SEDDS Basic Design and Recent Formulation Advancement: A Concurrent Review.

In the present scenario, lipid-based novel drug delivery systems are the area of interest for the formulation scientist in order to improve the bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs. A selfemulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS) upon contact with the gastrointestinal fluid, forms an o/w emulsion. SEDDS has gained popularity as a potential platform for improving the bioavailability of the lipophilic drug by overcoming several challenges. The various advantages like improved solubility, bypassing lymphatic transport, and improvement in bioavailability are associated with SMEDDS or SNEDDS. The extent of the formation of stable SEDDS depends on a specific combination of surfactant, co-surfactant, and oil. The present review highlighted the different aspects of formulation design along with optimization and characterization of SEDDS formulation. It also gives a brief description of the various aspects of the excipients used in SEDDS formulation. This review also includes the conflict between types of SEDDS based on droplet size. There is an extensive review of various research regarding different solidification techniques used for SEDDS in the last three years.

Characteristics, interventions, and longer term outcomes of COVID-19 ICU patients in Denmark-A nationwide, observational study.

BACKGROUND: Most data on intensive care unit (ICU) patients with COVID-19 originate in selected populations from stressed healthcare systems with shorter term follow-up. We present characteristics, interventions and longer term outcomes of the entire, unselected cohort of all ICU patients with COVID-19 in Denmark where the ICU capacity was not exceeded. METHODS: We identified all patients with SARS-CoV-2 admitted to any Danish ICU from 10 March to 19 May 2020 and registered demographics, chronic comorbidities, use of organ support, length of stay, and vital status from patient files. Risk factors for death were analyzed using adjusted Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: There were 323 ICU patients with confirmed COVID-19. Median age was 68 years, 74% were men, 50% had hypertension, 21% diabetes, and 20% chronic pulmonary disease; 29% had no chronic comorbidity. Invasive mechanical ventilation was used in 82%, vasopressors in 83%, renal replacement therapy in 26%, and extra corporeal membrane oxygenation in 8%. ICU stay was median 13 days (IQR 6-22) and hospital stay 19 days (11-30). Median follow-up was 79 days. At end of follow-up, 118 had died (37%), 15 (4%) were still in hospital hereof 4 in ICU as of 16 June 2020. Risk factors for mortality included male gender, age, chronic pulmonary disease, active cancer, and number of co-morbidities. CONCLUSIONS: In this nationwide, population-based cohort of ICU patients with COVID-19, longer term survival was high despite high age and substantial use of organ support. Male gender, age, and chronic co-morbidities, in particular chronic pulmonary disease, were associated with increased risk of death.

Evaluation of prophylactic antibiotics in penetrating brain injuries at an academic level 1 trauma center.

OBJECTIVE: Infections from penetrating brain injuries (PBI) lead to higher morbidity and mortality rates. The results of this research will be evaluated to develop institutional guideline for antibiotic prophylaxis in this patient population. The objective was to characterize the prophylactic antibiotic usage for patients presenting with PBI. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective chart review included patients with a PBI identified through the institution's trauma center registry between December 2015 and July 2018. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients that received prophylactic antibiotics. Secondary outcomes included antibiotic administration timing, selection and duration of antibiotic regimens, infection rates and patient outcomes. RESULTS: The study population included 33 patients, with 82 % males and an average age of 32 years. The most common mechanism of injury was a gunshot wound (94 %). Of the 33 patients, 24 (73 %) received at least one dose of prophylactic antibiotics. The median time to antibiotic administration was 52.8 min (IQR, 18-120), while the median duration of prophylaxis was 24 h (IQR, 7-84). The most common antibiotic regimen was a single cefazolin dose, with the next most common regimen included scheduled ceftriaxone and metronidazole. Overall, there were no documented central nervous system or skin and soft tissue infections during the initial admission, while 4 patients (12 %) were treated for pneumonia. Survivors (67 %) had a median hospital length of stay of 5.8 days. CONCLUSION: The median duration of prophylaxis was shorter than the current data suggesting antibiotics for 5 days; however, there were no documented central nervous system infections, which is less than previously reported in the literature.

