The use of national collaborative to promote advanced practice registered nurse-led high-value care initiatives.

BACKGROUND: High-value healthcare focuses on improving healthcare to produce cost effective care, however limited information on the role of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) exists. PURPOSE: This descriptive report describes APRN-led initiatives implemented as part of a national collaborative promoting the Choosing Wisely® campaign and high-value care measures. METHOD: An APRN national collaborative focuses on developing and implementing high-value care initiatives. Monthly calls, podcasts, and a file sharing platform are used to facilitate the work of the national collaborative. FINDINGS: A total of 16 APRN teams from 14 states are participating and have implemented a number of initiatives to reduce unnecessary testing and treatments, promote appropriate antibiotic use, and promote optimal clinical practices such as mobility for hospitalized elderly patients, among others. DISCUSSION: A national collaborative has proven to be a successful way to engage APRN teams to focus on targeting high-value care and promoting evidence-based practices in clinical care.

Reducing chest radiography utilization in the medical intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Daily chest radiographs (CXRs) have long been a routine part of care. However, evidence as well as changing technology has promoted on-demand CXRs as beneficial to patient care. We found that a substantial number of routine daily CXRs were being ordered, with some of the orders staying active even after extubation. METHODS: Within a 19-bed adult medical ICU, we prospectively utilized 3 intervention phases from October 1, 2014, to February 28, 2018, to reduce routine CXRs. Nurse Practitioners (NP) initiated this quality improvement (QI) project, aiming to reduce the number of unnecessary of CXRs. Interventions included staff survey, routine CXR order removal, duplicate alerts, visual reminders, and an electronic clinical decision support tool. Monthly education of appropriate CXRs and bedside ultrasound were facilitated by NPs. The outcome measures of interest include: the number of CXRs per patient-day, the number of routine and on-demand CXRs, mortality rate, ICU length of stay, and ventilator days, radiation and cost. CONCLUSIONS: Total number of CXRs per patient-day decreased by 36.1%. The proportion of routine CXRs decreased from 55.37% to 13.18%; on-demand orders increased, from 44.63% to 86.82%; and calculated radiation-exposure per census decreased, from 0.011 to 0.008 mSv. In addition, charges to patients for CXRs decreased by $7,750/month. ICU mortality and ventilator days per census remained stable. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: By an orchestrated process that included creating awareness and desire to change CXR ordering practices, we were able to decrease routine CXRs and increase on-demand utilization while maintaining counterbalance measures.

Sepsis and Shock Response Team: Impact of a Multidisciplinary Approach to Implementing Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines and Surviving the Process.

The Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines are designed to decrease mortality through consistent application of a 7-element bundle. This study evaluated the impact of improvement in bundle adherence using a time-series analysis of compliance with the bundle elements before and after interventions intended to improve the process, while also looking at hospital mortality. This article describes interventions used to improve bundle compliance and hospital mortality in patients admitted through the emergency department with sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock. Quality improvement methodology was used to develop high-impact interventions that led to dramatically improved adherence to the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines bundle. Improved performance was associated with a significant decrease in the in-hospital mortality of severe sepsis patients presenting to the emergency department.