The Rounds Efficiency Index: A Novel Physics-Based Construct for Patient- and Family-Centered Rounds.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Efficiently conducting patient- and family-centered rounds (PFCR) is challenging, particularly without a measure of efficiency. In physics, efficiency is the ratio of work output to work input. We sought to evaluate PFCR efficiency via a novel construct rooted in physics. Our objectives were to (1) Establish baseline work output for clinical work (CW), educational effectiveness (EE), and family experience (FE); (2) establish baseline work input for rounds length (RL); and (3) begin preliminary construction of a rounds efficiency index (REI) as a measure of PFCR efficiency. METHODS: Four components of rounds efficiency were collected on 5 inpatient acute care teams during a baseline period. CW consisted of the percentage of daily orders placed on rounds. EE was assessed via survey for trainees and FE by families. RL was recorded in minutes per patient. During an 8-week intensive period, the REI (reported as %) was calculated as a ratio of work output/work input using aggregate mean/median ratings for CW, EE, FE, and RL. RESULTS: Baseline data included 809 orders, 28 EE ratings, 21 FE ratings, and RL mean of 11.4 minutes per patient. During the intensive period, the median team-specific weekly REI for the end versus beginning of the academic year was 58% and 52.5% (P = .17), respectively. The median REI during the start and end of the block was 49% and 57% (P = .15), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The study assessed 4 components of efficiency (CW, EE, FE, RL) and calculated REI allowing for a preliminary tool to measure rounding efficiency. With this, targeted interventions can improve PFCR efficiency.

The Autonomy Toolbox: A Multicenter Collaborative to Promote Resident Autonomy.

OBJECTIVES: Autonomy is necessary for resident professional development and well-being. A recent focus on patient safety has increased supervision and decreased trainee autonomy. Few validated interventions exist to improve resident autonomy. We aimed to use quality improvement methods to increase our autonomy metric, the Resident Autonomy Score (RAS), by 25% within 1 year and sustain for 6 months. METHODS: We developed a bundled-intervention approach to improve senior resident (SR) perception of autonomy on Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) services at 5 academic children's hospitals. We surveyed SR and PHM faculty perceptions of autonomy and targeted interventions toward areas with the highest discordance. Interventions included SR and faculty development, expectation-setting huddles, and SR independent rounding. We developed a Resident Autonomy Score (RAS) index to track SR perceptions over time. RESULTS: Forty-six percent of SRs and 59% of PHM faculty completed the needs assessment survey querying how often SRs were afforded opportunities to provide autonomous medical care. Faculty and SR ratings were discordant in these domains: SR input in medical decisions, SR autonomous decision-making in straightforward cases, follow-through on SR plans, faculty feedback, SR as team leader, and level of attending oversight. The RAS increased by 19% (3.67 to 4.36) 1 month after SR and faculty professional development and before expectation-setting and independent rounding. This increase was sustained throughout the 18-month study period. CONCLUSIONS: SRs and faculty perceive discordant levels of SR autonomy. We created an adaptable autonomy toolbox that led to sustained improvement in perception of SR autonomy.

Med-Peds Residents' Career Plans and the Impact of Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship: A Nationwide Survey.

BACKGROUND: The establishment of pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) as a fellowship-trained subspecialty represents a major change in the practice landscape, particularly for combined internal medicine-pediatrics (med-peds) residents. The most recent literature on med-peds residents' career choices predates PHM fellowship and its impact has not been well studied. We aimed characterize med-peds residents' career plans and the factors influencing their choices. METHODS: We distributed an electronic survey to the 1,505 resident members of the National Med-Peds Resident Association. In addition to sociodemographic data, participants reported their career plans, how well their residency prepared them for various aspects of practice, and their perceptions of PHM fellowship and its effect on their career choices. RESULTS: Among the 228 participants, the most planned careers were combined hospital medicine (36.8%, 84/228), combined subspecialty practice (32.5%, 74/228), and primary care (31.1%, 71/228). Residents felt well prepared for patient care and significantly more prepared for inpatient practice than for primary care. Participants rated the potential disadvantages of PHM fellowship as major deterrents and did not view the possible advantages as strong incentives. Among those who had considered a hospital medicine careers, 91.2% (186/203) were less likely to pursue PHM after its certification as a subspecialty. CONCLUSION: Med-peds residents have a wide range of career interests but fellowship has made them less likely to pursue PHM careers. These findings emphasize the importance of addressing the needs of med-peds trained providers as PHM certification pathways and fellowship curricula develop to avoid adverse effects on the workforce.

