis was performed to identify the risk of psychiatric disorders. RESULTS: A total of 13,341 (15.42%) and 31,250 (9.03%) patients with and without hearing loss, respectively, were diagnosed with psychiatric disorders (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that hearing loss significantly elevated the risk of psychiatric disorders (adjusted HR = 2.587, 95% CI 1.723-3.346, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that patients with hearing loss are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, the various psychiatric disorders are more likely to occur at different times. Our findings have important clinical implications, including a need for clinicians to implement early intervention for hearing loss and to pay close attention to patients' psychological status. Trial registration TSGHIRB No. E202216036.

Impact of Foodborne Disease in Taiwan during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background and Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic originated in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the first case diagnosed since January 2020 in Taiwan. The study about the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on event, location, food source, and pathogens of foodborne disease (FBD) is limited in Taiwan. Our aim in this study is to investigate FBD in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: We collected publicly available annual summary data from the FBD dataset in the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration and Certifiable Disease on reported FBD in Taiwan from 2019 to 2020. We used logistic regression to evaluate changes in the occurrence or likelihood of FBD cases and Poisson regression to examine the relative risk (RR) between FBD and climate factors. Results: Similar events occurred in 2019 and 2020, but the total number of FBD cases decreased from 6935 in 2019 to 4920 in 2020. The places where FBD decreased were in schools, hospitals, outdoors, vendors, and exteriors. The top place in FBD shifted from schools to restaurants. The top food source for FBD has changed from boxed food to compound food. Bacillus cereus and Salmonella emerged as the top two observed bacterial pathogens causing FBD. The risk of FBD cases increased with a higher air temperature, with an RR of 1.055 (1.05-1.061, p < 0.001) every 1 °C. Conclusion: The incidence of FBD decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. This decline may be attributed to protective measures implemented to control the spread of the virus. This shift in locations could be influenced by changes in public behavior, regulations, or other external factors. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the sources and effectiveness of severe infection prevention policies. The government can use these findings to formulate evidence-based policies aimed at reducing FBD cases and promoting public health. Consumers can reduce the risk of FBD by following safe food handling and preparation recommendations.

Analyzing COVID-19 and Air Pollution Effects on Pediatric Asthma Emergency Room Visits in Taiwan.

(1) Background: An asthma exacerbation that is not relieved with medication typically requires an emergency room visit (ERV). The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began in Taiwan in January of 2020. The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric ERVs in Taiwan was limited. Our aim was to survey pediatric asthma ERVs in the COVID-19 era; (2) Methods: Data were collected from the health quality database of the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Administration from 2019 to 2021. Air pollution and climatic factors in Taipei were used to evaluate these relationships. Changes in the rates of pediatric asthma ERVs were assessed using logistic regression analysis. Poisson regression was used to evaluate the impact of air pollution and climate change; (3) Results: The rate of pediatric asthma ERVs declined in different areas and at different hospital levels including medical centers, regional and local hospitals. Some air pollutants (particulate matter ≤ 2.5 µm, particulate matter ≤ 10 µm, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide) reduced during the COVID-19 lockdown. Ozone increased the relative risk (RR) of pediatric asthma ERVs during the COVID-19 period by 1.094 (95% CI: 1.095-1.12) per 1 ppb increase; (4) Conclusions: The rate of pediatric asthma ERVs declined during the COVID-19 pandemic and ozone has harmful effects. Based on these results, the government could reduce the number of pediatric asthma ERVs through healthcare programs, thereby promoting children's health.

The Effect of the Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes from Nurse Training Using In Situ Simulation in an Intensive Care Unit.

BACKGROUND: In situ simulation is the practice of using simulated scenarios to improve skill implementation, train critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, and enhance self-efficacy. This study aimed to enhance nursing knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward clinical work by applying in situ simulation training to improve the healthcare of critically ill patients. METHODS: This study was conducted from a medical center in northern Taiwan and included 86 trainees who received intensive care training courses from 1 June 2017 to 31 May 2019. The self-report knowledge assessment, empathetic self-efficacy scale, skill assessment, and attitudes of instructors before and after training were collected. The statistical analysis used the Wilcoxon test for knowledge and attitudes, and chi-square tests were used for skills to evaluate the learning effect. RESULTS: The results showed a statistically significant improvement in knowledge, skills, attitudes, and empathy in nursing care. CONCLUSIONS: In situ simulation learning can be an accepted method for nursing skills in the intensive care unit. Through this study, we understood that the in situ simulation method was beneficial to nurses' care and care thinking processes. It is worth developing and evaluating integrated simulation education to enhance learning, change behavior, and promote holistic care in the nursing field.

