Pharmacist-driven initiative for management of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia using a clinical decision support system.

PURPOSE: The development and implementation of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) for pharmacists to use for identification of and intervention on patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) are described. SUMMARY: A project team consisting of 3 informatics pharmacists and 2 infectious diseases (ID) pharmacists was formed to develop the CDSS. The primary CDSS component was a scoring system that generates a score in real time for a patient with a positive blood culture for S. aureus. In addition, 4 tools were configured in the CDSS to facilitate pharmacists' workflow and documentation tasks: a patient list, a patient list report, a handoff note, and a standardized progress note. Pharmacists are required to evaluate the patient list at least once per shift to identify newly listed patients with a blood culture positive for S. aureus and provide recommendations if necessary. The CDSS was implemented over a period of 2.5 months, with a pharmacy informatics resident dedicating approximately 200 hours in total. An audit showed that the standardized progress note was completed for 100% of the patients, with a mean time to completion of 8.5 hours. Importantly, this initiative can be implemented in hospitals without specialty-trained ID pharmacists. This study provides a framework for future antimicrobial stewardship program initiatives to incorporate pharmacists into the process of providing real-time recommendations. CONCLUSION: A pharmacist-driven patient scoring system was successfully used to improve adherence to quality performance measures for management of SAB. A pharmacist-driven CDSS can be utilized to assist in the management of SAB.

An Automated, Pharmacist-Driven Initiative Improves Quality of Care for Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia.

BACKGROUND: Infectious diseases (ID) consultation and antimicrobial stewardship intervention have been shown to improve the management of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB). As the workload of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) continues to increase, ASPs must find a way to maximize the efficiency of the program while optimizing patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of incorporating health informatics into the management of SAB via a pharmacist-driven initiative. METHODS: Retrospective, single-center quasi-experimental study of hospitalized patients with SAB. During the intervention period, pharmacists were alerted to patients with SAB via a patient scoring tool integrated into the electronic medical record. Pharmacists utilized the scoring tool and the institution's evidence-based practice guideline to make standardized recommendations to promote adherence to SAB quality-of-care measures and encourage ID consultation. The primary outcome was overall compliance along with adherence to individual quality-of-care components. Secondary clinical outcomes were also analyzed. RESULTS: In sum, 84 patients were identified for study inclusion, 45 in the pre-intervention and 39 in the intervention group. As a whole, all 4 quality-of-care components for the management of SAB were significantly more frequently adhered to in the intervention group (68.9% vs 92.3%; P = .008). The incidence of ID consult improved significantly by almost 20% in the intervention group (75.6% vs 94.9%, P = .015). No statistically significant differences in duration of bacteremia, length-of-stay, infection-related length-of-stay, or readmission were observed between the groups. The incidence of all-cause mortality was 6-fold higher in the pre- intervention group compared to the intervention group (15.6% vs 2.6%, P = .063). CONCLUSION: An automated, pharmacist-driven intervention for the management of patients with SAB demonstrated a significant improvement in patients receiving an ID consult, targeted antimicrobial therapy, and adherence to all SAB quality-of-care measures. As antimicrobial stewardship becomes a mandatory aspect of healthcare in all hospitals in the United States, ASPs will be forced to find ways to provide more efficient, impactful, disease state-based patient care. Our study provides the framework for and data to support this intervention in one of the most clinically important infectious diseases.

Detection of adverse drug events using an electronic trigger tool.

PURPOSE: Implementation and refinement of an integrated electronic "trigger tool" for detecting adverse drug events (ADEs) is described. METHODS: A three-month prospective study was conducted at a large medical center to test and improve the positive predictive value (PPV) of an electronic health record-based tool for detecting ADEs associated with use of four "trigger drugs": the reversal agents flumazenil, naloxone, phytonadione, and protamine. On administration of a trigger drug to an adult patient, an electronic message was transmitted to two pharmacists, who reviewed cases in near real time (typically, on the same day) to detect actual or potential ADEs. In phase 1 of the study, any use of a trigger drug resulted in an alert message; in subsequent phases, the alerting criteria were narrowed on the basis of clinical criteria and laboratory data with the goal of refining the trigger tool's PPV. RESULTS: A total of 87 drug administrations were reviewed during the three-month study period, with 27 ADEs detected. PPV values in phases 1, 2, and 3 were 0.33, 0.21, and 0.36, respectively. The relatively low overall PPV of the trigger tool was largely attributable to false-positive trigger messages associated with phytonadione use (such messages were reduced from 35 in phase 1 to 7 in phase 3). CONCLUSION: Evaluation and refinement of an electronic trigger tool based on detecting the use of the reversal agents flumazenil, naloxone, phytonadione, and protamine found an overall PPV of 0.31 during a three-month study period.

Effect of barcode-assisted medication administration on emergency department medication errors.

OBJECTIVES: Barcode-assisted medication administration (BCMA) is technology with demonstrated benefit in reducing medication administration errors in hospitalized patients; however, it is not routinely used in emergency departments (EDs). EDs may benefit from BCMA, because ED medication administration is complex and error-prone. METHODS: A naïve observational study was conducted at an academic medical center implementing BCMA in the ED. The rate of medication administration errors was measured before and after implementing an integrated electronic medical record (EMR) with BCMA capacity. Errors were classified as wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong route of administration, or a medication administration with no physician order. The error type, severity of error, and medications associated with errors were also quantified. RESULTS: A total of 1,978 medication administrations were observed (996 pre-BCMA and 982 post-BCMA). The baseline medication administration error rate was 6.3%, with wrong dose errors representing 66.7% of observed errors. BCMA was associated with a reduction in the medication administration error rate to 1.2%, a relative rate reduction of 80.7% (p < 0.0001). Wrong dose errors decreased by 90.4% (p < 0.0001), and medication administrations with no physician order decreased by 72.4% (p = 0.057). Most errors discovered were of minor severity. Antihistamine medications were associated with the highest error rate. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing BCMA in the ED was associated with significant reductions in the medication administration error rate and specifically wrong dose errors. The results of this study suggest a benefit of BCMA on reducing medication administration errors in the ED.