Anesthetic Management and Deep Sedation After Emergence From General Anesthesia: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Residual deep sedation during anesthesia recovery may predict postoperative complications. We examined the incidence and risk factors for deep sedation after general anesthesia. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed health records of adults who underwent procedures with general anesthesia and were admitted to the postanesthesia care unit from May 2018 to December 2020. Patients were dichotomized by Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS) score: ≤-4 (deeply sedated/unarousable) or ≥-3 (not deeply sedated). Anesthesia risk factors for deep sedation were assessed with multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Of the 56,275 patients included, 2003 had a RASS ≤-4 (35.6 [95% CI, 34.1-37.2] cases per 1000 anesthetics administered). On adjusted analyses, the likelihood of a RASS ≤-4 increased when more soluble halogenated anesthetics were used. Compared with desflurane without propofol, the odds ratio (OR [95% CI]) for a RASS ≤-4 was higher with sevoflurane (1.85 [1.45-2.37]) and isoflurane (4.21 [3.29-5.38]) without propofol. Compared with desflurane without propofol, the odds of a RASS ≤-4 further increased with use of desflurane-propofol (2.61 [1.99-3.42]), sevoflurane-propofol (4.20 [3.28-5.39]), isoflurane-propofol (6.39 [4.90-8.34]), and total intravenous anesthesia (2.98 [2.22-3.98]). A RASS ≤-4 was also more likely with the use of dexmedetomidine (2.47 [2.10-2.89]), gabapentinoids (2.17 [1.90-2.48]), and midazolam (1.34 [1.21-1.49]). Deeply sedated patients discharged to general care wards had higher odds of opioid-induced respiratory complications (2.59 [1.32-5.10]) and higher odds of naloxone administration (2.93 [1.42-6.03]). CONCLUSIONS: Likelihood of deep sedation after recovery increased with intraoperative use of halogenated agents with higher solubility and increased further when propofol was concomitantly used. Patients who experience deep sedation during anesthesia recovery have an increased risk of opioid-induced respiratory complications on general care wards. These findings may be useful for tailoring anesthetic management to reduce postoperative oversedation.

Bladder spasms following ambulatory urologic procedures.

INTRODUCTION: Bladder spasm are common complications following cystoscopic urologic procedures. This study aims to determine the incidence and risk factors for bladder spasm after ambulatory cystoscopic urologic procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical records of adult patients who underwent urologic procedures in our ambulatory center from May 1st, 2018 through December 30th, 2020, were reviewed. Bladder spasm was identified from the administration of antispasmodic therapy (e.g. oxybutynin) during anesthesia recovery. Multivariable analyses were performed to assess the association between bladder spasm and clinical factors. RESULTS: Included were 2,671 patients, of which 917 (34.3%) developed postoperative bladder spasm, yielding an incidence of 343 (95%CI 325-361) per 1,000 procedures. Risk factors associated with bladder spasm were younger adult age (< 60 years), longer (> 45 minutes) and more complex procedures. Compared to cystoscopy the risk of spasm following transurethral resection of the bladder tumor was OR 4.35 (95%CI 3.22, 5.87) and for transurethral resection of the prostate OR 3.25 (95% CI 2.24, 4.71). Spasm prophylaxis with belladonna and opium suppositories (B&O) was used in 1,158 patients and 384 (33.2%) developed spasms. The use of B&O was not associated with reduction of bladder spasm, OR 0.91 (95%CI 0.75, 1.1, p = 0.318). Postoperative outcomes did not differ between patients who did or did not develop spasms. CONCLUSION: Bladder spasms are common following ambulatory urologic procedures, more so with more extensive procedures. Prophylaxis with B&O was not significantly associated with a lower rate of bladder spasms.