Underestimated Subsequent Sensorineural Hearing Loss after Septicemia.

Background and Objectives: Hearing loss after septicemia has been found in mice; the long-term risk increased 50-fold in young adults in a previous study. Hearing loss after septicemia has not received much attention. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between septicemia and subsequent hearing loss. Materials and Methods: Inpatient data were obtained from the Taiwan Insurance Database. We defined patients with sensorineural hearing loss and excluded patients under 18 years of age. Patients without hearing loss were selected as controls at a frequency of 1:5. The date of admission was defined as the date of diagnosis. Comorbidities in the 3 years preceding the date of diagnosis were retrieved retrospectively. Associations with hearing loss were established by multiple logistic regression and forward stepwise selection. Results: The odds ratio (OR) for the association between sepsis and hearing loss was 3.052 (95% CI: 1.583-5.884). Autoimmune disease (OR: 5.828 (95% CI: 1.906-17.816)), brain injury (OR: 2.264 (95% CI: 1.212-4.229)) and ischemic stroke (OR: 1.47 (95% CI: 1.087-1.988)) were associated with hearing loss. Conclusions: Our study shows that hearing loss occurred after septicemia. Apoptosis caused by sepsis and ischemia can lead to hair cell damage, leading to hearing loss. Clinicians should be aware of possible subsequent complications of septicemia and provide appropriate treatment and prevention strategies for complications.

An Input-Current Shaping and Soft-Switching Drive Circuit Applied to a Piezoelectric Ceramic Actuator.

Piezoelectric ceramic actuators utilize an inverse piezoelectric effect to generate high-frequency vibration energy and are widely used in ultrasonic energy conversion circuits. This paper presents a novel drive circuit with input-current shaping (ICS) and soft-switching features which consists of a front AC-DC full-wave bridge rectifier and a rear DC-AC circuit combining a stacked boost converter and a half-bridge resonant inverter for driving a piezoelectric ceramic actuator. To enable ICS functionality in the proposed drive circuit, the inductor of the stacked boost converter sub-circuit is designed to operate in boundary-conduction mode (BCM). In order to allow the two power switches in the proposed drive circuit to achieve zero-voltage switching (ZVS) characteristics, the resonant circuit of the half-bridge resonant inverter sub-circuit is designed as an inductive load. In this paper, a prototype drive circuit for providing piezoelectric ceramic actuators was successfully implemented. Experimental results tested at 110 V input utility voltage show that high power factor (PF > 0.97), low input current total harmonic distortion (THD < 16%), and ZVS characteristics of the power switch were achieved in the prototype drive circuit.

Reduction in the Incidence Density of Pressure Injuries in Intensive Care Units after Advance Preventive Protocols.

(1) Background: Patients who are critically ill or undergo major surgery are admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). Prolonged immobilization is the most likely cause of pressure injuries (PrIs) in the ICU. Previous studies of Western populations found that effective protocols could reduce the incidence of PrIs, and the efficacy of systemic targeted intervention protocols in preventing PrIs in the Chinese population needs to be surveyed. (2) Methods: We reviewed cases of PrIs in the ICUs of Taipei Veterans General Hospital from 2014 to 2019. The ICU nurses at the hospital began to implement targeted interventions in January 2017. The incidence density of PrIs was calculated by dividing the number of PrIs by person days of hospitalizations in the pre-bundle (2014-2016) and post-bundle (2017-2019) stages. Poisson regression was performed to compare the trend of incidence densities. (3) Results: The incidence density of PrIs was 9.37/1000 person days during the pre-bundle stage and 1.85/1000 person days during the post-bundle stage (p < 0.001). The relative risk (RR) was 0.197 (95% confidence interval: 0.149-0.26). The incidence densities of iatrogenic PrIs and non-iatrogenic PrIs decreased as the RRs decreased. (4) Conclusions: Targeted interventions could significantly reduce the incidence of PrIs. Healthcare providers must follow the bundle care protocol for PrI prevention to improve the quality of healthcare and promote patient health.