Ramping Up a Pediatric Hospital Medicine Advanced Practice Provider Team Rapidly.

Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) is a growing subspecialty with a broad scope. The Covid-19 pandemic demands flexible staffing models. Advanced practice providers (APPs) can be a valuable addition to hospital medicine teams, although there is no established training program for APPs within PHM. The authors' purpose is to describe how one institution rapidly established a PHM APP team by collaborating with experienced APPs working in other areas of the hospital. This APP team cared for 16% of the average daily census during the pilot period with no significant difference in length of stay compared to traditional teams.

Developing Validity Evidence for a Patient- and Family-Centered Rounds Presenter Empowerment Action Rating Tool.

BACKGROUND: Training in patient- and family-centered care is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for learners. The AAP recommends patient- and family-centered rounds (PFCR) during inpatient care. The PEA-21 (21-item Presenter Empowerment Action checklist) was developed to evaluate presenter behavior during PFCR. OBJECTIVE: To gather validity evidence for the PEA-21 in evaluating third year medical student and intern presentations during PFCR in the domains of Data Accuracy, Communication Skills, Assessment and Plan Formation, and Family Interaction. METHODS: A 24-month prospective cohort study of students and interns presenting on PFCR. Content, response process, internal structure, and relationship with other variables were assessed. RESULTS: Data were collected from 101 rounds (758 individual patient encounters), both on pediatric subspecialty and hospital medicine teams. Presenters included third- and fourth-year medical students and interns in pediatrics, internal medicine-pediatrics, and family-medicine. Intraclass correlations between observers ranged from 0.5 to 0.72. Internal consistency showed α >0.7 for 3 of 4 domains. Interns scored higher than students across domains (P< .01), but students' scores improved throughout their rotations (d = 0.2-0.8). Both groups performed lowest in the Family Interaction Domain. CONCLUSIONS: The PEA-21 showed strong validity properties including content, response process, internal structure, and relationship with other variables and can be used by educators to assess learners' skill levels and provide formative feedback to both medical students and interns. Targeted efforts are needed to improve skills within the Family Interaction Domain for both medical students and interns.

Pediatric, Surgery, and Internal Medicine Program Director Interpretations of Letters of Recommendation.

PURPOSE: Literature describing program director (PD) perceptions of letters of recommendation (LORs) and "code" used by letter writers is limited. In 2016, a survey instrument was distributed nationally to pediatric PDs asking them to rate their interpretations of components of LORs. The results confirmed that letter phrases convey code, but these results were not known to be generalizable outside of pediatrics. The purpose of this study was to expand the survey to surgery and internal medicine (IM) PDs looking for areas of agreement or variation between the 3 specialties. METHOD: The survey was sent nationally to surgery and IM PDs asking them to rate LORs in 3 areas on a 5-point Likert scale: 14 commonly used phrases, 13 letter features, and 10 applicant abilities. The LOR phrases were grouped using principal component analysis (PCA). Mean scores of components were analyzed with repeated-measures analysis of variance. RESULTS: Response rates: pediatrics 43% (486 of 1079), surgery 55% (151 of 277), and IM 42% (170 of 408). PCA generated groups of positive, neutral, and negative phrases with moderate to strong correlation with each other for all 3 specialties. There were significant differences between the mean Likert scores of the positive, neutral, and negative groups of phrases for all 3 specialties (all P < .001). "Showed improvement" was rated the most negative phrase by all 3 specialties. CONCLUSIONS: Key elements of LORs include distinct phrases depicting different degrees of endorsement of candidates. Pediatric, surgery, and IM PDs interpret letter components differently.

