Clinician Acceptance of Order Sets for Pain Management: A Survey in Two Urban Hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Order sets are a clinical decision support (CDS) tool in computerized provider order entry systems. Order set use has been associated with improved quality of care. Particularly related to opioids and pain management, order sets have been shown to standardize and reduce the prescription of opioids. However, clinician-level barriers often limit the uptake of this CDS modality. OBJECTIVE: To identify the barriers to order sets adoption, we surveyed clinicians on their training, knowledge, and perceptions related to order sets for pain management. METHODS: We distributed a cross-sectional survey between October 2020 and April 2021 to clinicians eligible to place orders at two campuses of a major academic medical center. Survey questions were adapted from the widely used framework of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. We hypothesize that performance expectancy (PE) and facilitating conditions (FC) are associated with order set use. Survey responses were analyzed using logistic regression. RESULTS: The intention to use order sets for pain management was associated with PE to existing order sets, social influence (SI) by leadership and peers, and FC for electronic health record (EHR) training and function integration. Intention to use did not significantly differ by gender or clinician role. Moderate differences were observed in the perception of the effort of, and FC for, order set use across gender and roles of clinicians, particularly emergency medicine and internal medicine departments. CONCLUSION: This study attempts to identify barriers to the adoption of order sets for pain management and suggests future directions in designing and implementing CDS systems that can improve order sets adoption by clinicians. Study findings imply the importance of order set effectiveness, peer influence, and EHR integration in determining the acceptability of the order sets.

Chronic Drug Use and Abdominal Pain.

There are a variety of gastrointestinal pathologies that may be emergently identified in the patient who chronically uses alcohol or other substances. Patients may present to an Emergency Department with abdominal complaints existing on a spectrum from vague and benign to systemically toxic and potentially life-threatening. This article highlights ethanol, opioids, and other common substances of abuse and how they may contribute to gastrointestinal complaints.

MyEDCare: Evaluation of a Smartphone-Based Emergency Department Discharge Process.

BACKGROUND: Poor comprehension and low compliance with post-ED (emergency department) care plans increase the risk of unscheduled ED return visits and adverse outcomes. Despite the growth of personal health records to support transitions of care, technological innovation's focus on the ED discharge process has been limited. Recent literature suggests that digital communication incorporated into post-ED care can improve patient satisfaction and care quality. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the feasibility of utilizing MyEDCare, a text message and smartphone-based electronic ED discharge process at two urban EDs. METHODS: MyEDCare sends text messages to patients' smartphones at the time of discharge, containing a hyperlink to a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant website, to deliver patient-specific ED discharge instructions. Content includes information on therapeutics, new medications, outpatient care scheduling, return precautions, as well as results of laboratory and radiological diagnostic testing performed in the ED. Three text messages are sent to patients: at the time of ED discharge with the nurse assistance for initial access of content, as well as 2 and 29 days after ED discharge. MyEDCare was piloted in a 9-month pilot period in 2019 at two urban EDs in an academic medical center. We evaluated ED return visits, ED staff satisfaction, and patient satisfaction using ED Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (ED-CAHPS) patient satisfaction scores. RESULTS: MyEDCare enrolled 27,713 patients discharged from the two EDs, accounting for 43% of treat-and-release ED patients. Of the treat-and-release patients, 27% completed MyEDCare discharge process, accessing the online content at the time of ED discharge. Patients discharged via MyEDCare had fewer 72-hour, 9-day, and 30-day unscheduled return ED visits and reported higher satisfaction related to nursing care. CONCLUSION: EDs and urgent care facilities may consider developing a HIPAA-compliant, text message, and smartphone-based discharge process, including the transmission of test results, to improve patient-centered outcomes.

A novel use of telemedicine during a hospital mass casualty drill.

During a mass casualty disaster drill at NewYork-Presbyterian's Lower Manhattan Hospital in April 2019, the Emergency Department (ED) used telemedicine to see low-acuity 'walking wounded' patients. This telemedicine service is provided every day as ED Express Care Service and staffed by off-site, board-certified Emergency Medicine attending physicians. This novel use of the ED Express Care Service allowed the ED to provide timely, safe, quality care while expanding resources and ED capacity through rapid assessment, treatment and discharge of the low-acuity patients.

