Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment Plus (ETAT+): adapting training to strengthen quality improvement and task-sharing in emergency paediatric care in Sierra Leone.

BACKGROUND: Over the past 25 years Sierra Leone has made progress in reducing maternal and child mortality, but the burden of preventable paediatric deaths remains high. Further progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require greater strengthening of the health care system, including hospital care for perinatal and paediatric conditions. Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment Plus (ETAT+) may offer a useful tool. METHODS: The five-day ETAT+ course was adapted as a six-month programme of in-situ training and mentoring integrated with patient flow and service delivery improvements in 14 regional and district government hospitals across the country. Nurses were trained to carry out the initial resuscitation and assessment of the sick paediatric patient, and to administer the first dose of medication per protocol. The course was for all clinical staff; most participants were nurses. RESULTS: The intervention was associated with an improvement in the quality of paediatric care and a reduction in mortality. In 2017 mortality decreased by 33.1%, from 14.5% at baseline to 9.7% after six months of the intervention. Mortality at the start of the 2018 intervention was 8.5% and reduced over six months to 6.5%. Care quality indicators showed improvement across the two intervention periods, with some evidence of sustained effect. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that adapted ETAT+ training with in-situ mentoring alongside improved patient flow and service delivery supports improvements in the quality of paediatric care in Sierra Leonean hospitals. ETAT+ may provide an affordable framework for improving the quality of secondary paediatric care in Sierra Leone and a model of nurse-led resuscitation may allow for prompt and timely emergency paediatric care in Sierra Leonean hospitals where there are fewer physicians and other resources for care.

Thrombophilia in Pediatric Patients with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children Secondary to Coronavirus Disease 2019 Supported on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in adults has been associated with thrombosis. Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) with COVID-19 case series have reported high fibrinogen levels, but it is not known whether this causes thrombophilia. We report two patients needing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) who both suffered thrombotic complications. We retrospectively reviewed patients with MIS-C needing ECMO support admitted to a single Paediatric and Cardiac Intensive Care Unit within a regional center for MIS-C in South East England. Two children required ECMO for cardiovascular support. Both developed thrombotic events despite receiving heparin infusions at dosing higher than the interquartile range for our ECMO population. Case 1 developed a right anterior and middle cerebral artery infarct, which led to his death. Case 2 had a right atrial thrombus, which resolved without complication. When compared with patients undergoing ECMO in the same institution in pre-MIS-C era, fibrinogen levels were consistently higher before and during ECMO therapy. MIS-C patients presenting with hyperfibrinogenemia are likely to have a propensity toward thrombotic complications; this must be considered when optimizing the anticoagulation strategy on ECMO.

Nurse-led implementation of ETAT+ is associated with reduced mortality in a children's hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

BACKGROUND: In the wake of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic in Sierra Leone, secondary care facilities faced an increase in admissions with few members of medical staff available to assess and treat patients. This led to long waiting times in hospital outpatient departments. The study was undertaken in the outpatient department of Ola During Children's Hospital (the tertiary paediatric hospital for Sierra Leone) in the period immediately following the EVD epidemic of 2014-2015. AIMS: This retrospective analysis of operational programme data aimed to assess whether a quality-improvement approach and task-sharing between medical and nursing staff improved the quality of triage and the timeliness of care. METHODS: All staff working in the outpatient department were offered a 4-week training course, followed by on-the-job supervision and support for 6 months. Nurses who successfully completed the course were given responsibility for the initial assessment of sick patients and for prescribing and giving initial treatment. Data were collected at three points: before intervention and at 3 and 6 months after initiation of the intervention. All children presenting to the hospital for medical attention between 0800 and 1400 Monday to Friday were included. Triage assessment by the outpatient nurse was compared to that made by a clinically experienced observer, and the time taken for each child to be triaged, assessed and given initial treatment was recorded. RESULTS: Between months 0 and 6 of the intervention, detection of emergency signs by the triage nurse improved from 30% to 100%, and detection of priority signs improved from 34% to 100%. For children presenting with emergency signs, the median time between triage and full assessment improved from 57 minutes before intervention to 17 minutes at 3 months and 5 minutes at 6 months (p < 0.0005). For the same group, median time between triage and first antibiotic or antimalarial treatment improved from 220 minutes before intervention to 40 minutes at 3 months and 18 minutes at 6 months (p = 0.006). CONCLUSION: The results indicate that, with appropriate training and support, extending the emergency assessment and treatment of sick children to nursing staff in West African hospitals may improve the accuracy of triage and the time to assessment and treatment of children presenting with signs of serious illness.

The UK Lung Screen (UKLS): demographic profile of first 88,897 approaches provides recommendations for population screening.

UNLABELLED: The UK Lung Cancer Screening trial (UKLS) aims to evaluate low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer population screening in the United Kingdom. In UKLS, a large population sample ages 50 to 75 years is approached with a questionnaire to determine lung cancer risk. Those with an estimated risk of at least 5% of developing lung cancer in the next 5 years (using the Liverpool Lung project risk model) are invited to participate in the trial. Here, we present demographic, risk, and response rate data from the first 88,897 individuals approached. Of note, 23,794 individuals (26.8% of all approached) responded positively to the initial questionnaire; 12% of these were high risk. Higher socioeconomic status correlated positively with response, but inversely with risk (P < 0.001). The 50- to 55-year age group was least likely to participate, and at lowest cancer risk. Only 5% of clinic attendees were ages ≤60 years (compared with 47% of all 88,897 approached); this has implications for cost effectiveness. Among positive responders, there were more ex-smokers than expected from population figures (40% vs. 33%), and fewer current smokers (14% vs. 17.5%). Of note, 32.7% of current smokers and 18.4% of ex-smokers were designated as high risk. Overall, 1,452 of 23,794 positive responders (6.1%) were deemed high risk and attended a recruitment clinic. UKLS is the first LDCT population screening trial, selecting high-risk subjects using a validated individual risk prediction model. KEY FINDINGS: (i) better recruitment from ex- rather than current smokers, (ii) few clinic attendees ages early 50s, and (iii) representative number of socioeconomically deprived people recruited, despite lower response rates.

Evaluating venepuncture practice on a general children's ward.

AIM: To assess the training for, practice of, and effects of venepuncture in children on a general children's ward. To identify approaches that might reduce the adverse physical and psychological effects related to venepuncture. METHODS: Questionnaire survey of 51 parents, 39 children and 72 junior doctors following venepuncture in the children. Telephone survey of 25 paediatric senior house officers on venous access training. RESULTS: Parents and children assessed venepuncture as extremely distressing. Parents' assessments of the mean number of venepuncture attempts were markedly higher than those of the doctors surveyed. When carrying out venepuncture, doctors used therapeutic measures much less frequently than expected. Only seven of the 25 departments surveyed offered any training in venepuncture. CONCLUSION: Venepuncture is consistently one of the most distressing aspects of hospital admission for children. Much could be done to alleviate this, but trainir patchy and interventions shown to reduce distress are not uniformly used.