Semantic Visualization in Functional Recovery Prediction of Intravenous Thrombolysis following Acute Ischemic Stroke in Patients by Using Biostatistics: An Exploratory Study.

(1) Background: Intravenous thrombolysis following acute ischemic stroke (AIS) can reduce disability and increase the survival rate. We designed a functional recovery analysis by using semantic visualization to predict the recovery probability in AIS patients receiving intravenous thrombolysis; (2) Methods: We enrolled 131 AIS patients undergoing intravenous thrombolysis from 2011 to 2015 at the Medical Center in northern Taiwan. An additional 54 AIS patients were enrolled from another community hospital. A modified Rankin Score ≤2 after 3 months of follow-up was defined as favorable recovery. We used multivariable logistic regression with forward selection to construct a nomogram; (3) Results: The model included age and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score as immediate pretreatment parameters. A 5.23% increase in the functional recovery probability occurred for every 1-year reduction in age, and a 13.57% increase in the functional recovery probability occurred for every NIHSS score reduction. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the model in the validation dataset were 71.79%, 86.67%, and 75.93%, respectively, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.867; (4) Conclusions: Semantic visualization-based functional recovery prediction models may help physicians assess the recovery probability before patients undergo emergency intravenous thrombolysis.

Short-Term Exposure Effect of Ambient Fine Particulate Matter, Ozone and Cold Temperature on Emergency Room Visits for Asthma Patients.

(1) Background: The acute effects of ozone, cold temperature and particulate matter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) in size related to asthma attacks are well known worldwide. The adverse effects of ozone and cold temperature on asthma morbidity in Taiwan are still inconclusive. (2) Methods: This retrospective study included patients who had asthma emergency room visits (ERVs) from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2019 in a regional hospital in Taiwan. The short-term negative effects were estimated using Distributed Lag Non-Linear Models (DLNMs) for the relative risks (RRs) of asthma ERVs associated with PM2.5, ozone and cold temperature exposures within 5 days. (3) Results: There was a significant association between a 10 ppm increase in PM2.5 exposure and asthma ERVs at a 2-day lag (RR 1.166, 95% confidence interval (C.I.): 1.051-1.294). There was a significant association between ozone and asthma ERVs at a 1-day lag (RR 1.179, 95% C.I.: 1.034-1.345). The ambient temperature in cold weather compared with the temperature of minimum asthma ERV showed an RR of 1.214, 95% C.I.: 1.009-1.252 at a 1-day lag. (4) Conclusions: This study provides evidence that short-term exposure to fine suspended particulates, ozone and inverse temperature is associated with asthma exacerbation.

Self-Reported Beneficial Effects of Chinese Calligraphy Handwriting Training for Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment: An Exploratory Study.

BACKGROUND: Dementia is a common disease in aging populations. The treatment has mainly focused on memory decline prevention and behavior control. Nonpharmacological treatments, such as cognition training, physical exercise, and music therapy have been effective in slowing memory decline. Chinese calligraphy handwriting (CCH) through breath regulation and fine hand control involves high concentration levels, emotion regulation, and self-awareness. CCH is a mind and body activity that is culturally relevant to older Chinese adults. This study evaluated the beneficial effects of CCH on mild cognitive impairment. METHODS: In 2018, we conducted 8 weeks of CCH training at the Tri-Service General Hospital. The participants were asked to copy a regular script. At the end of the course, they gave oral presentations and showed their work. Self-report questionnaires on emotion, memory, upper limb coordination, attention, and language were collected before and after training. RESULTS: The five questionnaires showed significantly positive feelings after CCH training. The conditions of emotional stability, concentration, hand movement, memory, and speech improved. CONCLUSIONS: CCH training stimulated the brain and improved cognition, psychological symptoms, and hand stability. It is inexpensive and worthwhile for elderly Chinese individuals with mild cognitive impairment to take time daily to practice calligraphy.

A High-Gain and High-Efficiency Photovoltaic Grid-Connected Inverter with Magnetic Coupling.