A systematic review of adherence to physical activity interventions in individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Lifestyle interventions are pivotal for successful management of type 2 diabetes (T2D), however, the proportion of people with T2D adhering to physical activity advice has not been thoroughly studied. The purpose of this systematic review was to summarise the evidence on adherence to exercise or physical activity components in lifestyle interventions in those with T2D. We searched MEDLINE EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Scopus on 12 November 2019. Eligible studies enrolled adults with T2D and reported the proportion of adherence to lifestyle interventions as a primary or secondary outcome. We included 11 studies (nine randomised controlled trials (RCTs) enrolling 1717 patients and two nonrandomised studies enrolling 62 patients). Only one of the studies had low risk of bias. The proportion of participants adhering to physical activity varied from 32% to 100% with a median of 58%. Adherence was higher in interventions using supervised training and lowest in interventions using remote coaching and the adherence rate in observational studies was higher compared to RCTs (92% vs. 55%; p < 0.01). Study duration, risk of bias, or participants' sex, were not associated with adherence to physical activity. The proportion of those with T2D adhering to physical activity interventions for T2D varies widely and most of the included studies had a high risk of bias. These findings have important implications for planning and power analysis of future trials and when counselling patients about lifestyle interventions including physical activity or exercise components.

Caffeine administration to treat oversedation after general anesthesia: A retrospective analysis.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Our institution has adopted an informal practice of administering postoperative caffeine to expedite anesthesia recovery for patients with excessive sedation. This study aimed to determine whether caffeine administration was associated with improved sedation recovery and reduced risk of respiratory complications. DESIGN: Single-center, retrospective, observational study. SETTING: Quaternary medical center. PATIENTS: We included adult patients who were admitted to a postanesthesia recovery care unit (PACU) after general anesthesia and had evidence of postoperative sedation (Richmond Agitation Sedation Score [RASS] < 0). Patients were seen from May 5, 2018, through December 31, 2020. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were categorized according to caffeine administration (0 vs 250 mg). MEASUREMENTS: Sedation was measured with RASS. To account for potential confounding, binary and ordinal logistic regression with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) were used to compare RASS and episodes of severe respiratory complications within 48 h after PACU discharge. MAIN RESULTS: We identified 47,222 adult surgical patients with evidence of sedation in the PACU, and of these, 1892 (4.0%) were intravenously administered caffeine. Patients who received caffeine had more sedation in the PACU. In the IPTW-adjusted analysis, caffeine administration was associated with improved sedation scores after PACU discharge (ordinal logistic regression odds ratio [OR], 1.13 [95% CI, 1.00-1.28]; P = .04 for the first RASS score after PACU discharge) but increased risk of respiratory complications (OR, 2.99 [95% CI, 1.44-6.24]; P = .003) and emergency response team activation (OR, 7.18 [95% CI, 2.85-18.10]; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: In this observational study, caffeine administration during anesthesia recovery was associated with improved sedation scores. However, it was also associated with an increased risk of respiratory complications, possibly reflecting selection bias (ie, administering caffeine to higher-risk patients). Patients with signs of excessive sedation during anesthesia recovery may benefit from enhanced postoperative respiratory monitoring.

Effects of Reversal Technique for Neuromuscular Paralysis on Time to Recovery of Bowel Function after Craniotomy.

BACKGROUND: Non-depolarizing neuromuscular blockade can be reversed with neostigmine/glycopyrrolate or sugammadex. We test the hypothesis that sugammadex is associated with earlier postoperative recovery of bowel function (first bowel movement, BM). METHODS: In adult patients undergoing craniotomy from 2016 to 2019, we identified time of first postoperative BM after receiving neostigmine/glycopyrrolate or sugammadex to reverse neuromuscular blockade. Logistic and proportional hazard regression, with and without inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), were used to assess whether sugammadex is associated with earlier recovery of bowel function. RESULTS: Seven hundred and thirty-one patients underwent craniotomy, 323 (44.2%) received neostigmine/glycopyrrolate, and 408 (55.8%) sugammadex. From logistic regression analysis, the proportion of patients having a BM within the first 24 and 48 hours was higher in sugammadex group (unadjusted OR [95% CI]) 1.79 [1.16 to 2.77] P = .009; and 1.45 [1.08 to 1.94] P = .014; IPTW adjusted OR [95% CI]) 1.58 [.95, 2.61] P = .078; and 1.38 [.95 to 2.02] P = .095 for 24 and 48 h, respectively). From proportional hazards regression, sugammadex was associated with improved bowel function recovery (unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) [95% CI] 1.35 [1.08, 1.68], P = .008; IPTW adjusted HR 1.29 [.97 to 1.71], P = .076). CONCLUSION: Patients undergoing craniotomy who had neuromuscular blockade reversed with sugammadex may have earlier recovered bowel function compared to patients reversed with neostigmine/glycopyrrolate.