Interscalene brachial plexus catheter versus single-shot interscalene block with periarticular local infiltration analgesia for shoulder arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND: Interscalene brachial plexus block is a commonly employed regional anesthetic technique for total shoulder arthroplasty, and a continuous catheter is often placed to extend the analgesic benefit of the block. As periarticular local infiltration analgesia (LIA) for total joint arthroplasty is a re-emerging trend, we evaluated the analgesic efficacy of continuous interscalene block (CISB) compared to single-shot interscalene block (SSISB) with LIA. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of 130 consecutive patients treated by one surgeon in a single institution, with 12 patients excluded for history of chronic opioid tolerance and two for incomplete data. The SSISB with LIA treatment group (N.=53) was compared to a control group who received CISB (N.=63). Primary end points were a difference in pain score (0-10 numeric rating scale) and opioid requirements as oral morphine equivalents (OMEs) on postoperative days (PODs) 0 and 1. Secondary end points included nausea and vomiting, length of hospital stay, block failure rate, adverse events due to block, and 30-day readmission. RESULTS: When compared to SSISB with LIA, patients who received CISB exhibited decreased opioid requirements in OMEs on POD 0 (11.9 mg vs. 28.7 mg, P<0.01) and POD 1 (24.0 mg vs. 50.3 mg, P<0.01). There was no significant difference in pain on POD 0, but a statistically significant decrease in average pain scores with CISB on POD 1 (2.3 vs. 4.3, P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: SSISB with LIA may provide clinically similar postoperative analgesia compared to CISB, but with escalating doses of opioid requirements.

Análise da influência da retirada do leito de idosos na UTI e da continuidade da fisioterapia na enfermaria sobre o tempo de permanência, a readmissão e a mortalidade / Analysis of the influence of bed's withdrawal of the elderly in the ICU and the continuity of physical therapy in the ward on length of stay, readmission and mortality

Objetivo: Analisar a influência da retirada do leito de idosos na UTI e da continuidade da fisioterapia na enfermaria sobre tempo de internação, readmissão e mortalidade. Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo de coorte histórico realizado por meio dos registros de idosos egressos de UTI de um hospital público. Verificou-se as caracterí­sticas clí­nicas e o ní­vel de gravidade dos pacientes pelo escore SAPS 3 (Simplified Acute Physiology Score III). Analisou-se a retirada do leito na UTI, o ní­vel de mobilização alcançado e a continuidade da fisioterapia na enfermaria. Observou-se a relação entre essas variáveis e os desfechos ocorridos. Resultados: Os 133 idosos estudados apresentaram média de idade de 70 ±7 anos; 66,1% eram homens; 78,2% foram retirados do leito na UTI e, após a admissão na enfermaria, 51,9% receberam fisioterapia. O tempo médio de internação após a alta da UTI foi de 27,6 dias; 11,2% dos pacientes foram readmitidos em unidades crí­ticas e 18% foram a óbito. Os idosos que não foram retirados do leito na UTI e aqueles que mantiveram o ní­vel de mobilização após a admissão na enfermaria apresentaram maior readmissão e mortalidade. Conclusão: Parece existir menor risco de readmissão e de mortalidade em pacientes submetidos í terapêutica de retirada do leito na UTI. (AU)

Objective: To analyze the influence of bed's withdrawal of elderly in the ICU and the continuity of the physical therapy in the ward over length of stay, readmission and mortality. Methods: This is a historical cohort study carried out through the registries of elderly patients from the ICU of a public hospital. The clinical characteristics and the level of severity of the patients by the SAPS 3 (Simplified Acute Physiology Score III) were verified. The ICU bed removal, the level of mobilization achieved and the continuity of physical therapy in the ward were analyzed. It was observed whether there was a relationship between these variables and the outcomes. Results: The 133 elderly studied had mean age of 70 ± 7 years; 66.1% were men; 78.2% of the patients were removed from the hospital bed and, after ward admission, 51.9% received physical therapy. The mean length of hospital stay after discharge from the ICU was 27.6 days; 11.2% of the patients were readmitted in critical units and 18% died. The elderly who were not removed from the ICU bed and those who maintained the level of mobilization after admission to the ward presented higher readmission and mortality. Conclusion: There seems to be a lower risk of readmission and mortality in patients undergoing ICU bed removal therapy. (AU)

Adherence to Inpatient Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis: A Single Institution's Concurrent Review.

Hospital-acquired venous thromboembolism (VTE) affects morbidity and mortality and increases health care costs. Poor adherence to recommended prophylaxis may be a potential cause of ongoing events. This study aims to identify institutional adherence rates and barriers to optimal VTE prophylaxis. The authors performed patient and nurse interviews and a concurrent review of clinical documentation, utilizing a cloud-based, HIPAA-compliant tool, on a convenience sample of hospitalized patients. Adherence and agreement between different assessment modalities were calculated. Seventy-six patients consented for participation. Nurse documented adherence was 66% (29/44), 44% (27/61), and 89% (50/56) for mechanical, ambulatory, and chemoprophylactic prophylaxis, respectively. Patient report and nurse documentation showed moderate agreement for mechanical and no agreement for ambulatory adherence (κ = 0.51 and 0.07, respectively). Concurrent review using a cloud-based tool can provide robust, timely, and relevant information on adherence to recommended VTE prophylaxis. Iterative concurrent reviews can guide efforts to improve adherence and reduce rates of hospital-acquired VTE.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Concurrent Review: Does It Improve Stroke Measure Results?