Conventional photovoltaic (PV) grid-connected systems consist of a boost converter cascaded with an inverter, resulting in poor efficiency due to performing energy processing twice. Many pseudo DC-link inverters with single energy processing have been proposed to improve system efficiency and simplify circuits. However, their output voltage gain is limited by the non-ideal characteristics of the power diode, making them difficult to apply in high-output voltage applications. This paper proposes combining a boost converter with magnetic coupling and a full-bridge unfolding circuit to develop an inverter featuring high voltage-gain and high efficiency. According to the desired instantaneous output voltage, the high-gain boost converter and the full-bridge unfolding circuit are sequentially and respectively controlled by SPWM. A sinusoidal output voltage can be generated by performing energy processing only once, effectively improving the conversion efficiency. Magnetic coupling is adopted to increase the voltage gain of step-up, and the step-down function is realized by the full-bridge unfolding circuit to reduce conduction loss. Finally, a 500 W prototype was fabricated for the proposed high-gain inverter. The experimental results were used to verify the correctness of the theoretical analysis and the feasibility of the circuit structure.

Study and Implementation of a High-Quality True Sine Wave DC-to-AC Inverter for Solar Power Generation Systems.

True sine wave DC-to-AC inverters are becoming more and more important in solar power generation in order to raise the system's efficiency. A high-quality true sine wave DC-to-AC inverter can be built with a robust intelligent control method. This robust intelligent control method is comprised of improved sliding mode reaching law (ISMRL) and particle swarm optimization (PSO)-catfish effect (CE). The sliding mode reaching law is robust and insensitive to parameter variations and external disturbances. However, it has infinite system-state convergence times and steady-state errors. In addition, solar panels are often affected by partial shading, causing the output power-voltage characteristic curve to be multi-peaked. Such a situation causes misjudgment of the maximum power point tracking with conventional algorithms, which can neither obtain the global extremes nor establish high conversion efficiency. Therefore, this paper proposes an ISMRL based on PSO-CE applied to the tracking of maximum power in the case of partial shading of a solar power generation system. The ISMRL guarantees quick terminable time convergence, making it well-suited for digital implementation. In this paper, PSO-CE is used to find the global best solution of ISMRL, rejecting steady-state errors, slow convergence, and premature trapping in local optimums. Simulation and experimental results are verified using digital implementation based on a Texas Instruments digital signal processor to produce more accurate and better tracking control of true sine wave DC-to-AC inverter-based solar power generation systems.

Females with Diabetes Mellitus Increased the Incidence of Premenstrual Syndrome.

Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a multifactorial disorder caused by hormone and autonomic imbalance. In our study, hyperglycemia-induced insulin secretion increased progesterone secretion and progressive autonomic imbalance. The young patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) revealed hypo-parasympathetic function and hypersympathetic function compared with nondiabetic controls. Young female patients with DM with higher blood sugar and autonomic malfunction may be associated with PMS. However, there is a lack of evidence about DM in females related to PMS. We evaluated female patients with DM who subsequently followed PMS in a retrospective cohort study. Methods: We retrieved data from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Female patients with DM between 20 and 50 years old were assessed by the International Classification of Disease, 9 Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) disease code of 250. Patients who were DM-free females were fourfold matched to the control group by age and disease index date. The ICD-9-CM disease code of 625.4 identified the incidence of PMS followed by the index date as events. The possible risk factors associated with PMS were detected with a Cox proportional regression. Results: DM was a significant risk factor for PMS incidence with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.683 (95% confidence interval: 1.104−2.124, p < 0.001) in females after adjusting for age, other comorbidities, season, urbanization status of patients and the hospital status of visiting. Conclusions: This study noted an association between DM and PMS in female patients. Healthcare providers and female patients with DM must be aware of possible complications of PMS, aggressive glycemic control, decreased hyperglycemia and autonomic dysfunction to prevent this bothersome disorder.

Underestimated Ischemic Heart Disease in Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events after Septicemia Discharge.