Comparative costs for critically ill patients with limited English proficiency versus English proficiency.

OBJECTIVES: To conduct comparative cost analysis of hospital care for critically ill patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) versus patients with English proficiency (controls). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a historical cohort study using propensity matching at Mayo Clinic Rochester, a quaternary care academic center. We included hospitalized patients who had at least one admission to ICU during a 10-year period between 1/1/2008-12/31/2017. RESULTS: Due to substantial differences in baseline characteristics of the groups, propensity matching for the covariates age, sex, race, ethnicity, APACHE 3 score, and Charlson Comorbidity score was used, and we achieved the intended balance. The final cohort included 80,404 patients, 4,246 with LEP and 76,158 controls. Patients with LEP had higher costs during hospital admission to discharge, with a mean cost difference of $3861 (95% CI $822 to $6900, p = 0.013) and also higher costs during index ICU admission to hospital discharge, with a mean cost difference of $3166 (95% CI $231 to $6101, p = 0.035). A propensity matched cohort including only those that survived showed those with LEP had significantly greater mean costs for all outcomes. Sensitivity analysis revealed that international patients with LEP had significantly greater overall hospital costs of $9,240 than patients with LEP who resided in the US (95% CI $3341 to $15,140, p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: This is the first study to demonstrate significantly higher costs for patients with LEP experiencing a critical illness. The causes for this may be increased healthcare utilization secondary to communication deficiencies that impede timely decision making about care.

Diagnostic error among vulnerable populations presenting to the emergency department with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular or neurological symptoms: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Diagnostic error (DE) is a common problem in clinical practice, particularly in the emergency department (ED) setting. Among ED patients presenting with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular/neurological symptoms, a delay in diagnosis or failure to hospitalise may be most impactful in terms of adverse outcomes. Minorities and other vulnerable populations may be at higher risk of DE. We aimed to systematically review studies reporting the frequency and causes of DE in under-resourced patients presenting to the ED with cardiovascular or cerebrovascular/neurological symptoms. METHODS: We searched EBM Reviews, Embase, Medline, Scopus and Web of Science from 2000 through 14 August 2022. Data were abstracted by two independent reviewers using a standardised form. The risk of bias (ROB) was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale, and the certainty of evidence was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach. RESULTS: Of the 7342 studies screened, we included 20 studies evaluating 7436,737 patients. Most studies were conducted in the USA, and one study was multicountry. 11 studies evaluated DE in patients with cerebrovascular/neurological symptoms, 8 studies with cardiovascular symptoms and 1 study examined both types of symptoms. 13 studies investigated missed diagnoses and 7 studies explored delayed diagnoses. There was significant clinical and methodological variability, including heterogeneity of DE definitions and predictor variable definitions as well as methods of DE assessment, study design and reporting.Among the studies evaluating cardiovascular symptoms, black race was significantly associated with higher odds of DE in 4/6 studies evaluating missed acute myocardial infarction (AMI)/acute coronary syndrome (ACS) diagnosis compared with white race (OR from 1.18 (1.12-1.24) to 4.5 (1.8-11.8)). The association between other analysed factors (ethnicity, insurance and limited English proficiency) and DE in this domain varied from study to study and was inconclusive.Among the studies evaluating DE in patients with cerebrovascular/neurological symptoms, no consistent association was found indicating higher or lower odds of DE. Although some studies showed significant differences, these were not consistently in the same direction.The overall ROB was low for most included studies; however, the certainty of evidence was very low, mostly due to serious inconsistency in definitions and measurement approaches across studies. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review demonstrated consistent increased odds of missed AMI/ACS diagnosis among black patients presenting to the ED compared with white patients in most studies. No consistent associations between demographic groups and DE related to cerebrovascular/neurological diagnoses were identified. More standardised approaches to study design, measurement of DE and outcomes assessment are needed to understand this problem among vulnerable populations. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The study protocol was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews PROSPERO 2020 CRD42020178885 and is available from: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42020178885.

