Pediatric Emergency Department Return: A Literature Review of Risk Factors and Interventions.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Children discharged from emergency departments (EDs) are often at risk for ED return. The objective was to identify risk factors and interventions to mitigate or prevent ED return among this patient population. METHODS: Structured literature review of PubMed and clinicaltrials.gov was conducted to identify relevant studies. Inclusion criteria were studies evaluating ED returns by identifying risk factors and interventions in the pediatric population. Emergency department return was defined as returning to the ED within 1 year after initial visit. Abstract and full text articles were reviewed, and data were abstracted by 2 independent authors. RESULTS: A total of 963 articles were screened and yielded 42 potential relevant articles involving pediatric population. After full text review, a total of 12 articles were included in the final analysis (6 on risk factors and 6 on interventions). Risk factors for pediatric ED return included behavioral/psychiatric problems, younger age, acuity of illness, medical history of asthma, and social factors. Interventions included computer-generated instructions, postdischarge telephone coaching, ED-made appointments, case management, and home environment intervention. Emergency department-made appointments and postdischarge telephone coaching plus monetary incentive improved outpatient follow-up rate but not ED return. Home environment assessment coupled with case management reduced ED returns specifically among asthma patients. CONCLUSIONS: Several patient and visit characteristics can help predict children at risk for ED return. Although some interventions are successful at improving postdischarge follow-up, most did not reduce ED returns.

Methods for improving the quality of palliative care delivery: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The effectiveness for improving the outcomes across palliative care domains remains unclear. We conducted a systematic review of different types of quality improvement interventions relevant to palliative care. METHODS: We searched PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane for relevant articles published between 2000 and 2011. RESULTS: A total of 10 randomized controlled trials and 7 nonrandomized controlled trials were included. Of the 5 studies using relay of clinical information, 1 reported significant improvement in patient quality of life. Of the 5 studies targeting education and self-management, 4 found significant improvements in quality of life or patient symptoms. CONCLUSION: A minority of quality improvement interventions have succeeded in improving the quality of palliative care delivery. More studies are needed on specific quality improvement types, including organizational change and multiple types of interventions.

A systematic review of health care interventions for pain in patients with advanced cancer.

PURPOSE: Poorly controlled pain is common in advanced cancer. The objective of this article was to synthesize the evidence on the effectiveness of pain-focused interventions in this population. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and DARE from 2000 through December 2011. We included prospective, controlled health care intervention studies in advanced cancer populations, focusing on pain. RESULTS: Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria; most focused on nurse-led patient-centered interventions. In all, 9 (47%) of the 19 studies found a significant effect on pain. The most common intervention type was patient/caregiver education, in 17 (89%) of 19 studies, 7 of which demonstrated a significant decrease in pain. CONCLUSIONS: We found moderate strength of evidence that pain in advanced cancer can be improved using health care interventions, particularly nurse-led patient-centered interventions.

Chronic venous leg ulcer treatment: future research needs.

The prevalence and costs of chronic venous ulcer care in the US are increasing. The Johns Hopkins University Evidence-Based Practice Center recently completed a systematic review of the comparative effectiveness of advanced wound dressings, antibiotics, and surgical management of chronic venous ulcers. Of 10,066 citations identified in the literature search, only 66 (0.06%) met our liberal inclusion criteria for providing evidence on the effectiveness of interventions for chronic venous ulcers. Based on review of those studies, members of our team and a panel of informed stakeholders identified important research gaps and methodological deficiencies and prioritized specific future research needs. Based on that review, we provide the results of our assessment of future research needs for chronic venous ulcer care. Advanced wound dressings were considered to have the highest priority for future research, followed by venous surgery and antibiotics. An imperative from our assessment is that future research evaluating interventions for chronic venous ulcers meet quality standards. In a time of increasing cost pressure, the wound care community needs to develop high-quality evidence to justify the use of present and future therapeutic modalities.

Avoiding weight gain in cardiometabolic disease: a systematic review.

