Measuring practice preference variation for quality improvement in neonatal respiratory care.

OBJECTIVES: The authors sought to measure and compare practice preference variation in neonatal respiratory care within and between neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) using the Neonatology Survey of Interdisciplinary Groups in Healthcare Tool (NSIGHT). STUDY DESIGN: Eleven NICUs completed the NSIGHT between 2019 and 2021. Net preference was measured by mean response; agreement was ranked by standard distribution of response values. Heat maps showed comparisons between NICUs and disciplines. RESULTS: NICUs and individuals agreed most often on use of pressure support with mandatory ventilation and on use of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation for apnea. High preference variation surrounded decisions for invasive ventilation versus continuous positive airway pressure for extremely low birth weight infants. Preference difference was most frequent between neonatologists and nurses. CONCLUSIONS: Patterns of practice preference variation in neonatal respiratory care are specific to clinical scenario. Measuring preference variation may inform psychology of change and strengthen quality improvement efforts.

Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs Reduce Antibiotic Use at Combined Adult-Pediatric Hospitals.

Implementation of dedicated pediatric antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) at two combined adult-pediatric hospitals with existing ASPs was associated with sustained decreases in pediatric antibiotic use (AU) out of proportion to declines seen in adult inpatient units. ASPs in combined hospitals may not detect excessive pediatric AU without incorporating pediatric expertise.

Ensuring No Death Is Ignored: Development of a Hospital Mortality Review and Notification System.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Standardized review of mortalities may identify potential system improvements. We designed a hospitalwide identification, review, and notification system for inpatient pediatric mortalities. METHODS: Key stakeholders constructed a future state process map for identification and review of deaths. An online mortality review form was modified through a series of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles and spread to all pediatric services in January 2019. Mortalities occurring within 30 days of discharge were added in December 2019. Our primary outcome was percentage of mortalities reviewed, and the process measure was time to review completion. Additional Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles were used to refine 2 mechanisms for monthly notification of deaths. We surveyed monthly mortality notification e-mail recipients to elicit feedback to further improve notifications. RESULTS: After the pilot, 284 of 328 (86.6%) of mortalities were reviewed. Average time to review completion decreased by 49% compared with baseline after an increase during the first year of the pandemic. Qualitative analysis of a subset of these mortalities showed that 154 of 229 (67.2%) underwent further review. We added a summary of mortalities by unit to a monthly hospitalwide safety report and developed monthly mortality notification e-mails. The survey showed that 89% of respondents (70 of 79) learned about a death they did not know about, 58% (46 of 79) sought additional information through discussion with a colleague, and 76% (65 of 86) agreed that the notifications helped process grief. CONCLUSIONS: We describe an effective and well-received approach to the identification, review, and notification of mortalities at an academic pediatric hospital, which may be useful at other institutions.

Quantitative analysis of tear angiogenic factors in retinopathy of prematurity: a pilot biomarker study.

PURPOSE: To determine whether vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), angiopoeitin-1 (Ang-1), angiopoetin-2 (Ang-2), and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) can be reliably collected and analyzed from infant tears to aid in the diagnosis of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and enhance the ability to objectively monitor its clinical course. METHODS: In this nonrandomized controlled investigation, tear and saliva samples collected from 20 premature infants during serial ophthalmic examination were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunoassay with results analyzed as a function of disease stage and need for treatment. RESULTS: Tear volume was directly correlated with corrected gestational age (P < 0.001). Tear VEGF levels from samples corresponding to stage 3 ROP were 47.9% lower (P = 0.006) than in samples corresponding to stage 0-1 and 49.1% lower (P = 0.01) than in samples corresponding to stage 2 ROP. There were no between-group differences after normalizing tear VEGF by saliva VEGF levels. Tear/saliva ratio for Ang-1 was 200% greater (P = 0.042) and tear/saliva ratio for Ang-2 was 165% greater (P = 0.035) in samples corresponding to stage 2 versus stage 0-1 ROP disease. Ang-1/Ang-2 ratio was lower in samples from infants who developed stage 2 or worse ROP than in samples from infants who never developed worse than stage 1 ROP (P = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS: In this study cohort, cytokines involved in the pathophysiology of ROP could be reliably identified in and analyzed from infant tears, and showed variation with ROP severity.

An Observational Time Study of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Multidisciplinary Rounds.

OBJECTIVE: In this observational study, we aimed to describe the rounding structure in a high acuity neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to identify potential barriers to efficient multidisciplinary rounds. STUDY DESIGN: We observed daily medical rounds (January-December 2018) on the resident teaching service in a 46-bed academic level IV NICU. Daily census, duration of rounds, and causes for rounding delays were recorded. During a subset of the study period, additional data were collected describing the time spent on specific activities and the room-to-room pathway followed by the rounding team. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the census, total rounding time, time spent on each activity, and rounding time by day of the week and by attending. RESULTS: A total of 208 rounding days were observed. During the study period, the teaching service mean daily census was 17 patients and total rounding time (mean ± standard deviation) was 136 ± 31 minutes. Mean rounding time and time/patient varied between the nine attendings (total time range 109 minutes to 169 minutes, time/patient range 6.4 minutes/patient to 10.0 minutes/patient). In total, 91% of rounding time focused on patient care, teaching, and discussions with parents, while 9% of the time was spent deciding which patient to see next, moving between rooms, and waiting for members of the team to be ready to start rounds. CONCLUSION: On average, the medical team spent over 2 hours per day making multisciplinary rounds in the NICU with substantial variation between attending providers. While most time was spent on patient care, teaching, and talking with parents, we identified opportunities to improve rounding efficiency. KEY POINTS: · The structure of rounds in a NICU was observed to identify the potential barriers to efficiency.. · There are limited data on MDR processes in the NICU.. · In total, 9% of time was spent on patient care activities during daily rounds..