Teaching when Time Is Limited: a Resident and Fellow as Educator Video Module.

BACKGROUND: Research has demonstrated that residents and fellows (hereafter referred to as "residents") play a significant role in the education of medical students. However, residents often feel unprepared to teach effectively and efficiently in busy clinical environments. ACTIVITY: The Residents as Educators Committee at the Medical College of Wisconsin sought to create an online module for residents to promote five key elements of teaching medical students in a busy clinical environment when time is limited. The module includes a narrated presentation highlighting key attributes of excellent clinical teachers as well as video clips presenting teaching pearls from award-winning resident educators. All incoming residents during the 2015-2016 academic year were required to view the module and complete a mandatory post-test, representing over 80 specialties and subspecialties. RESULTS: A total of 325 residents viewed the module and took the required post-test. Of this group, 294 residents (91.4%) completed the optional evaluation. The module was rated highly in terms of content, format, and likelihood to change teaching practices. DISCUSSION: The teaching provided by residents is vital to the success of future generations of medical students. The online module developed at the Medical College of Wisconsin may be useful to a larger audience of residents at other institutions. Additionally, further studies could determine the effectiveness of the module by examining the teaching evaluations of residents before and after viewing the module.

Teaching Inpatient Bedside Presenter Empowerment Actions During an Interactive Workshop.

Introduction: Medical students and interns are the principal communicators during inpatient bedside patient- and family-centered rounds. Excellent presenters are able to share information during rounds in a manner that is accurate, effective, and easy for all to understand. We previously identified the behaviors of excellent presenters and developed a term for them: presenter empowerment actions. Methods: To promote the use of presenter empowerment actions, an interactive workshop was created to teach them to medical students and interns. This educational summary contains information on how to facilitate a workshop to promote presenter empowerment actions, which includes both a didactic presentation and an interactive game. Results: Interns reported increases in confidence and knowledge of empowerment actions, as well as strong intent to incorporate presenter empowerment actions during inpatient rounds. Discussion: A workshop with an interactive game is an effective way to teach empowerment actions to learners. To reinforce presenter empowerment action use after the workshop, we recommend direct observation using the Suspected Observable Presenter Empowerment Action Checklist to provide formative feedback to the presenters.

Students' Critical Incidents Point the Way to Safer Patient Care Transitions.

INTRODUCTION: Patient care transitions are prevalent in health care, and faulty transition-related communications are associated with 80% of serious medical errors. While medical student curricula on care transitions are increasing, there are limited evaluation reports and little guidance on primary care transition training. METHODS: The Medical College of Wisconsin initiated an annual 2-hour patient care transition intersession for third-year medical students. The intersession used a critical incident report, where students wrote about a recent, de-identified patient transition they witnessed that evoked in them "a strong emotional reaction." Next, intersession training included a novel, structured communication handoff mnemonic. At the intersession conclusion, students wrote what they would do differently if their critical incident transition occured in the future. Evaluations (2010-2014) consisted of students' post-session reactions and learning. Authors completed a detailed, qualitative analysis of students' critical incident reports from the 2010 intersession. RESULTS: Students reacted positively to all intersession elements, especially clinician-led, small-group discussions. Student reports revealed that over 90% of their critical incident evoked negative emotional reactions (eg, frustrated, disappointed, helpless). Post-intersession, 86% of students reported intentions to adopt new strategies to improve future care transitions, and 38% referenced components of the learned mnemonic. CONCLUSION: Medical students reacted positively to this intersession, especially small-group discussions. Students revealed mostly negative emotions from their critical incident on patient handoffs, but they gained effective strategies for future handoff communications. Authors recommend continued use of the handoff mnemonic, with greater attention to training environments that emphasize patient and learner safety.

