The Maternal Looking Guide: a perinatal clinical tool to support the emerging mother-infant relationship'.

BACKGROUND: This study explores maternal looking - the unidirectional looking by a mother at her newborn - as a precursor to mother-infant gaze. METHODS: Phase 1 used video as a means of detailed and disciplined observation to examine how mothers look at their newborns (n = 13). Using an iterative design, intensive analysis identified and categorised patterns of looking and looking-related behaviours. This resulted in a typology of looking. Phase 2 subjected the typology to inter-rater reliability testing, with midwives as multiple raters (n = 24), using the typology to rate standardised tapes of mothers and newborns (n = 10). RESULTS: Phase 1 generated a one-page clinical tool (Maternal Looking Guide). This tool enables the assessment of mothers' looking behaviour over six constructs and allocation to one of three overall categories of looking: those women who are doing well (comfortable), those who need a referral to an expert perinatal service (worrisome) and those to whom something extra could be offered (uncomfortable). In Phase 2 the Maternal Looking Guide achieved moderate reliability. CONCLUSIONS: The Maternal Looking Guide is a practical, moderately reliable, clinical tool that can assist midwives and other perinatal workers identify those mothers who may need extra support at this critical perinatal window of opportunity. .

Modular structures and the delivery of inpatient care in hospitals: a Network Science perspective on healthcare function and dysfunction.

BACKGROUND: Reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the capacity of health systems to cope with increasing healthcare demands has been an abiding concern of both governments and the public. Health systems are made up from non-identical human and physical components interacting in diverse ways in varying locations. It is challenging to represent the function and dysfunction of such systems in a scientific manner. We describe a Network Science approach to that dilemma. General hospitals with large emergency caseloads are the resource intensive components of health systems. We propose that the care-delivery services in such entities are modular, and that their structure and function can be usefully analysed by contemporary Network Science. We explore that possibility in a study of Australian hospitals during 2019 and 2020. METHODS: We accessed monthly snapshots of whole of hospital administrative patient level data in two general hospitals during 2019 and 2020. We represented the organisations inpatient services as network graphs and explored their graph structural characteristics using the Louvain algorithm and other methods. We related graph topological features to aspects of observable function and dysfunction in the delivery of care. RESULTS: We constructed a series of whole of institution bipartite hospital graphs with clinical unit and labelled wards as nodes, and patients treated by units in particular wards as edges. Examples of the graphs are provided. Algorithmic identification of community structures confirmed the modular structure of the graphs. Their functional implications were readily identified by domain experts. Topological graph features could be related to functional and dysfunctional issues such as COVID-19 related service changes and levels of hospital congestion. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Contemporary Network Science is one of the fastest growing areas of current scientific and technical advance. Network Science confirms the modular nature of healthcare service structures. It holds considerable promise for understanding function and dysfunction in healthcare systems, and for reconceptualising issues such as hospital capacity in new and interesting ways.

Screening for important unwarranted variation in clinical practice: a triple-test of processes of care, costs and patient outcomes.