Time to diagnostic certainty for saddle pulmonary embolism in hospitalized patients.

There is a lack of diagnostic performance measures associated with pulmonary embolism (PE). We aimed to explore the concept of the time to diagnostic certainty, which we defined as the time interval that elapses between first presentation of a patient to a confirmed PE diagnosis with computed tomography pulmonary angiogram (CT PA). This approach could be used to highlight variability in health system diagnostic performance, and to select patient outliers for structured chart review in order to identify underlying contributors to diagnostic error or delay. We performed a retrospective observational study at academic medical centers and associated community-based hospitals in one health system, examining randomly selected adult patients admitted to study sites with a diagnosis of acute saddle PE. One hundred patients were randomly selected from 340 patients discharged with saddle PE. Twenty-four patients were excluded. Among the 76 included patients, time to diagnostic certainty ranged from 1.5 to 310 hours. We found that 73/76 patients were considered to have PE present on admission (CT PA ≤ 48 hours). The proportion of patients with PE present on admission with time to diagnostic certainty of > 6 hours was 26% (19/73). The median (IQR) time to treatment (thrombolytics/anticoagulants) was 3.5 (2.5-5.1) hours among the 73 patients. The proportion of patients with PE present on admission with treatment delays of > 6 hours was 16% (12/73). Three patients acquired PE during hospitalization (CT PA > 48 hours). In this study, we developed and successfully tested the concept of time to diagnostic certainty for saddle PE.

Effect of an Artificial Intelligence Decision Support Tool on Palliative Care Referral in Hospitalized Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

CONTEXT: Palliative care services are commonly provided to hospitalized patients, but accurately predicting who needs them remains a challenge. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness on clinical outcomes of an artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) decision support tool for predicting patient need for palliative care services in the hospital. METHODS: The study design was a pragmatic, cluster-randomized, stepped-wedge clinical trial in 12 nursing units at two hospitals over a 15-month period between August 19, 2019, and November 17, 2020. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to either a medical service consultation recommendation triggered by an AI/ML tool predicting the need for palliative care services or usual care. The primary outcome was palliative care consultation note. Secondary outcomes included: hospital readmissions, length of stay, transfer to intensive care and palliative care consultation note by unit. RESULTS: A total of 3183 patient hospitalizations were enrolled. Of eligible patients, A total of 2544 patients were randomized to the decision support tool (1212; 48%) and usual care (1332; 52%). Of these, 1717 patients (67%) were retained for analyses. Patients randomized to the intervention had a statistically significant higher incidence rate of palliative care consultation compared to the control group (IRR, 1.44 [95% CI, 1.11-1.92]). Exploratory evidence suggested that the decision support tool group reduced 60-day and 90-day hospital readmissions (OR, 0.75 [95% CI, 0.57, 0.97]) and (OR, 0.72 [95% CI, 0.55-0.93]) respectively. CONCLUSION: A decision support tool integrated into palliative care practice and leveraging AI/ML demonstrated an increased palliative care consultation rate among hospitalized patients and reductions in hospitalizations.

Detecting professional interpreter use among patients with limited English proficiency: Derivation and validation study.

Objectives: The objective of this derivation and validation study was to develop and validate a search strategy algorithm to detect patients who used professional interpreter services. Methods: We identified all adults who had at least one intensive care unit admission during their hospital stay across the Mayo Clinic Enterprise between 1 January 2015 and 30 June 2020. Three random subsets of 100 patients were extracted from 60,268 patients to develop the search strategy algorithm. Two physician reviewers conducted gold standard manual chart review and any discrepancies were resolved by a third reviewer. These results were compared with the search strategy algorithm each time it was refined. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated during each phase by comparing the search strategy results to the reference gold standard for both derivation cohorts and the final validation cohort. Results: The first search strategy resulted in a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 89%. The second revised search strategy achieved a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 87%. The final version of the search strategy was applied to the validation subset and sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 89%, respectively. Conclusion: We derived and validated a search strategy algorithm to assess interpreter use among hospitalized patients. Using a search strategy algorithm with high sensitivity and specificity can reduce the time required to abstract data from the electronic medical records compared with manual data abstraction.