BACKGROUND: Concurrent review is a quality improvement strategy in which patients are tracked from admission to discharge, and messages are communicated to the responsible physician when quality stroke measures have not been met. There is little research regarding interventions that might influence clinical practice patterns and improvement in compliance with core quality measures. This study sought to evaluate whether concurrent review implementation was associated with change in performance on stroke measure outcome data. METHODS: Randomly selected charts from 2 hospitals (A and B) during 3 time periods were reviewed. In period 1, neither hospital had a process for concurrent review. In period 2, hospital A, where concurrent review was implemented, was compared with hospital B without this process. In period 3, both hospitals had the process of concurrent review. Information on baseline demographics, insurance status, and length of stay was collected, as well as stroke performance measures. RESULTS: A total of 620 medical records were reviewed during the 3 time periods. Although the number of beds and annual stroke volume were higher at hospital B, patient characteristics were similar. During period 2, when hospital A implemented concurrent review and hospital B had not, a statistically significant higher compliance with performance in 7 stroke measures occurred in hospital A than in hospital B. In period 3, when both hospitals utilized concurrent review, no statistical significant differences occurred in 7 of the 10 stroke measures. CONCLUSION: Concurrent review is a quality improvement intervention that increases performance with stroke performance measures.

Adoption of Routine Ultrasound Guidance for Femoral Arterial Access for Cardiac Catheterization.

BACKGROUND: A randomized controlled trial published in 2010 demonstrated that ultrasound-guided femoral artery access for coronary angiography was faster and associated with fewer vascular complications than conventional fluoroscopic-guided access. The landscape of ultrasound use among contemporary interventional cardiologists is unknown. METHODS: We sought to describe current knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding ultrasound use among interventional cardiologists using an online survey. The questionnaire unfolded in phases, initially attempting to define current attitudes and then testing whether or not attitudes were adjustable after summarizing compelling research supporting the use of ultrasound-guided access. RESULTS: Sixty-eight responses were received (60.7%). Only 13.3% reported using ultrasound routinely despite widespread availability and technical expertise. The majority of respondents believed ultrasound use to be slower but safer than access by palpation alone. There was no significant association between age (P=.70) or annual case volume (P=.11) and baseline ultrasound use. After examining the results of a supporting clinical trial, 42.6% said ultrasound should be used routinely, but only 17.6% said they would adopt the technique. Younger operators tended to affirm routine ultrasound adoption after reading the trial summary more often than older respondents, although this did not reach statistical significance (relative risk = 1.8; P=.30). CONCLUSIONS: Routine ultrasound-guided femoral artery access and awareness of its validating evidence is uncommon among current interventional cardiologists; exposure to compelling data had minimal impact on respondents' willingness to change practice.

Hospital case management and the Utilization Review Committee.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: This article describes the overall regulatory mandate governing the Utilization Review Committee (URC) in the hospital setting. General structure, function, and meeting format of the URC are important considerations. Furthermore, the URC can serve as a vital platform for medical staff leadership and case management practice to use pertinent risk-adjusted data to drive needed change at the organizational, departmental, service line, and physician level. A case history illustrates the importance of these issues. PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTING: Acute care hospitals. IMPLICATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: Case management staff, medical advisors, and physician leaders play important roles in driving changes. The URC will become ever-more important in the rapidly accelerating changes, driving heightened accountability on the part of hospitals.

Rehospitalization rate after continued electroconvulsive therapy--a retrospective chart review of patients with severe depression.

BACKGROUND: Electroconvulsive therapy, ECT, is an effective acute treatment for severe depression. Today ECT is usually discontinued when the patient's depressive symptoms abate, although relapse is common. Some studies suggest that continuation ECT (cECT) may prevent relapse of depression, but there are few studies available. AIMS: The aim of this study was to describe the need for inpatient care before, during and after cECT. METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted of all patients (n=27) treated with cECT between 2005 and 2007 at Örebro University Hospital, Sweden. All patients were severely depressed at the initiation of index ECT. The DSM-IV diagnoses were major depression (n=19), bipolar depression (n=5) or schizoaffective depression (n=3). RESULTS: The hospital day quotient was lower (HDQ=15) during cECT (mean duration ± standard deviation=104 ± 74 days) than during the 3 years prior to cECT (HDQ=26). The rehospitalization rate was 43% within 6 months and 58% within 2 years after the initiation of cECT. Seven patients were rehospitalized while on cECT. CONCLUSION: The need for inpatient care was reduced during cECT. However, rehospitalization was common. At the initiation of the cECT, the patients were improved by the index ECT. Also cECT was often terminated after rehospitalization, which contributed to the lowered hospital day quotient during cECT. Randomized clinical trials are needed to establish the efficacy of cECT. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Relapses and recurrences in depressed patients are common after ECT treatment. The results indicate that continuation ECT combined with pharmacotherapy might be an alternative treatment strategy.