Objective Unwarranted variation in clinical practice is a target for quality improvement in health care, but there is no consensus on how to identify such variation or to assess the potential value of initiatives to improve quality in these areas. This study illustrates the use of a triple test, namely the comparative analysis of processes of care, costs and outcomes, to identify and assess the burden of unwarranted variation in clinical practice. Methods Routinely collected hospital and mortality data were linked for patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndromes at the emergency departments of four public hospitals in South Australia. Multiple regression models analysed variation in re-admissions and mortality at 30 days and 12 months, patient costs and multiple process indicators. Results After casemix adjustment, an outlier hospital with statistically significantly poorer outcomes and higher costs was identified. Key process indicators included admission patterns, use of invasive diagnostic procedures and length of stay. Performance varied according to patients' presenting characteristics and time of presentation. Conclusions The joint analysis of processes, outcomes and costs as alternative measures of performance inform the importance of reducing variation in clinical practice, as well as identifying specific targets for quality improvement along clinical pathways. Such analyses could be undertaken across a wide range of clinical areas to inform the potential value and prioritisation of quality improvement initiatives. What is known about the topic? Variation in clinical practice is a long-standing issue that has been analysed from many different perspectives. It is neither possible nor desirable to address all forms of variation in clinical practice: the focus should be on identifying important unwarranted variation to inform actions to reduce variation and improve quality. What does this paper add? This paper proposes the comparative analysis of processes of care, costs and outcomes for patients with similar diagnoses presenting at alternative hospitals, using linked, routinely collected data. This triple test of performance indicators extracts maximum value from routine data to identify priority areas for quality improvement to reduce important and unwarranted variations in clinical practice. What are the implications for practitioners? The proposed analyses need to be applied to other clinical areas to demonstrate the general application of the methods. The outputs can then be validated through the application of quality improvement initiatives in clinical areas with identified important and unwarranted variation. Validated frameworks for the comparative analysis of clinical practice provide an efficient approach to valuing and prioritising actions to improve health service quality.

Why do older people with multi-morbidity experience unplanned hospital admissions from the community: a root cause analysis.

BACKGROUND: Increasing demand for hospital services by older people is a major concern for Australian health care providers. To date there has been little in-depth research that encompasses contextual and systems factors contributing to hospital admissions. The objective of this study was to determine the reasons why older patients experienced unplanned hospital admissions to a major public hospital. METHODS: A retrospective qualitative study using a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) methodology was conducted in a major public hospital in Adelaide, South Australia and surrounding community. Community dwelling older people admitted to the hospital who were well enough to give informed consent and be interviewed were invited to take part in the study. With patients consent, family members, general practitioners (GPs) and specialists were also interviewed and patient hospital records reviewed. Using a purposive sampling technique to obtain maximum variability, thirty-six older people (aged 70 years and older) participated in the study. GPs (n = 17), family members (n = 14), and other healthcare providers (n = 12) involved in their care were also interviewed. Cases were then analysed according to a standardized protocol to determine the root cause of admission. Root causes were then assigned to broader categories using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The root causes of unplanned admissions were identified and categorised into six causal groups: a consequence of minimal care, progression of disease, home care accessibility, high complexity, clinical error, and delayed care-seeking by the patient. CONCLUSIONS: RCA can be effectively applied to determine the causes of unplanned hospital admissions although the process is time consuming. Four categories of admission (minimal care, clinical error, home care access, delayed care-seeking) were deemed potentially preventable. This methodology and classification approach may assist in designing interventions to prevent future hospitalisations in this high-risk population.

Identifying risk factors and patterns for unplanned readmission to a general medical service.

OBJECTIVE: To identify factors and patterns associated with 7- and 28-day readmission for general medicine patients at a tertiary public hospital. METHODS: A retrospective observational study was conducted using an administrative database at a general medicine service in a tertiary public hospital between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2011. Demographic and clinical factors, as well as readmission patterns, were evaluated for the association with 7- and 28-day readmission. RESULTS: The study cohort included 13 802 patients and the 28-day readmission rate was 10.9%. In multivariate analysis, longer hospital stay of the index admission (adjusted relative risk (ARR) 1.34), Charlson index ≥ 3 (ARR 1.28), discharge against medical advice (ARR 1.87), active malignancy (ARR 1.83), cardiac failure (ARR 1.48) and incomplete discharge summaries (ARR 1.61) were independently associated with increased risk of 28-day readmission. Patients with diseases of the respiratory system, neurological or genitourinary disease, injury and unclassifiable conditions were likely to be readmitted within 7 days. Patients with circulatory and respiratory disease were likely to be readmitted with the same system diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Readmission of general medicine patients within 28 days is relatively common and is associated with clinical factors and patterns. Identification of these risk factors and patterns will enable the interventions to reduce potentially preventable readmissions.

