Barriers to Effective Infection Prevention in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Infection prevention (IP) behaviors such as hand hygiene (HH) and mobile device disinfection are important to reduce the risk of infection transmission from both family members and hospital staff to critically ill neonates. PURPOSE: To inform the design of educational interventions to improve both patient family and staff IP behaviors, we engaged separate groups of nurses and family members to understand perceptions about the spread of infection and barriers to implementing effective IP strategies. METHODS: This was a qualitative study using focus groups to gather data from neonatal nurses and patient family members. Data were triangulated with hospital-wide survey data and analyzed using inductive content analysis. RESULTS: Twelve nurses and 4 patient family members participated. Themes related to communication about IP between staff and family members emerged: stakeholders expressed discomfort with the timing and nature of just-in-time HH education. These communication challenges contributed to stress levels within the neonatal intensive care unit. This finding was reflected in the hospital-wide survey. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND RESEARCH: Steps should be taken to improve communication about IP behaviors between patient family members and frontline staff. Reducing nurse burden of providing just-in-time HH reminders to patient family members through increased IP education may decrease stress and facilitate IP behaviors. This has the potential to decrease infection spread and improve patient outcomes. The development of interventions targeting stakeholder communication is therefore warranted, but additional research is needed to understand the timing and process for delivery of the educational material.

Implementation of Pre-Admission Caregiver Testing for COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: Caregivers are often at the bedside of hospitalized children posing an additional risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission. We describe the implementation of caregiver COVID-19 testing before inpatient pediatric admissions and the effect on patient cohorting and bed capacity. METHODS: We implemented an ordering pathway to facilitate COVID-19 testing of caregivers of patients admitted to the inpatient units from the pediatric emergency department, elective procedural admissions, or direct admissions at a tertiary children's hospital in the Northeastern United States in August 2021. Testing was expedited by the clinical laboratory, and caregiver results were used to inform cohorting, infection prevention, and bed management decisions. RESULTS: From August 2021 to January 2022, 2558 caregiver tests were ordered through this pathway, and 83 (3.2%) were positive. Of the positive tests, 72 (86.7%) occurred after December 18, 2021, coinciding with the local Omicron variant wave. Among positives, 67 caregiver or child pairs were identified, and 36 positive caregivers had a COVID-19 negative child leading to use of isolation precautions. Reintroduction of patient cohorting increased overall bed capacity from 74% to 100% of available beds. CONCLUSIONS: The overall incidence of COVID-19 among caregivers before admission correlated well with rates of COVID-19 positivity among asymptomatic adults in the community during the study period. Implementation of caregiver testing increased bed capacity by reintroducing cohorting of patients and identified patients needing isolation that would have been missed by patient testing alone. More research is necessary to determine the extent that routine caregiver testing mitigates the risk of nosocomial severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission.

Addressing Mistreatment of Providers by Patients and Family Members as a Patient Safety Event.

OBJECTIVE: Mistreatment of health care providers (HCPs) is associated with burnout and lower-quality patient care, but mistreatment by patients and family members is underreported. We hypothesized that an organizational strategy that includes training, safety incident reporting, and a response protocol would increase HCP knowledge, self-efficacy, and reporting of mistreatment. METHODS: In this single-center, serial, cross-sectional study, we sent an anonymous survey to HCPs before and after the intervention at a 213-bed tertiary care university children's hospital between 2018 and 2019. We used multivariable logistic regression to examine the effect of training on the outcomes of interest and whether this association was moderated by staff role. RESULTS: We received 309 baseline surveys from 72 faculty, 191 nurses, and 46 residents, representing 39.1%, 27.1%, and 59.7%, respectively, of eligible HCPs. Verbal threats from patients or family members were reported by 214 (69.5%) HCPs. Offensive behavior was most commonly based on provider age (85, 28.5%), gender (85, 28.5%), ethnicity or race (55, 18.5%), and appearance (43, 14.6%) but varied by role. HCPs who received training had a higher odds of reporting knowledge, self-efficacy, and experiencing offensive behavior. Incident reporting of mistreatment increased threefold after the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: We report an effective organizational approach to address mistreatment of HCPs by patients and family members. Our approach capitalizes on existing patient safety culture and systems that can be adopted by other institutions to address all forms of mistreatment, including those committed by other HCPs.

Decreasing Time to Antibiotics for Patients with Sepsis in the Emergency Department.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. Patients may present in a spectrum, from nonsevere sepsis through septic shock. Literature supports improvement in patient outcomes with timely care. This project describes an effort to improve delays in antibiotic administration in patients with sepsis spectrum disease presenting to a pediatric emergency department (PED). OBJECTIVE: This project aimed to decrease time to antibiotics for patients with sepsis in the PED from 154 to <120 minutes within 2 years. METHODS: Following the collection of baseline data, we assembled a multidisciplinary team. Specific interventions included staff education, the institution of a best practice alert with order set and standardized huddle response, and local stocking of antibiotics. We included all patients with orders for intravenous antibiotics and blood culture. RESULTS: From April 2015 to April 2017, the PED demonstrated reduction in time to antibiotics from 154 to 114 minutes. The time from emergency department (ED) arrival to antibiotic order also improved, from 87 to 59 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: This initiative improved prioritization and efficiency of care of sepsis, and overall time to antibiotics in this population. The results of this project demonstrate the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary team working to improve an essential time-driven process.

An Initiative to Decrease Time to Antibiotics for Patients With Fever and Neutropenia.

The objective was to decrease the time to antibiotic administration for patients arriving in the pediatric emergency department with fever and neutropenia. A multidisciplinary team was assembled and engaged in process analysis through interviews and data review. These findings were used to develop key drivers, and Pareto charts were utilized to prioritize interventions. Interventions were tested and implemented using rapid Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. Progress was monitored using process control charts. Interventions included leveraging a secure text-based messaging platform, creating a new antibiotic pathway, and educating staff and family. Between September 2016 and September 2017, the average time to antibiotics was decreased from 116 to 55 minutes in this population. This also was associated with a decrease in variation (individual moving range mean decreased from 43 minutes to 18 minutes). Careful process analysis, coupled with the work of a multidisciplinary team, produced significant improvements in efficiency of care for these vulnerable patients.

Reducing Unplanned Extubations Across a Children's Hospital Using Quality Improvement Methods.

INTRODUCTION: Children who require an endotracheal (ET) tube for care during critical illness are at risk of unplanned extubations (UE), or the unintended dislodgement or removal of an ET tube that can lead to significant patient harm. A proposed national benchmark is 1 UE per 100 ventilator days. We aimed to reduce the rate of UEs in our intensive care units (ICUs) from 1.20 per 100 ventilator days to below the national benchmark within 2 years. METHODS: We identified several key drivers including ET securement standardization, safety culture, and strategies for high-risk situations. We employed quality improvement methodologies including apparent cause analysis and plan-do-study-act cycles to improve our processes and outcomes. RESULTS: Over 2 years, we reduced the rate of UEs hospital-wide by 75% from 1.2 to 0.3 per 100 ventilator days. We eliminated UEs in the pediatric ICU during the study period, while the UE rate in the neonatal ICU also decreased from 1.2 to 0.3 per 100 ventilator days. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that by using quality improvement methodology, we successfully reduced our rate of UE by 75% to a level well below the proposed national benchmark.