Concurrent projects aim to improve satisfaction.

A concerted effort involving several initiatives can make a big difference in your patient satisfaction scores. The ED at Williamsport (PA) Hospital increased their rates from a low of 65.6% to more than 83% in less than 18 months using strategies that included: The addition of patient service representatives to help make patients more comfortable and keep them apprised of waiting time expectations. A switch in primary staffing of the 'Urgicenter' from physicians to physician assistants. A new triage process that gets patients back into the ED proper much more quickly.

Substitution of hospital staff in concurrent utilization review.

Substitution of hospital staff performing concurrent utilization review (CUR) was evaluated using a production process framework. There were no differences in the number of reimbursement denials or denied days among 4 job classifications of hospital staff performing CUR, indicating that educational preparation of staff did not affect outcomes. The implications are that hospitals could substitute assistive staff in place of registered nurses to complete the CUR function, potentially increasing the availability of professional nurses.

Best practices for improving revenue capture through documentation.

Tips for engaging physicians in efforts to enhance clinical documentation include: Individual physician profiling; Physician education, ranging from simple poster campaigns to hiring a full-time DRG education employee; Timely reinforcement support; Training internal employees to act as "documentation specialists"; Simplifying forms used for coding.

Who needs a palliative care consult?: the Hamilton Chart Audit tool.

Although palliative care services are becoming increasingly prevalent in acute care hospitals only a minority of patients who die in hospital or in the community have seen palliative care teams. There are large numbers of patients who might benefit from palliative care who are not receiving it. That said, identification of patients who are eligible for these services, and of those who would most benefit is problematic. Limitations in our ability to accurately predict prognosis as well as lack of universal agreement as to what constitutes a terminal illness, or "end of life" are important considerations. Another significant challenge faced by our health care systems is whether or not all "end-of-life" patients require specialized care by trained palliative care providers. Even if this were the ideal model of care, this would be unfeasible given the relatively small number of trained providers compared to the aging and dying population. Therefore it is critical that health care systems begin to standardize their approach to the identification of patients who are most in need of, and/or most likely to benefit from interventions by interdisciplinary palliative care teams. Institutions that are planning to develop new services, or expand their current services will require some method/tool to assess specific population needs at their site. The Hamilton Chart Audit (H-CAT) was developed at our institution to help identify potential palliative care needs of patients and their families. We report on development of the tool and use of the tool for a retrospective audit of 222 patients who died at our institution.

Managing the interface between acute care and rehabilitation - can utilisation review assist?

AIMS AND METHODS: We piloted the InterQual Criteria tool in a large regional acute hospital in NSW to determine the utility of this tool in the Australian context. In particular to compare the current "gold standard" of physician assessment for the selection of patients for rehabilitation and the timing of transfer, with the guidance provided by the tool. Consecutive acute care patients with a diagnosis of stroke, hip fracture or amputation, and patients referred for rehabilitation assessment, were followed using the InterQual Criteria. RESULTS: Results on 242 acute episodes, representing 2698 days in acute care, were analysed. In accordance with overseas studies, we found that high levels of inappropriate days of stay in acute care were suggested by the tool. Using the InterQual Criteria almost all patients were deemed appropriate for transfer to rehabilitation much earlier than current practice. CONCLUSION: We conclude that the InterQual Criteria may have a useful role in patient selection for rehabilitation, in facilitating the transfer of patients from acute to subacute care, and in improving patient flow within acute care. The reasons for the variation between the results obtained from the tool and current clinical practice requires further investigation, and may indicate a lack of validity of the tool in the Australian setting, inefficiencies in processes of acute care, or the lack of suitable alternative care settings or level of support available in these settings.

Is managed care closing substance abuse treatment units?

Despite high levels of unmet need for outpatient substance abuse treatment, a significant percentage of outpatient units have closed over the past several years. This study drew on 1999-2000 and 2005 national surveys to determine if managed care was associated with outpatient substance abuse treatment units' likelihood of surviving. Each substance abuse unit director was asked about the presence of any managed care contracts, percentage revenues from managed care, percentage of clients for whom prior authorization was required, and percentage of clients for whom concurrent review was required. A multiple logistic regression revealed that none of these factors was associated with substance abuse treatment unit survival. At this point, neither the presence nor the structure of managed care appears to affect the survival of outpatient substance abuse treatment units. Given the need for these facilities, however, and their vulnerability to closure, continued attention to managed care's potential influence is warranted.