Applying risk adjusted cost-effectiveness (RAC-E) analysis to hospitals: estimating the costs and consequences of variation in clinical practice.

Cost-effectiveness analysis is well established for pharmaceuticals and medical technologies but not for evaluating variations in clinical practice. This paper describes a novel methodology--risk adjusted cost-effectiveness (RAC-E)--that facilitates the comparative evaluation of applied clinical practice processes. In this application, risk adjustment is undertaken with a multivariate matching algorithm that balances the baseline characteristics of patients attending different settings (e.g., hospitals). Linked, routinely collected data are used to analyse patient-level costs and outcomes over a 2-year period, as well as to extrapolate costs and survival over patient lifetimes. The study reports the relative cost-effectiveness of alternative forms of clinical practice, including a full representation of the statistical uncertainty around the mean estimates. The methodology is illustrated by a case study that evaluates the relative cost-effectiveness of services for patients presenting with acute chest pain across the four main public hospitals in South Australia. The evaluation finds that services provided at two hospitals were dominated, and of the remaining services, the more effective hospital gained life years at a low mean additional cost and had an 80% probability of being the most cost-effective hospital at realistic cost-effectiveness thresholds. Potential determinants of the estimated variation in costs and effects were identified, although more detailed analyses to identify specific areas of variation in clinical practice are required to inform improvements at the less cost-effective institutions.

Evaluating the effects of variation in clinical practice: a risk adjusted cost-effectiveness (RAC-E) analysis of acute stroke services.

BACKGROUND: Methods for the cost-effectiveness analysis of health technologies are now well established, but such methods may also have a useful role in the context of evaluating the effects of variation in applied clinical practice. This study illustrates a general methodology for the comparative analysis of applied clinical practice at alternative institutions--risk adjusted cost-effectiveness (RAC-E) analysis--with an application that compares acute hospital services for stroke patients admitted to the main public hospitals in South Australia. METHODS: Using linked, routinely collected data on all South Australian hospital separations from July 2001 to June 2008, an analysis of the RAC-E of services provided at four metropolitan hospitals was undertaken using a decision analytic framework. Observed (plus extrapolated) and expected lifetime costs and survival were compared across patient populations, from which the relative cost-effectiveness of services provided at the different hospitals was estimated. RESULTS: Unadjusted results showed that at one hospital patients incurred fewer costs and gained more life years than at the other hospitals (i.e. it was the dominant hospital). After risk adjustment, the cost minimizing hospital incurred the lowest costs, but with fewer life-years gained than one other hospital. The mean incremental cost per life-year gained of services provided at the most effective hospital was under $20,000, with an associated 65% probability of being cost-effective at a $50,000 per life year monetary threshold. CONCLUSIONS: RAC-E analyses can be used to identify important variation in the costs and outcomes associated with clinical practice at alternative institutions. Such data provides an impetus for further investigation to identify specific areas of variation, which may then inform the dissemination of best practice service delivery and organisation.

The efficient price: an opportunity for funding reform.

OBJECTIVE: Proposed Australian healthcare reforms describe a move towards partial Commonwealth funding of public hospitals, whereby hospitals will be paid an 'efficient price' for each separation, incorporating both the costs and benefits of services. This paper describes a potential approach to setting the efficient price using risk adjusted cost-effectiveness (RAC-E) analysis. METHODS: RAC-E analysis uses a decision analytic framework to estimate lifetime costs and survival for individual patients, which are standardised by comparing observed and expected values. Analysis of standardised costs and effects at different hospitals identifies efficient hospitals, from which efficient prices can be defined. RESULTS: A RAC-E analysis of services for stroke patients at the four main public hospitals in South Australia demonstrates the need to account for costs and benefits in identifying efficient hospitals. The hospital with the best patient outcomes incurred additional costs relative to less effective hospitals. If an investment of AU$14760 to gain an additional life year in stroke patients is deemed to be a cost-effective use of resources, then the most effective hospital is also the most efficient hospital. CONCLUSIONS: The applied RAC-E analysis demonstrates a framework for comparing the economic efficiency of care provided at different hospitals, which provides a basis for defining the efficient price and appropriate funding incentives to achieve better patient outcomes.