Utilizing Telemedicine in a Novel Approach to COVID-19 Management and Patient Experience in the Emergency Department.

Background: The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted telemedicine as a care delivery tool uniquely suited for a disaster pandemic. Introduction: With support from emergency department (ED) leadership, our institution rapidly deployed telemedicine in a novel approach to large-scale ED infectious disease management at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center (NYP/WCMC) and NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan Hospital (NYP/LMH). Materials and Methods: Nineteen telemedicine carts were placed in COVID-19 isolation rooms to conserve personal protective equipment (PPE) and mitigate infectious risk for patients and providers by decreasing in-person exposures. Results: The teleisolation carts were used for 261 COVID-19 patient interactions from March to May 2020, with 79% of overall use in March. Our urban academic site (NYP/WCMC) had 173 of these cases, and the urban community hospital (NYP/LMH) had 88. This initiative increased provider/patient communication and attention to staff safety, improved palliative care and patient support services, lowered PPE consumption, and streamlined clinical workflows. The carts also increased patient comfort and reduced the psychological toll of isolation. Discussion: Deploying customized placement strategies in these two EDs maximized cart availability for isolation patients and demonstrates the utility of telemedicine in various ED settings. Conclusions: The successful introduction of this program in both academic and urban community hospitals suggests that widespread adoption of similar initiatives could improve safe ED evaluation of potentially infectious patients. In the longer term, our experience underscores the critical role of telemedicine in disaster preparedness planning, as building these capabilities in advance allows for the agile scaling needed to manage unforeseen catastrophic scenarios.

Crisis clinical pathway for COVID-19.

The pandemic of COVID-19 has been particularly severe in the New York City area, which has had one of the highest concentrations of cases in the USA. In March 2020, the EDs of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, a 10-hospital health system in the region, began to experience a rapid surge in patients with COVID-19 symptoms. Emergency physicians were faced with a disease that they knew little about that quickly overwhelmed resources. A significant amount of attention has been placed on the problem of limited supply of ventilators and intensive care beds for critically ill patients in the setting of the ongoing global pandemic. Relatively less has been given to the issue that precedes it: the demand on resources posed by patients who are not yet critically ill but are unwell enough to seek care in the ED. We describe here how at one institution, a cross-campus ED physician working group produced a care pathway to guide clinicians and ensure the fair and effective allocation of resources in the setting of the developing public health crisis. This 'crisis clinical pathway' focused on using clinical evaluation for medical decision making and maximising benefit to patients throughout the system.

Conscious Proning: An Introduction of a Proning Protocol for Nonintubated, Awake, Hypoxic Emergency Department COVID-19 Patients.

The novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, has rapidly become a global pandemic. A major cause of morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 has been the worsening hypoxia that, if untreated, can progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and respiratory failure. Past work has found that intubated patients with ARDS experience physiological benefits to the prone position, because it promotes better matching of pulmonary perfusion to ventilation, improved secretion clearance, and recruitment of dependent areas of the lungs. We created a systemwide multi-institutional (New York-Presbyterian Hospital enterprise) protocol for placing awake, nonintubated, emergency department patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in the prone position. In this piece, we describe the background literature and the approach we have taken at our institution as we care for a high burden of COVID-19 cases with respiratory symptoms.