Early Electroencephalogram Background Could Guide Tailored Duration of Monitoring for Neonatal Encephalopathy Treated with Therapeutic Hypothermia.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether features of the early electroencephalographic (EEG) background could guide the optimal duration of continuous video EEG monitoring for seizure detection in newborn infants treated with therapeutic hypothermia for hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study of 114 consecutive infants treated with therapeutic hypothermia for moderate to severe HIE at a level IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) between 2012 and 2018. All infants were monitored with continuous video EEG through cooling and rewarming. Archived samples from the first 24 hours of these EEG traces were reviewed systematically and classified by background characteristics. RESULTS: Electrographic seizures occurred in 56 of the 114 infants (49%). Seizure onset was within the first 24 hours after initiation of continuous video EEG in 49 if these 56 infants (88%), between 24 and 48 hours in 4 infants (7%), and >72 hours in 3 infants (5%). Infants with a normal or mildly abnormal EEG background either had seizure onset within the first 24 hours or never developed seizures. Four patients with seizure onset between 24 and 48 hours had markedly abnormal EEG backgrounds. The 3 patients with seizure onset beyond 72 hours had moderate or severely abnormal early continuous video EEG backgrounds. CONCLUSIONS: The use of early continuous video EEG background categorization may be appropriate to guide the duration of continuous video EEG for infants with HIE treated with therapeutic hypothermia. Some infants may reasonably be monitored for 24 hours rather than throughout cooling and rewarming without a significant risk of missed seizures. This could have significant implications for continuous video EEG resource utilization.

Trends in the Screening and Treatment of Retinopathy of Prematurity.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the current practice patterns of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening and treatment and the attitudes toward new screening and treatment modalities in level III and level IV NICUs, as reported by medical directors. METHODS: Surveys were mailed to the medical directors of 847 level III NICUs identified in the 2011 American Academy of Pediatrics directory in April 2015. In September 2015, responses were compared with American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines and previous reports. Within-sample comparisons were made by level, setting, size, and academic status. RESULTS: Respondents indicated that ROP screening is most often performed in their NICUs by pediatric and/or retina specialists (90%); retinal imaging devices are infrequently used (21%). Treatment is performed by pediatric (39%) and/or retina (57%) specialists in the NICU, usually under conscious sedation (60%). The most common treatment modality was laser photocoagulation (85%), followed by anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injection (20%). Some NICUs do not provide treatment services (28%), often due to a lack of ophthalmologists (78%). Respondents showed slightly more agreement (35%) than disagreement (25%) that a retinal imaging device could replace indirect ophthalmoscopy (40% were neutral). More respondents agreed than disagreed (30% vs 15%) that telemedicine for ROP screening is safe, but most were neutral (55%). CONCLUSIONS: Screening and treatment of ROP are not implemented uniformly in NICUs across the United States. Concerns regarding an insufficient ROP workforce are validated.

Balancing the Tension Between Hyperoxia Prevention and Alarm Fatigue in the NICU.

BACKGROUND: After the implementation of narrowed oxygen saturation alarms, alarm frequency increased in the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital NICU which could have a negative impact on patient safety. The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations issued a Sentinel Event Alert for hospitals in 2013 to improve alarm safety, resulting in a 2014 National Patient Safety Goal requiring institutional policies and procedures to be in place to manage alarms. METHODS: A multidisciplinary improvement team developed an alarm management bundle applying strategies to decrease alarm frequency, which included evaluating existing strategies and developing patient care-based and systems-based interventions. The total number of delivered and detected saturation alarms and high saturation alarms and the total time spent within a targeted saturation range were quantitatively tracked. Nursing morale was assessed qualitatively. RESULTS: SpO2 alarms per monitored patient-day increased from 78 to 105 after the narrowing of alarm limits. Modification of the high saturation alarm algorithm substantially decreased the delivery and escalation of high pulse oxygen saturation (SpO2) alarms. During a pilot period, using histogram technology to individually customize alarm limits resulted in increased time spent within the targeted saturation range and fewer alarms per day. Qualitatively, nurses reported improved satisfaction when not assigned >1 infant with frequent alarms, as identified by an alarm frequency tool. CONCLUSIONS: Alarm fatigue may detrimentally affect patient care and safety. Alarm management strategies should coincide with oxygen management within a NICU, especially in single-patient-bed units.