Stability of plasma creatinine concentrations in acute complex long-stay admissions to a general medical service.

Assessment of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is essential for calculating safe dosages of renally cleared drugs. Formulae for estimating reliable GFRs assume that plasma creatinine concentrations are stable. This study evaluates the variability of plasma creatinine (PCr) concentrations in patients admitted acutely to hospital. From 2,293 newly admitted patients, those in whom a subsequent clinically significant change (> 20%) in PCr had occurred were identified. Median age was 81.1 years. Median baseline PCr was 90 umol/l (eGFR 60 ml/min). In total, 46.3% of the patients had a PCr that varied > 20% from baseline three to seven days following admission. A 10-year increase in age increased the odds of a rise in PCr over the next week by 11.1% (odds ratio = 1.11, 95% confidence interval = 1.03, 1.20; p = 0.007). Overall, baseline creatinine was a poor predictor of subsequent variation in PCr. GFR formulae for calculating renally-cleared drug dosages should be used with caution in elderly patients admitted acutely to hospital.

Hospital's instability wedges.

In this study, we define a hospital congestion episode as a situation where the number of new patients needing admission is greater than the number of available beds in the hospital, and investigate the likelihood that the current day's midnight occupancy will exceed any specified threshold level. We demonstrate that this measure of risk exhibits a characteristic sensitivity phenomenon that we have named as hospital's instability wedge. In particular, it is seen that frequently even small changes in the numbers of patients admitted or discharged can dramatically change the risk of exceeding the threshold, thereby changing the risk of subsequent congestion episodes. While this finding captures a salient difficulty of operating a modern public hospital, it also opens up an opportunity for monitoring and alleviating the above defined risk with only small changes in admission, discharge, and cancellation rates. A case study with recent patient journey data from Flinders Medical Centre in South Australia is presented.

Lean thinking across a hospital: redesigning care at the Flinders Medical Centre.

Lean thinking is a method for organising complex production processes so as to encourage flow and reduce waste. While the principles of lean thinking were developed in the manufacturing sector, there is increasing interest in its application in health care. This case history documents the introduction and development of Redesigning Care, a lean thinking-based program to redesign care processes across a teaching general hospital. Redesigning Care has produced substantial benefits over the first two-and-a-half years of its implementation, making care both safer and more accessible. Redesigning Care has not been aimed at changing the specifics of clinical practice. Rather, it has been concerned with improving the flow of patients through clinical and other systems. Concepts that emerged in the manufacturing sector have been readily translatable into health care. Lean thinking may play an important role in the reform of health care in Australia and elsewhere.

Development of a modified diagnostic classification system for voice disorders with inter-rater reliability study.

Diversity in nomenclature and on-going dilemmas over the conceptual bases for the classification of voice disorders make it virtually impossible for the collation and accurate comparison of evidence-based data across different clinical settings. This has significant implications for treatment outcome studies. The first aim of this study was to develop a modified diagnostic classification system for voice disorders with clearly defined operational guidelines by which we might reliably distinguish voice disorders from one another. The second aim was to establish the face validity and reliability of the system as an effective diagnostic tool for the allocation of patients to different diagnostic groups for clinical and research purposes. After the Diagnostic Classification System for Voice Disorders (DCSVD) had been developed, it was used in an inter-rater reliability study for the independent assessment of 53 new consecutive patients referred to the Voice Analysis Clinics of three tertiary hospitals. There were three raters present for the assessment and diagnostic allocation of each patient. The high levels of inter-rater reliability suggest this may be a robust classification system that has good face validity and even at this early stage, strong construct validity.

Redesigning emergency department patient flows: application of Lean Thinking to health care.