Contributors to Diagnostic Error or Delay in the Acute Care Setting: A Survey of Clinical Stakeholders.

Diagnostic error or delay (DEOD) is common in the acute care setting and results in poor patient outcomes. Many factors contribute to DEOD, but little is known about how contributors may differ across acute care areas and professional roles. As part of a sequential exploratory mixed methods research study, we surveyed acute care clinical stakeholders about the frequency with which different factors contribute to DEOD. Survey respondents could also propose solutions in open text fields. N = 220 clinical stakeholders completed the survey. Care Team Interactions, Systems and Process, Patient, Provider, and Cognitive factors were perceived to contribute to DEOD with similar frequency. Organization and Infrastructure factors were perceived to contribute to DEOD significantly less often. Responses did not vary across acute care setting. Physicians perceived Cognitive factors to contribute to DEOD more frequently compared to those in other roles. Commonly proposed solutions included: technological solutions, organization level fixes, ensuring staff know and are encouraged to work to the full scope of their role, and cultivating a culture of collaboration and respect. Multiple factors contribute to DEOD with similar frequency across acute care areas, suggesting the need for a multi-pronged approach that can be applied across acute care areas.

Bedside Clinicians' Perceptions on the Contributing Role of Diagnostic Errors in Acutely Ill Patient Presentation: A Survey of Academic and Community Practice.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore clinicians' perceptions of the occurrence of and factors associated with diagnostic errors in patients evaluated during a rapid response team (RRT) activation or unplanned admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: A multicenter prospective survey study was conducted among multiprofessional clinicians involved in the care of patients with RRT activations and/or unplanned ICU admissions (UIAs) at 2 academic hospitals and 1 community-based hospital between April 2019 and March 2020. A study investigator screened eligible patients every day. Within 24 hours of the event, a research coordinator administered the survey to clinicians, who were asked the following: whether diagnostic errors contributed to the reason for RRT/UIA, whether any new diagnosis was made after RRT/UIA, if there were any failures to communicate the diagnosis, and if involvement of specialists earlier would have benefited that patient. Patient clinical data were extracted from the electronic health record. RESULTS: A total of 1815 patients experienced RRT activations, and 1024 patients experienced UIA. Clinicians reported that 18.2% (95/522) of patients experienced diagnostic errors, 8.0% (42/522) experienced a failure of communication, and 16.7% (87/522) may have benefitted from earlier involvement of specialists. Compared with academic settings, clinicians in the community hospital were less likely to report diagnostic errors (7.0% versus 22.8%, P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians report a high rate of diagnostic errors in patients they evaluate during RRT or UIAs.

Clinical Characteristics, Treatment, and Outcomes of Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19: A Scoping Review.

A growing number of studies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are becoming available, but a synthesis of available data focusing on the critically ill population has not been conducted. We performed a scoping review to synthesize clinical characteristics, treatment, and clinical outcomes among critically ill patients with COVID-19. Between January 1, 2020, and May 15, 2020, we identified high-quality clinical studies describing critically ill patients with a sample size of greater than 20 patients by performing daily searches of the World Health Organization and LitCovid databases on COVID-19. Two reviewers independently reviewed all abstracts (2785 unique articles), full text (218 articles), and abstracted data (92 studies). The 92 studies included 61 from Asia, 16 from Europe, 10 from North and South America, and 5 multinational studies. Notable similarities among critically ill populations across all regions included a higher proportion of older males infected and with severe illness, high frequency of comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease), abnormal chest imaging findings, and death secondary to respiratory failure. Differences in regions included newly identified complications (eg, pulmonary embolism) and epidemiological risk factors (eg, obesity), less chest computed tomography performed, and increased use of invasive mechanical ventilation (70% to 100% vs 15% to 47% of intensive care unit patients) in Europe and the United States compared with Asia. Future research directions should include proof-of-mechanism studies to better understand organ injuries and large-scale collaborative clinical studies to evaluate the efficacy and safety of antivirals, antibiotics, interleukin 6 receptor blockers, and interferon. The current established predictive models require further verification in other regions outside China.