Clinical clerkship students' perceptions of (un)safe transitions for every patient.

PURPOSE: As calls for training and accreditation standards around improved patient care transitions have recently increased, more publications describing medical student education programs on care transitions have appeared. However, descriptions of students' experience with care transitions and the sender/receiver communication that supports or inhibits them are limited. To fill this gap, the authors developed this project to understand students' experiences with and perceptions of care transitions. METHOD: At the start of a patient safety intersession at the Medical College of Wisconsin (2010), 193 third-year medical students anonymously wrote descriptions of critical incidents related to care transitions they had witnessed that evoked a strong emotional reaction. Descriptions included the emotion evoked, clinical context, and types of information exchanged. The authors analyzed the incident descriptions using a constant comparative qualitative methodology. RESULTS: Analysis revealed that 111 of the 121 medical students (92%) who disclosed emotional responses had strong negative reactions to unsuccessful transitions, experiencing frustration, irritation, fear, and anger. All of these negative emotions were associated with lack of or poor communication between the sender and receiver: ambiguous roles and responsibilities, insufficient detailing of the patient's medical course, inadequate identification of the people involved in the transition, incomplete delineation of what the patient needed, and unclear reasons for the transition. CONCLUSIONS: Third-year medical students' descriptions of care-transition incidents reveal high rates of strong negative emotions and of communication gaps that may adversely affect patient care. Results support curricular innovations that align students' needs and experiences with safe patient care transitions.

A quality improvement initiative to achieve high nursing presence during patient- and family-centered rounds.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to: (1) identify local barriers to nursing presence on patient- and family-centered rounds (PFCR); and (2) increase nursing attendance during PFCR. METHODS: An electronic survey needs assessment was administered to nursing staff on a single acute medical care unit to identify local barriers to nursing presence on PFCR. Daily tracking of nursing presence on rounds was then performed over a 7-month period. During this time period, 2 Plan-Do-Study Act cycles were conducted. The first intervention was a workshop for nurses about PFCR. The second intervention was the development of a strategy to contact nurses by using a hands-free communication device so that nurses were notified when rounds were starting on their patients. To evaluate the impact of our interventions, a p-chart was generated for the outcome of average daily nursing attendance (%) on PFCR per week over the 7-month period. RESULTS: Two barriers identified on the survey were: (1) nurses were uncertain if physicians valued their input during PFCR; and (2) nurses were unsure when the physician team would be conducting rounds on their patients. On the p-chart, the average percentage of nursing attendance before interventions was 47%. After the nursing workshop, no change in the mean nursing attendance on PFCR was noted. After initiation of the hands-free contact strategy, nursing attendance on PFCR rose to 80%. CONCLUSIONS: A nursing contact strategy using a hands-free device led to a sustained increase in nursing attendance during PFCR.

Severe acidosis caused by starvation and stress.

A 1-year-old boy had severe anoxic brain injury owing to a cardiorespiratory arrest. He had an initial metabolic acidosis, but this largely resolved by hospital day 2. He then had a persistent, profound metabolic acidosis. Evaluation on hospital day 6 found that the patient had ketonemia, ketonuria, and a normal serum glucose level; he had received no intravenous dextrose during his hospitalization. The dextrose-free fluids were given initially to protect his brain from the deleterious effects of hyperglycemia after brain injury. Continuation beyond 24 hours was inadvertent. The initiation of dextrose-containing intravenous fluids produced a rapid resolution of his metabolic acidosis. Starvation usually produces a mild metabolic acidosis, but when combined with physiologic stress, starvation may cause a severe metabolic acidosis. Among the few reports of severe starvation ketoacidosis, our case is unique because the patient was monitored closely in an intensive care unit, allowing us to describe the time course of the acidosis in detail.