OBJECTIVE: To describe in some detail the methods used and outcome of an application of concepts from Lean Thinking in establishing streams for patient flows in a teaching general hospital ED. METHODS: Detailed understanding was gained through process mapping with staff followed by the identification of value streams (those patients likely to be discharged from the ED, those who were likely to be admitted) and the implementation of a process of seeing those patients that minimized complex queuing in the ED. RESULTS: Streaming had a significant impact on waiting times and total durations of stay in the ED. There was a general flattening of the waiting time across all groups. A slight increase in wait for Triage categories 2 and 3 patients was offset by reductions in wait for Triage category 4 patients. All groups of patients spent significantly less overall time in the department and the average number of patients in the ED at any time decreased. There was a significant reduction in number of patients who do not wait and a slight decrease in access block. CONCLUSIONS: The streaming of patients into groups of patients cared for by a specific team of doctors and nurses, and the minimizing of complex queues in this ED by altering the practices in relation to the function of the Australasian Triage Scale improved patient flow, thereby decreasing potential for overcrowding.

Predicting admission of patients by their presentation to the emergency department.

OBJECTIVE: The present study aims to determine the importance of certain factors in predicting the need of hospital admission for a patient in the ED. METHODS: This is a retrospective observational cohort study between January 2010 and March 2012. The characteristics, including blood test results, of 100,123 patients who presented to the ED of a tertiary referral urban hospital, were incorporated into models using logistic regression in an attempt to predict the likelihood of patients' disposition on leaving the ED. These models were compared with triage nurses' prediction of patient disposition. RESULTS: Patient age, their initial presenting symptoms or diagnosis, Australasian Triage Scale category, mode of arrival, existence of any outside referral, triage time of day and day of the week were significant predictors of the patient's disposition (P < 0.001). The ordering of blood tests for any patient and the extent of abnormality of those tests increased the likelihood of admission. The accuracy of triage nurses' admission prediction was similar to that offered by a model that used the patients' presentation characteristics. The addition of blood tests to that model resulted in only 3% greater accuracy in prediction of patient disposition. CONCLUSIONS: Certain characteristics of patients as they present to hospital predict their admission. The accuracy of the triage nurses' prediction for disposition of patients is the same as that afforded by a model constructed from these characteristics. Blood test results improve disposition accuracy only slightly so admission decisions should not always wait for these results.

Psychosocial risk factors which may differentiate between women with Functional Voice Disorder, Organic Voice Disorder and a Control group.

This study aimed to explore psychosocial factors contributing to the development of functional voice disorders (FVD) and those differentiating between organic voice disorders (OVD) and a non-voice-disordered control group. A case-control study was undertaken of 194 women aged 18-80 years diagnosed with FVD (n = 73), OVD (n = 55), and controls (n = 66). FVD women were allocated into psychogenic voice disorder (PVD) (n = 37) and muscle tension voice disorder (MTVD) (n = 36) for sub-group analysis. Dependent variables included biographical and voice assessment data, the number and severity of life events and difficulties and conflict over speaking out (COSO) situations derived from the Life Events and Difficulties Schedule (LEDS), and psychological traits including emotional expressiveness scales. Four psychosocial components differentiated between the FVD and control group accounting for 84.9% of the variance: severe events, moderate events, severe COSO, and mild COSO difficulties. Severe events, severe and mild COSO difficulties differentiated between FVD and OVD groups, accounting for 80.5% of the variance. Moderate events differentiated between PVD and MTVD sub-groups, accounting for 58.9% of the variance. Psychological traits did not differentiate between groups. Stressful life events and COSO situations best differentiated FVD from OVD and control groups. More refined aetiological studies are needed to differentiate between PVD and MTVD.