What Contributes to Diagnostic Error or Delay? A Qualitative Exploration Across Diverse Acute Care Settings in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: Diagnostic error and delay is a prevalent and impactful problem. This study was part of a mixed-methods approach to understand the organizational, clinician, and patient factors contributing to diagnostic error and delay among acutely ill patients within a health system, as well as recommendations for the development of tailored, targeted, feasible, and effective interventions. METHODS: We did a multisite qualitative study using focus group methodology to explore the perspectives of key clinician stakeholders. We used a conceptual framework that characterized diagnostic error and delay as occurring within 1 of 3 stages of the patient's diagnostic journey-critical information gathering, synthesis of key information, and decision making and communication. We developed our moderator guide based on the sociotechnical frameworks previously described by Holden and Singh for understanding noncognitive factors that lead to diagnostic error and delay. Deidentified focus group transcripts were coded in triplicate and to consensus over a series of meetings. A final coded data set was then uploaded into NVivo software. The data were then analyzed to generate overarching themes and categories. RESULTS: We recruited a total of 64 participants across 4 sites from emergency departments, hospital floor, and intensive care unit settings into 11 focus groups. Clinicians perceive that diverse organizational, communication and coordination, individual clinician, and patient factors interact to impede the process of making timely and accurate diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the complex sociotechnical system within which individual clinicians operate and the contributions of systems, processes, and institutional factors to diagnostic error and delay.

Improving time to palliative care review with predictive modeling in an inpatient adult population: study protocol for a stepped-wedge, pragmatic randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Palliative care is a medical specialty centered on improving the quality of life (QOL) of patients with complex or life-threatening illnesses. The need for palliative care is increasing and with that the rigorous testing of triage tools that can be used quickly and reliably to identify patients that may benefit from palliative care. METHODS: To that aim, we will conduct a two-armed stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial rolled out to two inpatient hospitals to evaluate whether a machine learning algorithm accurately identifies patients who may benefit from a comprehensive review by a palliative care specialist and decreases time to receiving a palliative care consult in hospital. This is a single-center study which will be conducted from August 2019 to November 2020 at Saint Mary's Hospital & Methodist Hospital both within Mayo Clinic Rochester in Minnesota. Clusters will be nursing units which will be chosen to be a mix of complex patients from Cardiology, Critical Care, and Oncology and had previously established relationships with palliative medicine. The stepped wedge design will have 12 units allocated to a design matrix of 5 treatment wedges. Each wedge will last 75 days resulting in a study period of 12 months of recruitment unless otherwise specified. Data will be analyzed with Bayesian hierarchical models with credible intervals denoting statistical significance. DISCUSSION: This intervention offers a pragmatic approach to delivering specialty palliative care to hospital patients in need using machine learning, thereby leading to high value care and improved outcomes. It is not enough for AI to be utilized by simply publishing research showing predictive performance; clinical trials demonstrating better outcomes are critically needed. Furthermore, the deployment of an AI algorithm is a complex process that requires multiple teams with varying skill sets. To evaluate a deployed AI, a pragmatic clinical trial can accommodate the difficulties of clinical practice while retaining scientific rigor. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03976297 . Registered on 6 June 2019, prior to trial start.

Improving the delivery of palliative care through predictive modeling and healthcare informatics.

OBJECTIVE: Access to palliative care (PC) is important for many patients with uncontrolled symptom burden from serious or complex illness. However, many patients who could benefit from PC do not receive it early enough or at all. We sought to address this problem by building a predictive model into a comprehensive clinical framework with the aims to (i) identify in-hospital patients likely to benefit from a PC consult, and (ii) intervene on such patients by contacting their care team. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Electronic health record data for 68 349 inpatient encounters in 2017 at a large hospital were used to train a model to predict the need for PC consult. This model was published as a web service, connected to institutional data pipelines, and consumed by a downstream display application monitored by the PC team. For those patients that the PC team deems appropriate, a team member then contacts the patient's corresponding care team. RESULTS: Training performance AUC based on a 20% holdout validation set was 0.90. The most influential variables were previous palliative care, hospital unit, Albumin, Troponin, and metastatic cancer. The model has been successfully integrated into the clinical workflow making real-time predictions on hundreds of patients per day. The model had an "in-production" AUC of 0.91. A clinical trial is currently underway to assess the effect on clinical outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: A machine learning model can effectively predict the need for an inpatient PC consult and has been successfully integrated into practice to refer new patients to PC.