Background and Objectives: Sepsis increases cardiovascular disease and causes death. Ischemic heart disease (IHD) without acute myocardial infarction has been discussed less, and the relationship between risk factors and IHD in septicemia survivors within six months is worthy of in-depth study. Our study demonstrated the incidence of IHD and the possible risk factors for IHD in septicemia patients within six months. Materials and Methods: An inpatient dataset of the Taiwanese Longitudinal Health Insurance Database between 2001 and 2003 was used. The events were defined as rehospitalization of stroke and IHD after discharge or death within six months after the first septicemia hospitalization. The relative factors of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) and IHD were identified by multivariate Cox proportional regression. Results: There were 4323 septicemia survivors and 404 (9.3%) IHD. New-onset atrial fibrillation had a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.705 (95% confidence interval (C.I.): 1.156-2.516) for MACEs and carried a 184% risk with HR 2.836 (95% C.I.: 1.725-4.665) for IHD by adjusted area and other risk factors. Conclusions: This study explored advanced-aged patients who experienced more severe septicemia with new-onset atrial fibrillation, which increases the incidence of IHD in MACEs within six months of septicemia. Therefore, healthcare providers must identify patients with a higher IHD risk and modify risk factors beforehand.

High-Efficiency Flicker-Free LED Driver with Soft-Switching Feature.

A novel interleaved DC-DC buck converter is proposed to drive high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The circuit configuration mainly consists of two buck converters, which are connected in parallel and use interleaved operation. Through interleaved operation, the power capability of the converter is doubled. Traditionally, two individual inductors are used in the two buck converters. The difference between conventional parallel-operated buck converters using two energy storage inductors and the proposed circuit is that the proposed circuit uses two small inductors and a coupled inductor that replace the two inductors of the buck converters. In this way, both buck converters can be designed to operate in discontinuous-current mode (DCM), even if the magnetizing inductance of the coupled inductor is large. Therefore, the freewheeling diodes can achieve zero-current switching off (ZCS). Applying the principle of conservation of magnetic flux, the magnetizing current is converted between the two windings of the coupled inductor. Because nearly constant magnetizing current continuously flows into the output, the output voltage ripple can be effectively reduced without the use of large-value electrolytic capacitors. In addition, each winding current can drop from positive to negative, and this reverse current can discharge the parasitic capacitor of the active switch to zero volts. In this way, the active switches can operate at zero-voltage switching on (ZVS), leading to low switching losses. A 180 W prototype LED driver was built and tested. Our experimental results show satisfactory performance.

Air Pollution Exposure and the Relative Risk of Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Taipei.

(1) Background: The etiologies of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL) remain unclear. The level of mean particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 µm or less (PM2.5) was not associated with SSHL, but the maximum PM2.5 level exhibited a negative association with SSHL in Korea. Exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) for 2 weeks increased the risk of SSHL. The lag effects of SSHL after air pollution exposure were limited. We aimed to evaluate the association of SSHL with air pollution exposure to determine whether air pollution exposure caused delayed effects. (2) Methods: This observational study used inpatient data obtained from electronic health records at the Tri-Service General Hospital from 2011 to 2019. The data of all SSHL patients were retrieved. The air quality dataset from Songshan station from 2011 to 2019 was used. The main outcomes were the relative risks (RRs) of SSHL associated with PM2.5, O3, and NO2 exposures within 1 month. The relationships between these factors were examined using distributed lag nonlinear time series models. (3) Results: The RR of SSHL associated with PM2.5 exposure was 1.195 (95% confidence interval (C.I.: 1.047-1.363) for a 10 unit increase at a lag of 7 days. The RR of SSHL associated with O3 exposure was 1.14 (95% C.I.: 1.003-1.3) for a 10 unit increase at a lag of 9 days. The RR of SSHL associated with NO2 exposure was 1.284 (95% C.I.: 1.05-1.57) for a 10 unit increase at a lag of 23 days. (4) Conclusions: In our study, SSHL was confirmed to be associated with air pollution exposure with a lag effect. We discussed possible mechanisms to explore possible biological hypotheses and support further research. Large-scale studies including participants with other ethnicities and causal relationships are needed to confirm our findings.

Robust Optimal Control Design for Performance Enhancement of PWM Voltage Source Inverter.