Timeliness in discharge summary dissemination is associated with patients' clinical outcomes.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To determine the relation of the readmission rate of general medical patients to either the existence of a discharge summary or the timeliness of its dispatch. METHODS: This was a retrospective study on discharge summaries of all discharges from the general medical service at a tertiary referral teaching hospital from January 2005 to December 2009. The main outcome measures were readmission rate to hospital within 7 or 28 days of discharge RESULTS: A total of 16 496 patient admissions were included in the analysis. Of these discharges, 3397 (20.6%) patients did not have a summary completed within a week of discharge. There were significant linear trends between patients' readmission rates within 7 (P < 0.001) or 28 days (P < 0.001) and categories reflecting the delay in dispatch of their discharge summaries. The absence of a discharge summary was associated with a 79% increase in the rate of readmission within 7 days [95% confidence interval (CI) 42 to 124% increase; P < 0.001] and a 37% increased rate of readmission within 28 days (95% CI 17 to 61% increase; P < 0.001). If aged less than 80 years, the absence of a discharge summary was associated with a 127% increase in readmission rate within 7 days (95% CI 72 to 202% increase; P < 0.001) and a 55% increase within 28 days (95% CI 25 to 91% increase; P < 0.001) after discharge. CONCLUSIONS: Delayed transmission or absence of a discharge summary is associated with readmission of the patient; more so in patients less than 80 years old. If no summary is generated by 7 days after discharge, the rate of readmission within 7 or 28 days after discharge is indistinguishable from no summary being written at all.

The selection of acute medical admissions for a short-stay unit.

Objective of this study is to evaluate the selection of patients to be admitted to a hospital medical short-stay unit (SSU) where acute medical admissions with a predicted length of stay of between 24 and 72 h are managed. This is a retrospective observational study evaluating outcomes of all admissions to the medical SSU between January 2005 and December 2008. Factors that influence inappropriate allocation of patients to the SSU or alternative longer stay medical units were evaluated. Length of stay (LOS), mortality, Charlson score, admission to intensive care unit (ICU) (from the SSU), discharge diagnosis, and 7-day readmission rate were analysed. Over 4 years, 45% of the general medical inpatient take, 9,125 admission episodes, were managed by the medical SSU. On an average, 72% of these admissions to the SSU stayed fewer than 72 h. After excluding in-hospital deaths, there were 8,381 admissions to the general medical unit discharged within 72 h, and 77% of these were managed by the SSU during the study period. Inappropriate admissions to the SSU (LOS more than 72 h) tended to be older patients with more complex medical comorbidities. Other factors contributing to prolonged stay in the SSU included weekend admissions, and transfers to the ICU. The 7-day readmission rate was low at 3%; the all-cause hospital mortality for patients admitted to the medical SSU was 2% despite a 32% increase in workload in the medical SSU over these 4 years. In the context of fixed resources and a steeply increasing patient workload, a large proportion of general medical patients can be managed in a medical SSU with the majority being discharged home within 72 h while keeping all-cause in-hospital mortality and readmission rates low. More accurate identification of appropriate patients on admission by using a physiological clinical score and addressing operational issues particularly on weekends could lead to a more efficient SSU.

Routine use of administrative data for safety and quality purposes--hospital mortality.

Worldwide, current practice is to report hospital mortality using the hospital standardised mortality ratio (HSMR). An HSMR is generated by comparing an indirectly standardised expected mortality rate against a hospital's observed mortality rate. A hospital's HSMR can be compared with the overall outcomes for all hospitals in a population, or with peer hospitals. HSMRs should be used as screening tools that alert institutions to the need for further investigation, rather than as definitive measures of the quality of care provided by individual hospitals. HSMRs are computed from existing hospital administrative data sources, which are fit for such a purpose. The addition of clinical or physiological data does not, at present, add to the discriminative powers of the risk adjustment models used to adjust HSMR values for differences in hospitals' casemixes. There has been concern that HSMRs may be too variable over time for individual values to be interpretable. A study of HSMR outcomes in Australian hospitals confirmed earlier reports of the stability of the measure. Considerable progress has been made with developing Australian HSMRs for use as routine measures to improve the safety and quality of Australian hospital care.