Association between neonatal intensive care unit medication safety practices, adverse events, and death.

OBJECTIVE: Determine the associations between neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) medication safety practices, laboratory-based adverse events (lab-AEs), and death. STUDY DESIGN: We combined data from a 2016 survey of Pediatrix NICUs on use of medication safety practices with 2014-2016 infant data. We grouped NICUs based on the number of safety practices used (≤5, 6-7, and 8-10) and evaluated the association between the number of safety practices used and lab-AEs and deaths using logistic regressions. RESULTS: Of the 94 NICUs included, 17% used ≤5 medication safety practices, 51% used 6-7, and 32% used 8-10. NICUs with more safety practices did not have a difference in lab-AEs or death. CONCLUSION: In this cohort, the use of more medication safety practices was not associated with fewer lab-AEs or decreased death.

National Survey of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Medication Safety Practices.

OBJECTIVE: We conducted a detailed survey to identify medication safety practices among a large network of United States neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). METHODS: We created a 53-question survey to assess 300 U.S. NICU's demographics, medication safety practices, adverse drug event (ADE) reporting, and ADE response plans. RESULTS: Among the 164 (55%) NICUs that responded to the survey, more than 85% adhered to practices including use of electronic health records, computerized physician order entry, and clinical decision support; fewer reported adopting barcoding, formal safety surveys, and formal culture training; 137 of 164 (84%) developed at least one NICU-specific order-set with a median of 10 order-sets. CONCLUSION: Among our survey of 164 NICUs, we found that many safety practices remain unused. Understanding safety practice variation is critical to prevent ADEs and other negative infant outcomes. Future efforts should focus on linking safety practices identified from our survey with ADEs and infant outcomes.

Preventing Health Care-Associated Infections: Connecting North Carolina's Patients to National Efforts.

With increased federal and state attention to prevention and control of health care-associated infections (HAIs), broad multifacility collaboratives have emerged to guide providers' work at the bedside. This commentary reviews how HAI prevention flows from federal-level guidance through state leadership and into hospitals, connecting governance to its impact on North Carolina's patients.

Feeding practices and other risk factors for developing transfusion-associated necrotizing enterocolitis.

AIMS: The objective of this study is to determine the incidence of and risk factors for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and transfusion-associated NEC (TANEC) in very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants pre/post implementation of a peri-transfusion feeding protocol. STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective cohort study was conducted including all inborn VLBW infants admitted to the Duke intensive care nursery from 2002 to 2010. We defined NEC using Bell's modified criteria IIA and higher and TANEC as NEC occurring within 48h of a packed red blood cell (pRBC) transfusion. We compared demographic and laboratory data for TANEC vs. other NEC infants and the incidence of TANEC pre/post implementation of our peri-transfusion feeding protocol. We also assessed the relationship between pre-transfusion hematocrit and pRBC unit age with TANEC. RESULTS: A total of 148/1380 (10.7%) infants developed NEC. Incidence of NEC decreased after initiating our peri-transfusion feeding protocol: 126/939 (12%) to 22/293 (7%), P=0.01. The proportion of TANEC did not change: 51/126 (41%) vs. 9/22 (41%), P>0.99. TANEC infants were smaller, more likely to develop surgical NEC, and had lower mean pre-transfusion hematocrits prior to their TANEC transfusions compared with all other transfusions before their NEC episode: 28% vs. 33%, P<0.001. Risk of TANEC was inversely related to pre-transfusion hematocrit: odds ratio 0.87 (0.79-0.95). CONCLUSIONS: Pre-transfusion hematocrit is inversely related to risk of TANEC, which suggests that temporally maintaining a higher baseline hemoglobin in infants most at risk of NEC may be protective. The lack of difference in TANEC pre-/post-implementation of our peri-transfusion feeding protocol, despite an overall temporal decrease in NEC, suggests that other unmeasured interventions may account for the observed decreased incidence of NEC.

Standardizing and Evaluating Transitions of Care in the Era of Duty Hour Reform: One Institution's Resident-Led Effort.

BACKGROUND: Compliance with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education duty hour standards may necessitate more frequent transitions of patient responsibility. INTERVENTION: We created a multidisciplinary Patient Safety and Quality Council with a Task Force on Handoffs (TFH), engaging residents at a large, university-based institution. METHODS: The TFH identified core content of effective handoffs and patterned institutional content on the SIGNOUTT mnemonic. A web-based module highlighting core content was developed for institutional orientation of all trainees beginning summer 2011 to standardize handoff education. The TFH distributed handoff material and catalogued additional program initiatives in teaching and evaluating handoffs. A standard handoff evaluation tool, assessing content, culture, and communication, was developed and "preloaded" into the institution-wide electronic evaluation system to standardize evaluation. The TFH developed questions pertaining to handoffs for an annual institutional survey in 2011 and 2012. Acceptability of efforts was measured by program participation, and feasibility was measured by estimating time and financial costs. RESULTS: Programs found the TFH's efforts to improve handoffs acceptable; to date, 13 program-specific teaching initiatives have been implemented, and the evaluation tool is being used by 5 programs. Time requirements for TFH participants average 2 to 3 h/mo, and financial costs are minimal. More residents reported having education on handoffs (58% [388 of 668] versus 42% [263 of 625], P < .001) and receiving adequate signouts (69% [469 of 680] versus 61% [384 of 625], P  =  .004) in the 2012 survey, compared with 2011. CONCLUSIONS: Use of a multispecialty resident leadership group to address content, education, and evaluation of handoffs was feasible and acceptable to most programs at a large, university-based institution.