Feasibility and Reliability Testing of Manual Electronic Health Record Reviews as a Tool for Timely Identification of Diagnostic Error in Patients at Risk.

BACKGROUND: Although diagnostic error (DE) is a significant problem, it remains challenging for clinicians to identify it reliably and to recognize its contribution to the clinical trajectory of their patients. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the reliability of real-time electronic health record (EHR) reviews using a search strategy for the identification of DE as a contributor to the rapid response team (RRT) activation. OBJECTIVES: Early and accurate recognition of critical illness is of paramount importance. The objective of this study was to test the feasibility and reliability of prospective, real-time EHR reviews as a means of identification of DE. METHODS: We conducted this prospective observational study in June 2019 and included consecutive adult patients experiencing their first RRT activation. An EHR search strategy and a standard operating procedure were refined based on the literature and expert clinician inputs. Two physician-investigators independently reviewed eligible patient EHRs for the evidence of DE within 24 hours after RRT activation. In cases of disagreement, a secondary review of the EHR using a taxonomy approach was applied. The reviewers categorized patient experience of DE as Yes/No/Uncertain. RESULTS: We reviewed 112 patient records. DE was identified in 15% of cases by both reviewers. Kappa agreement with the initial review was 0.23 and with the secondary review 0.65. No evidence of DE was detected in 60% of patients. In 25% of cases, the reviewers could not determine whether DE was present or absent. CONCLUSION: EHR review is of limited value in the real-time identification of DE in hospitalized patients. Alternative approaches are needed for research and quality improvement efforts in this field.

High-Flow Nasal Cannula Oxygen in Patients with Acute Respiratory Failure and Do-Not-Intubate or Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen may provide tailored benefits in patients with preset treatment limitations. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of HFNC oxygen in patients with do-not-intubate (DNI) and/or do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of interventional and observational studies. A search was performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science, from inception to October 15, 2018. RESULTS: We included six studies evaluating 293 patients. All studies had a high risk of bias. The hospital mortality rates of patients with DNI and/or DNR orders receiving HFNC oxygen were variable and ranged from 40% to 87%. In two before and after studies, the initiation of HFNC oxygen was associated with improved oxygenation and reduced respiratory rates. One comparative study found no difference in dyspnea reduction or morphine doses between patients using HFNC oxygen versus conventional oxygen. No studies evaluated quality of life in survivors or quality of death in nonsurvivors. HFNC was generally well tolerated with few adverse events identified. CONCLUSIONS: While HFNC oxygen remains a viable treatment option for hospitalized patients who have acute respiratory failure and a DNI and/or DNR order, there is a paucity of high-quality, comparative, effectiveness data to guide the usage of HFNC oxygen compared with other treatments, such as noninvasive ventilation, conventional oxygen, and palliative opioids.

Interventions for End of Life Decision Making for Patients with Limited English Proficiency.

Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) experience disparities in end-of-life decision making and advance care planning. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review to assess the literature about interventions addressing these issues. Our search strategy was built around end-of-life (EOL), LEP, ACP, and goals of care. The databases included Ovid MEDLINE(R), and Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations and Daily from 1946 to November 9, 2018, Ovid EMBASE. Eight studies from the US and Australia were included (seven studies in Spanish and one study in Greek and Italian). Interventions used trained personnel, video images, web-based programs, and written materials. Interventions were associated with increased advance directive completion and decreased preferences for some life-prolonging treatments. Interventions were deemed to be feasible and acceptable. Few interventions exist to improve end-of-life care for patients with LEP. Data are limited regarding intervention effectiveness.