Patients with cardiometabolic disease are at higher risk for obesity-related adverse effects. Even without weight loss, weight maintenance may be beneficial. We performed a systematic review to identify the effect of nonweight loss-focused lifestyle interventions in adults with cardiometabolic disease. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials to identify comparative studies of lifestyle interventions (self-management, diet, exercise, or their combination) without a weight loss focus in adults with or at risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Weight, BMI, and waist circumference at ≥12 months were the primary outcomes. Of 24,870 citations, we included 12 trials (self-management, n = 2; diet, n = 2; exercise, n = 2; combination, n = 6) studying 4,206 participants. Self-management plus physical activity ± diet versus minimal/no intervention avoided meaningful weight (-0.65 to -1.3 kg) and BMI (-0.4 to -0.7 kg/m(2)) increases. Self-management and/or physical activity prevented meaningful waist circumference increases versus control (-2 to -4 cm). In patients with cardiometabolic disease, self-management plus exercise may prevent weight and BMI increases and self-management and/or exercise may prevent waist circumference increases versus minimal/no intervention. Future studies should confirm these findings and evaluate additional risk factors and clinical outcomes.

Strategies to prevent weight gain in adults: a systematic review.

CONTEXT: A Healthy People 2020 objective is to increase the prevalence of healthy-weight adults in the U.S. A systematic review of the effectiveness and safety of strategies to prevent weight gain in adults was performed. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched through June 2012. Two reviewers independently reviewed titles, abstracts, and articles. Trials and observational studies with at least 1 year of follow-up that reported on strategies to prevent weight gain or maintain weight were included. Data were abstracted on weight, adherence, safety, and quality-of-life outcomes. The quantity, quality, and consistency of the evidence were graded, with a focus on studies' risks of bias, consistency of results across studies, how directly the question of interest was addressed, and precision of results. A meaningful difference and a significant threshold (p<0.05) were used to identify effective strategies. Evidence was synthesized qualitatively. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Twenty-two studies (11 trials and 11 observational studies) involving 480,142 participants were included. The strength of evidence is low for all strategies, but effective approaches may include low-fat diets, eating fewer meals prepared away from home, eating more fruits and vegetables, monitoring heart rate during exercise, and participation in group lifestyle sessions with reminder text messages. Safety and quality of life were rarely reported. CONCLUSIONS: Although the evidence is not strong, there may be effective strategies to prevent weight gain.

Comparative effectiveness of strategies to prevent weight gain among women with and at risk for breast cancer: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Obesity affects cancer risk and treatment outcomes. Preventing weight gain may prevent some cancers, improve cancer outcomes, reduce cancer recurrence and increase cancer-related survival. We performed a systematic review to identify strategies to prevent weight gain in individuals with or at risk for breast cancer. FINDINGS: We included 2 studies from 27,879 citations. In premenopausal women at risk for breast cancer, a low fat diet prevented weight gain at 12 months. Among women with breast cancer, effective strategies to prevent weight gain included low-fat dietary counseling with self-management techniques. One trial reported on cancer outcomes, mortality and adverse events. Low-fat dietary counseling wilth self-management techniques lowers the risk breast cancer relapse by 24% compared with less intensive counseling with maintenance of nutritional status goal. There was no difference in overall mortality and no adverse events were observed. CONCLUSION: Limited evidence suggests that women with or at risk for breast cancer may successfully employ dietary and exercise strategies to prevent weight gain for at least one year. Low fat dietary counseling may improve cancer outcomes in women with breast cancer. Future studies should confirm these findings and evaluate the impact of weight gain prevention on cancer incidence, recurrence and survival.

A systematic review of communication quality improvement interventions for patients with advanced and serious illness.

BACKGROUND: Effective communication is an interaction between two or more people that produces a desired effect and is a key element of quality of care for patients with advanced and serious illness and their family members. Suboptimal provider-patient/family communication is common, with negative effects on patient/family-centered outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To systematically review the evidence for effectiveness of communication-related quality improvement interventions for patients with advanced and serious illness and to explore the effectiveness of consultative and integrative interventions. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and DARE from 2000 through December 2011 and reference list of eligible articles and reviews. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: Prospective, controlled quality improvement studies in populations with life-limiting or severe life-threatening illness with a primary intervention focus of improving communication with patients and/or families. STUDY APPRAISAL AND SYNTHESIS METHODS: Two investigators independently screened and abstracted data on patient/family-centered outcomes. RESULTS: We included 20 studies; 13 (65 %) were in intensive care. We found four intervention types: (1) family meetings with the usual team (11 studies, 77 % found improvement in healthcare utilization), (2) palliative care teams (5 studies, 50 % found improvement in healthcare utilization), (3) ethics consultation (2 studies, 100 % found improvement in healthcare utilization), and (4) physician-patient communication (2 studies, no significant improvement in healthcare utilization). Among studies addressing the outcomes of patient/family satisfaction, 22 % found improvement; among studies addressing healthcare utilization (e.g., length of stay), 73 % found improvement. Results suggest that consultative interventions, as opposed to integrative ones, may be more effective, but more research is needed. LIMITATIONS: Study heterogeneity did not allow quantitative synthesis. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF KEY FINDINGS: Communication in the care of patients with advanced and serious illness can be improved using quality improvement interventions, particularly for healthcare utilization as an outcome. Interventions may be more effective using a consultative approach.