PWM (pulse-width modulation) voltage source inverters are used in a wide range of AC power systems where the output voltage must be controlled to follow a sinusoidal reference waveform. In order to achieve precision and fast-tracking control, restrictive sliding mode control (RSMC) provides a fast system state convergence time. However, the RSMC still suffers from the chattering problem, which leads to high harmonic distortion and slow response of the inverter output state. Furthermore, the load of the inverter may be severe load changing and the control parameters become difficult to adjust, worsening the adaptability to achieve the desired control of the inverter output. In this paper, a robust optimal control design comprised of an enhanced restrictive sliding mode control (ERSMC) and density particle swarm optimization (DPSO) algorithm is proposed, and then applied to PWM voltage source inverters. The ERSMC not only has finite time convergence but also provides chatter elimination. The DPSO is highly adaptable for acquiring the control parameters of the ERSMC and finding the best solution in the global domain. The proposed controller is realized for the actual PWM voltage source inverter controlled by a TI DSP-based development platform, so that the inverter output voltage has fast dynamic response and satisfactory steady-state behavior despite high load changing and non-linear disturbances.

New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation Is a Risk Factor of Ischemic Stroke in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) induces atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke, and COPD with AF increased ischemic stroke (IS) in a cross-sectional study. Therefore, healthcare providers must be concerned and well-informed about this particular situation. For this study, inpatient data were obtained from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database in 2010. We identified patients who were hospitalized with COPD (International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification [ICD-9-CM] is 491, 492, and 496). Patients who experienced AF (ICD-9-CM to 427.3) during the same admission or after COPD hospitalization were discharged and defined as new-onset AF. The outcome was IS (ICD-9-CM as 433-437). The factors related to IS after COPD were used for multivariate logistic regression. There were 4177/62,163 (6.72%) patients with incident IS. The risk of IS after COPD hospitalization was shown to have an adjusted odds ratio of 1.749 (95% CI: 1.584-1.93, p < 0.001) for patients with new-onset AF. Other factors included advanced age, atherosclerosis factors, comorbidity severity, sepsis and lower-level hospital admission. In conclusion, COPD patients suffering from new-onset AF had an increased incidence of IS in the population observation study. New-onset AF was an omit risk factor for IS in COPD in the Chinese population.

Restricted use of copy and paste in electronic health records potentially improves healthcare quality.

ABSTRACT: The copy-and-paste feature is commonly used for clinical documentation, and a policy is needed to reduce overdocumentation. We aimed to determine if the restricted use of copy and paste by doctors could improve inpatient healthcare quality.Clinical documentation in an inpatient dataset compiled from 2016 to 2018 was used. Copied-and-pasted text was detected in word templates using natural language programming with a threshold of 70%. The prevalence of copying and pasting after the policy introduction was accessed by segmented regression for trend analysis. The rate of readmission for the same disease within 14 days was assessed to evaluate inpatient healthcare quality, and the completion of discharge summary notes within 3 days was assessed to determine the timeliness of note completion. The relationships between these factors were used cross-correlation to detect lag effect. Poisson regression was performed to identify the relative effect of the copy and paste restriction policy on the 14-day readmission rate or the discharge note completion rate within 3 days.The prevalence of copying and pasting initially decreased, then increased, and then flatly decreased. The cross-correlation results showed a significant correlation between the prevalence of copied-and-pasted text and the 14-day readmission rate (P < .001) and a relative risk of 1.105 (P < .005), with a one-month lag. The discharge note completion rate initially decreased and not affected long term after restriction policy.Appropriate policies to restrict the use of copying and pasting can lead to improvements in inpatient healthcare quality. Prospective research with cost analysis is needed.

Increased Involvement of Klebsiellapneumoniae and Enterococcusfaecium in Healthcare-Associated Infections of Intensive Care Units in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) cause increases in length of stay, mortality, and healthcare costs. A previous study conducted in Taiwan obtained similar results to those reported in Korea and Japan in 2015. Changes in microorganisms have been noted in recent years. Understanding the recent condition of HAIs in intensive care units (ICUs) can enable healthcare providers to develop effective infection control protocols to reduce HAIs. METHODS: We used the Taiwan Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System to evaluate the incidence densities of HAIs, the proportions of causative pathogens, and the proportions of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Poisson regression model was constructed to incidence density, and the chi-square test was used to assess proportion. RESULTS: The incidence density of HAIs decreased 5.7 to 5.4 per 1000 person-days. However, the proportions of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus faecium significantly increased. In addition, the proportions of carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium significantly increased over time. CONCLUSION: Analysis of the microorganisms involved in HAIs in ICUs showed elevated proportions of K. pneumoniae and E. faecium with AMR. Infection control protocols have been implemented for several years and require improvements regarding environmental cleanliness and medical staff prevention.