Development of an Emergency Department Trigger Tool Using a Systematic Search and Modified Delphi Process.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop an emergency department (ED) trigger tool to improve the identification of adverse events in the ED and that can be used to direct patient safety and quality improvement. This work describes the first step toward the development of an ED all-cause harm measurement tool by experts in the field. METHODS: We identified a multidisciplinary group of emergency medicine safety experts from whom we solicited candidate triggers. We then conducted a modified Delphi process consisting of 4 stages as follows: (1) a systematic literature search and review, including an independent oversampling of review for inclusion, (2) solicitation of empiric triggers from participants, (3) a Web-based survey ranking triggers on specific performance constructs, and (4) a final in-person meeting to arrive at consensus triggers for testing. Results of each step were shared with participants between each stage. RESULTS: Among an initial 804 unique articles found using our search criteria, we identified 94 that were suitable for further review. Interrater reliability was high (κ = 0.80). Review of these articles yielded 56 candidate triggers. These were supplemented by 58 participant-submitted triggers yielding a total of 114 candidate triggers that were shared with team members electronically along with their definitions. Team members then voted on each measure via a Web-based survey, ranking triggers on their face validity, utility for quality improvement, and fidelity (sensitivity/specificity). Participants were also provided the ability to flag any trigger about which they had questions or they felt merited further discussion at the in-person meeting. Triggers were ranked by combining the first 2 categories (face validity and utility), and information on fidelity was reviewed for decision making at the in-person meeting. Seven redundant triggers were eliminated. At an in-person meeting including representatives from all facilities, we presented the 50 top-ranked triggers as well as those that were flagged on the survey by 2 or more participants. We reviewed each trigger individually, identifying 41 triggers about which there was a clear agreement for inclusion. Of the seven additional triggers that required subsequent voting via e-mail, 5 were adopted, arriving at a total of 46 consensus-derived triggers. CONCLUSIONS: Our modified Delphi process resulted in the identification of 46 final triggers for the detection of adverse events among ED patients. These triggers should be pilot field tested to quantify their individual and collective performance in detecting all-cause harm to ED patients.

Quality improvement initiative increases total paracentesis and early paracentesis rates in hospitalised cirrhotics with ascites.

OBJECTIVE: Early paracentesis (EP) for rapid diagnosis of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis is considered best practice in the care of admitted patients with cirrhosis and ascites, but inpatient paracentesis is frequently not performed or delayed. We developed a quality improvement (QI) initiative aimed at increasing the proportion of admitted patients with cirrhosis who undergo paracentesis and EP. DESIGN: Pre-post study of a QI initiative. SETTING: A tertiary care hospital in a major metropolitan area. PATIENTS: Hospitalised patients with cirrhosis and ascites. INTERVENTIONS: We targeted care providers in the emergency department (ED) by raising awareness of the importance of EP, developing criteria to identify patients at highest risk of SBP who were prioritised for EP by ED providers and restructuring the ED environment to enable timely paracentesis. RESULTS: 76 patients meeting inclusion criteria were admitted during the postintervention 9-month study period. Of these, 91% (69/76) underwent paracentesis during admission versus 71 % (77/109) preintervention (p=0.001). 81% (56/69) underwent EP within 12 hours of presentation or after a predefined acceptable reason for delay versus 48% (37/77) preintervention (p=0.001). There were no significant differences in in-hospital mortality or length of stay before and after intervention. CONCLUSION: A multidisciplinary QI intervention targeting care in the ED successfully increased the proportion of patients with cirrhosis and ascites undergoing diagnostic paracentesis during admission and EP within 12 hours of presentation.

Increasing frequency and fatality of poison control center reported exposures involving medication and multiple substances: data from reports of the American Association of Poison Control Centers 1984-2013.