Closing the quality gap: revisiting the state of the science (vol. 8: improving health care and palliative care for advanced and serious illness).

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the evidence on the effectiveness of health care and palliative care interventions to improve outcomes for patients with advanced and serious illness. DATA SOURCES: We searched MEDLINE®, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane, and DARE from 2000 through 2011. We identified additional studies from reference lists of eligible articles and relevant reviews, as well as from technical experts. REVIEW METHODS: We developed questions in collaboration with technical experts. We excluded retrospective and uncontrolled studies. Two investigators independently screened search results and abstracted data from eligible studies. We adapted previous frameworks to categorize included studies (e.g., by improvement target, setting). Because many studies did not report effect sizes and almost all studies were small (lt 200 studies), in order to be able to quantitatively describe the literature, we calculated the percentage of studies with a significant improvement in outcomes with the intervention compared to control group for each category. We also checked that all other studies did not report significant results in the opposite direction and checked that there were not differences between larger and smaller studies. RESULTS: We included 90 studies described in 96 articles. Of the 23 studies targeting continuity, coordination, and transitions, 33 percent of studies that evaluated quality of life as an outcome, 67 percent that evaluated patient satisfaction, and 31 percent that evaluated health care utilization (admissions and length of stay) found a statistically significant improvement with the intervention. Of the 21 studies targeting pain, almost all focused on patient education and self-management; 48 percent of them found a statistically significant improvement with the intervention. Findings for larger (>100) and smaller (le 100) studies were similar. For distress, only 29 percent of the seven included studies found a statistically significant impact. Of the 20 studies in communication and decisionmaking, only 22 percent of studies addressing patient or family satisfaction found a statistically significant improvement for this outcome, compared to 73 percent for the outcome of health care utilization. We found only two studies within hospice programs, both of which found a statistically significant improvement in at least one outcome; nine studies were in nursing homes, 78 percent of which demonstrated a significant improvement with the intervention. In terms of types of quality improvement, for the target of continuity, studies including patient-centered quality improvement types, such as education and self-management, had the strongest evidence of effectiveness on patient- and family-centered domains such as satisfaction and quality of life. Studies of provider-focused interventions (e.g., education, reminders) were more likely to have an impact on health care utilization. Only one of five studies addressing multiple targets and focusing on facilitated relay of clinical data to providers demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in either quality of life or satisfaction. In terms of consultative and integrative interventions, for the target of communication and decisionmaking, three-quarters of consultative interventions showed a statistically significant improvement with the intervention, compared to half of integrative interventions. The literature was too heterogeneous and effect sizes were too infrequently reported for quantitative synthesis. There was moderate strength of evidence for the target of continuity, coordination, and transitions and the outcome of patient and caregiver satisfaction but low strength of evidence for other outcomes. For the target of pain, there was moderate strength of evidence for pain as an outcome. For the target of communication and decisionmaking, there was moderate strength of evidence for the outcome of health care utilization but low strength of evidence for other outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: We found that evidence was strongest (moderate strength of evidence) for interventions for pain, and for the targets of communication and decisionmaking and continuity for selected outcomes. While a few high- and medium-quality, well-designed health care and palliative care interventions have been conducted to improve outcomes for patients with advanced and serious illness, this report highlights the continued presence of variable findings, quality deficiencies, vaguely defined interventions, and variable outcome measurement tools and reporting in much of this intervention literature. The evidence has a number of gaps, including few studies in the hospice setting or pediatrics. Future research needs include techniques for improving recruitment and retention to assure adequate sample size, better development and description of interventions, and further development and standardization of outcome measures and tools.