Application of COVIDTracer to Inform Public Health Workforce Planning in Alaska During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused social and economic disruption worldwide and spurred numerous mitigation strategies, including state investments in training a large contact tracing and case investigation workforce. A team at the University of Alaska Anchorage evaluated implementation of the COVID-19 contact tracing and case investigation program of the State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Public Health, Section of Public Health Nursing. As part of that evaluation, the team used COVIDTracer, a spreadsheet modeling tool. COVIDTracer generated projections of COVID-19 case counts that informed estimates of workforce needs and case prioritization strategies. Case count projections approximated the reported epidemiologic curve with a median 7% difference in the first month. The accuracy of case count predictions declined after 1 month with a median difference of 80% in the second month. COVIDTracer inputs included previous case counts, the average length of time for telephone calls to cases and outreach to identified contacts, and the average number of contacts per case. As each variable increased, so too did estimated workforce needs. Decreasing the average time from exposure to outreach from 10 to 5 days reduced case counts estimated by COVIDTracer by approximately 93% during a 5-month period. COVIDTracer estimates informed Alaska's workforce planning and decisions about prioritizing case investigation during the pandemic. Lessons learned included the importance of being able to rapidly scale up and scale down workforce to adjust to a dynamic crisis and the limitations of prediction modeling (eg, that COVIDTracer was accurate for only about 1 month into the future). These findings may be useful for future pandemic preparedness planning and other public health emergency response activities.

Parent and staff perspectives on the benefits and barriers to communication with infants in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Exposure to high quantity and quality of language in the neonatal period is critical to neurocognitive development; however, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) environments may contribute to language deprivation. Using qualitative thematic content analysis, this study aimed to characterize the knowledge and attitudes of NICU staff and patient families toward the importance of early language experience, the current NICU language environment, and the benefits and barriers of communication in the NICU. Results revealed that all respondents recognized the importance of communication for optimal cognitive development, though few understood why. Staff and family members alike recognized the role of nurses as coaches and role models in promoting communication at the bedside. Nurses generally felt that family members communicate less with their babies than family members themselves perceived, and that cell phone use has fewer communicative advantages than parents perceive. Respondents reported that patient illness, lack of time, and intimidating equipment all raise barriers to communication. These findings yield important considerations for developing educational interventions to improve NICU language environments, including a synergistic, dual focus on both staff and families. Communication in the NICU is a low cost, feasible, and accessible target with aims of ensuring optimal neurocognitive development for at-risk children.

Using the Targeted Solutions Tool® to Improve Emergency Department Handoffs in a Community Hospital.

BACKGROUND: There is little evidence for solutions to improve the handoff process between units, particularly from the emergency department (ED) to the inpatient unit. A systematic approach was used to improve the handoff communication process between the ED and the four private physician groups serving Juneau, Alaska, that admit and deliver care to patients of a 73-bed, Level 4 trauma center community hospital. METHODS: Data were collected in using the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare's Targeted Solutions Tool (®)(TST(®)) to determine the rate of defective handoff communications and the factors that contributed to those defective handoff communications. Targeted solutions were then implemented to specifically address the identified contributing factors. RESULTS: A random sample of 107 handoff opportunities was collected during the baseline phase (November 4, 2011- January 12, 2012) to measure performance and identify the contributing factors that led to defective handoffs. The baseline handoff communications defective rate was 29.9% (32 defective handoffs/107 handoff opportunities). The top four contributing factors, together accounting for 69.8% of all the causes of defective handoffs, were inaccurate/incomplete information, method ineffective, no standardized procedures for an effective handoff, and the person initiating the handoff, known as the "sender," lacks knowledge about the patient. After implementation of targeted solutions to the identified contributing factors, the handoff communications defective rate for the "improve" phase (April 1, 2012-July 29, 2012) was reduced from baseline by 58.2% to 12.5% (13 defective handoffs/104 handoff opportunities), p = 0.002; 2-proportions test. The number of adverse events related to hand-off communications declined as the handoff communications defective rate improved. CONCLUSION: Use of the TST was associated with improvement in the ED handoff communication process.