CONTEXT: Medication use has become increasingly prevalent in the United States, with up trending use of both prescription and over the counter medication. The increasing use and availability of medication may be changing the nature of poisoning fatality. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate changes in fatal poisoning over time, with respect to fatalities involving one or more medications, using annual reports published by the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: AAPCC annual reports were reviewed from 1984 to 2013. Data from tables in each annual report titled Number of Substances Involved in Human Exposure Cases and Summary of Fatal Exposures were abstracted. Fatality rates and changes in these rates over time were calculated for exposures to 1, 2, or ≥ 3 substances. All substances detailed in Summary of Fatal Exposures tables were then coded as medication or non-medication. The percentage of fatalities involving 1, 2, or ≥ 3 medications was calculated and trended over time. Subset analysis was performed to compare the periods 1984-2005 and 2006-2013 in order to limit confounding from changes in reporting. Secondary analysis linking the number of substances cases were exposed to and the fatality rate was performed for data from 2006-2013. RESULTS: There were 59,866,357 human exposures and 29,659 fatalities reported from 1984 to 2013. There were 49.5 fatalities per 100,000 exposures. The majority of fatalities (52.2%) involved more than one substance, although multiple substances were involved in only 8.3% of exposures. Fatality rates increased over time and were higher for cases involving multiple substances. Medications were involved in 79.2% of fatalities, a percentage that increased from 70% in the 1980s to nearly 90% after 2010. In recent years, the majority of fatalities have involved multiple medications. For data from 2006-2013 there was a strong association between fatality rate and number of substances involved in an exposure (221 additional fatalities per 100,000 exposures for each additional substance involved in an exposure). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Multiple substance exposures have become a greater percentage of cases reported to the AAPCC and have higher fatality rates than single substance exposures. The majority of fatal poisonings reported to the AAPCC between 1984 and 2013 involved medication. The percentage of fatal poisonings involving medication increased over the interval, as did the percentage of fatalities involving more than one medication. Fatalities involving multiple medications are now the most common type of fatal poisoning reported to the AAPCC.

High Reliability Organizations--Medication Safety.

High reliability organizations (HROs), such as the aviation industry, successfully engage in high-risk endeavors and have low incidence of adverse events. HROs have a preoccupation with failure and errors. They analyze each event to effect system wide change in an attempt to mitigate the occurrence of similar errors. The healthcare industry can adapt HRO practices, specifically with regard to teamwork and communication. Crew resource management concepts can be adapted to healthcare with the use of certain tools such as checklists and the sterile cockpit to reduce medication errors. HROs also use The Swiss Cheese Model to evaluate risk and look for vulnerabilities in multiple protective barriers, instead of focusing on one failure. This model can be used in medication safety to evaluate medication management in addition to using the teamwork and communication tools of HROs.

Toxicology in the Service of Patient and Medication Safety: a Selected Glance at Past and Present Innovations.

Medical and medication errors remain definite threats to patients in US health care. Medical toxicologists frequently encounter patients either harmed by or at risk for harm from adverse drug events, including medication errors and inadvertent exposures. An historical perspective, as viewed through the lens of specific disciplines, can be useful to trace systemic responses to safety threats. Early efforts to address anesthesia perioperative risks and recent actions in medicine, surgery, and obstetrics to introduce checklists, communication tools, and systems approaches are reviewed. Patient safety concepts can be utilized and disseminated by toxicologists to improve medication safety and drive innovative approaches to confront patient harm. Various approaches include simulation of high-risk scenarios which might predispose to medication error, assembling multidisciplinary groups of health care providers to review events and implement mitigation strategies, and proactive patient safety rounds in clinical areas to allow frontline staff to voice concerns and introduce solutions for administration, evaluation, and implementation. We review selected lessons from the past and current innovations to achieve safe medication practice.

Metoclopramide-induced cardiac arrest.

The authors report a case of cardiac arrest in a patient receiving intravenous (IV) metoclopramide and review the pertinent literature. A 62-year-old morbidly obese female admitted for a gastric sleeve procedure, developed cardiac arrest within one minute of receiving metoclopramide 10 mg via slow intravenous (IV) injection. Bradycardia at 4 beats/min immediately appeared, progressing rapidly to asystole. Chest compressions restored vital function. Electrocardiogram (ECG) revealed ST depression indicative of myocardial injury. Following intubation, the patient was transferred to the intensive care unit. Various cardiac dysrrhythmias including supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) associated with hypertension and atrial fibrillation occurred. Following IV esmolol and metoprolol, the patient reverted to normal sinus rhythm. Repeat ECGs revealed ST depression resolution without pre-admission changes. Metoclopramide is a non-specific dopamine receptor antagonist. Seven cases of cardiac arrest and one of sinus arrest with metoclopramide were found in the literature. The metoclopramide prescribing information does not list precautions or adverse drug reactions (ADRs) related to cardiac arrest. The reaction is not dose related but may relate to the IV administration route. Coronary artery disease was the sole risk factor identified. According to Naranjo, the association was possible. Other reports of cardiac arrest, severe bradycardia, and SVT were reviewed. In one case, five separate IV doses of 10 mg metoclopramide were immediately followed by asystole repeatedly. The mechanism(s) underlying metoclopramide's cardiac arrest-inducing effects is unknown. Structural similarities to procainamide may play a role. In view of eight previous cases of cardiac arrest from metoclopramide having been reported, further elucidation of this ADR and patient monitoring is needed. Our report should alert clinicians to monitor patients and remain diligent in surveillance and reporting of bradydysrrhythmias and cardiac arrest in patients receiving metoclopramide.

Agent of opportunity risk mitigation: people, engineering, and security efficacy.

BACKGROUND: Agents of opportunity (AO) are potentially harmful biological, chemical, radiological, and pharmaceutical substances commonly used for health care delivery and research. AOs are present in all academic medical centers (AMC), creating vulnerability in the health care sector; AO attributes and dissemination methods likely predict risk; and AMCs are inadequately secured against a purposeful AO dissemination, with limited budgets and competing priorities. We explored health care workers' perceptions of AMC security and the impact of those perceptions on AO risk. METHODS: Qualitative methods (survey, interviews, and workshops) were used to collect opinions from staff working in a medical school and 4 AMC-affiliated hospitals concerning AOs and the risk to hospital infrastructure associated with their uncontrolled presence. Secondary to this goal, staff perception concerning security, or opinions about security behaviors of others, were extracted, analyzed, and grouped into themes. RESULTS: We provide a framework for depicting the interaction of staff behavior and access control engineering, including the tendency of staff to "defeat" inconvenient access controls. In addition, 8 security themes emerged: staff security behavior is a significant source of AO risk; the wide range of opinions about "open" front-door policies among AMC staff illustrates a disparity of perceptions about the need for security; interviewees expressed profound skepticism concerning the effectiveness of front-door access controls; an AO risk assessment requires reconsideration of the security levels historically assigned to areas such as the loading dock and central distribution sites, where many AOs are delivered and may remain unattended for substantial periods of time; researchers' view of AMC security is influenced by the ongoing debate within the scientific community about the wisdom of engaging in bioterrorism research; there was no agreement about which areas of the AMC should be subject to stronger access controls; security personnel play dual roles of security and customer service, creating the negative perception that neither role is done well; and budget was described as an important factor in explaining the state of security controls. CONCLUSIONS: We determined that AMCs seeking to reduce AO risk should assess their institutionally unique AO risks, understand staff security perceptions, and install access controls that are responsive to the staff's tendency to defeat them. The development of AO attribute fact sheets is desirable for AO risk assessment; new funding and administrative or legislative tools to improve AMC security are required; and security practices and methods that are convenient and effective should be engineered.

Developing a consensus framework and risk profile for agents of opportunity in academic medical centers: implications for public health preparedness.

Agents of opportunity (AO) in academic medical centers (AMC) are defined as unregulated or lightly regulated substances used for medical research or patient care that can be used as "dual purpose" substances by terrorists to inflict damage upon populations. Most of these agents are used routinely throughout AMC either during research or for general clinical practice. To date, the lack of careful regulations for AOs creates uncertain security conditions and increased malicious potential. Using a consensus-based approach, we collected information and opinions from staff working in an AMC and 4 AMC-affiliated hospitals concerning identification of AO, AO attributes, and AMC risk and preparedness, focusing on AO security and dissemination mechanisms and likely hospital response. The goal was to develop a risk profile and framework for AO in the institution. Agents of opportunity in 4 classes were identified and an AO profile was developed, comprising 16 attributes denoting information critical to preparedness for AO misuse. Agents of opportunity found in AMC present a unique and vital gap in public health preparedness. Findings of this project may provide a foundation for a discussion and consensus efforts to determine a nationally accepted risk profile framework for AO. This foundation may further lead to the implementation of appropriate regulatory policies to improve public health preparedness. Agents of opportunity modeling of dissemination properties should be developed to better predict AO risk.