Improving Daily Patient Goal-Setting and Team Communication: The Liber8 Glass Door Project.

OBJECTIVES: To develop and implement a tool to improve daily patient goal setting, team collaboration and communication. DESIGN: Quality improvement implementation project. SETTING: Tertiary-level PICU. PATIENTS: Inpatient children less than 18 years old requiring ICU level care. INTERVENTION: A "Glass Door" daily goals communication tool located in the door front of each patient room. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We used Pronovost's 4 E's model to implement the Glass Door. Primary outcomes were uptake of goal setting, healthcare team discussion rate around goals, rounding efficiency, acceptability and sustainability of the Glass Door. The total implementation duration from engagement to evaluation of sustainability was 24 months. Goal setting increased significantly from 22.9% to 90.7% ( p < 0.01) patient-days using the Glass Door compared to a paper-based daily goals checklist (DGC). One-year post implementation, the uptake was sustained at 93.1% ( p = 0.04). Rounding time decreased from a median of 11.7 minutes (95% CI, 10.9-12.4 min) to 7.5 minutes (95% CI, 6.9-7.9 min) per patient post-implementation ( p < 0.01). Goal discussions on ward rounds increased overall from 40.1% to 58.5% ( p < 0.01). Ninety-one percent of team members perceive that the Glass Door improves communication for patient care, and 80% preferred the Glass Door to the DGC for communicating patient goals with other team members. Sixty-six percent of family members found the Glass Door helpful in understanding the daily plan and 83% found it helpful in ensuring thorough discussion among the PICU team. CONCLUSIONS: The Glass Door is a highly visible tool that can improve patient goal setting and collaborative team discussion with good uptake and acceptability among healthcare team members and patient families.

Evaluation of severe infection and survival after splenectomy.

PURPOSE: Splenectomized patients are known to be at risk of severe infection, but the extent of risk is unclear. We evaluated the incidence of severe infection and survival in 1648 splenectomized patients. METHODS: Patients who underwent splenectomy between 1988 and 1999 in Scotland were identified through the Scottish hospital discharge records (SMR01) and then linked to the death certificate data recorded by the General Register Office in Scotland to obtain clinical and demographical information. RESULTS: The overall rate of first severe infection was 7.0 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval, 6.30-7.78). The overall rate for a second infection per 100 person-years was 44.9 and 109.3 for a third infection after the first episode of infection. Among the repeated episodes of severe infection, 42% to 76% and 61% to 84% of total episodes of second and third severe infection, respectively, occurred within 6 months after the first severe infection. The susceptibility to severe infection was greatest in older age groups (5.5 per 100 person-years in those aged > 50 years) and in patients splenectomized for hematologic malignancy (9.2), and iatrogenic splenectomy for malignancy disease (7.4). Between 50% and 80% of all severe infections or deaths occurred within 1 to 3 years after splenectomy. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of severe infection is an important health problem in splenectomized patients, especially in those who underwent surgery for malignancies. Antibiotic prophylaxis could offer the most benefits in the first 3 years postsplenectomy or the first 6 months after the occurrence of a first severe infection.

Invasive pneumococcal disease in Scotland, 1999-2001: use of record linkage to explore associations between patients and disease in relation to future vaccination policy.

A record linkage study was done to provide comprehensive data on the epidemiologic characteristics of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in Scotland. The overall incidence of IPD was 11 cases/10(5) persons and 21 cases/10(5) persons <1 year of age, 51 cases/10(5) persons 1 year of age, 45 cases/10(5) elderly persons (age > or =65 years), 176-483 cases/10(5) persons with chronic medical conditions, and 562-2031 cases/10(5) persons with severe immunosuppression. The case-fatality rate was 11% among elderly persons and ranged from 3% to 13% among persons with underlying medical conditions. The most common pneumococcal serogroups associated with IPD were 14, 9, 6, 19, 23, 8, and 4. Serogroups included in the 23-valent polysaccharide vaccine caused the majority of cases of IPD. The proportion of IPD due to the 7-, 9-, and 11-valent conjugate vaccine serogroups was lower among older people and persons with underlying medical conditions.

Prevalence of penicillin non-susceptible invasive pneumococcal disease in the elderly in Scotland, 1992-99.

Penicillin resistance of Pneumococci is a problem in several European countries. Therefore, we examined 510 invasive pneumococcal isolates, collected between 1992 and 1999 via a national network of diagnostic laboratories covering the entire population of Scotland, for penicillin susceptibility, in order to determine the prevalence, site of infection and serogroup/type distribution of penicillin-resistant Pneumococci in the elderly (> or = 65 y). Of the 510 isolates, 91.6% (n = 467) were from blood, 4.7% (n = 24) from other sterile sites and 3.7% (n = 19) from cerebrospinal fluid. The prevalence of penicillin non-susceptible isolates during the study period was 9%. An increase in the proportion of Pneumococci non-susceptible to penicillin was detected from 1996 onwards, from 10.8% in 1996 to 14.3% in 1999. There were 2 isolates with high-level penicillin resistance, both of which were of serotype 14, accounting for 4.3% (2/46) of all non-susceptible isolates. Penicillin non-susceptible isolates belonged to the following serogroups: 14 (32.6%); 9 (30.4%); 6 (19.6%); 23 (10.9%); and 19 (6.5%). The leading non-susceptible serotype/group varied according to the specimen type: serotype 14 for blood and serogroup 9 for all other sterile sites. Current polysaccharide and new 7-, 9- and 11-valent conjugate vaccine formulations included the serogroups responsible for all the penicillin non-susceptible isolates detected. Therefore vaccination represents the most effective strategy for decreasing the burden of drug resistance. Constant surveillance of the patterns of antibiotic non-susceptible isolates, the site of infection and the serogroup/type are necessary in order to select antibiotic therapy and establish vaccination policy for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease.

Influenza and pneumococcal vaccination in Scottish nursing homes: coverage, policies and reasons for receipt and non-receipt of vaccine.

A national survey was carried out to determine the coverage of influenza and pneumococcal vaccines, policies, reasons for receipt, non-receipt of vaccine and strategies to improve vaccine coverage in Scottish nursing homes. Of the 550 nursing homes, 72% (394) participated in the study. Overall coverage was 85% for influenza vaccine in 2001-2002 season and 11% for pneumococcal vaccine in the last 5-year period. Only 6% (23/394) of homes were reported to have a systematic immunization record. The most frequently stated reasons for improved coverage of both vaccines were clear immunization policies (76%), awareness and education for staff and residents (68%), and consent on behalf of the incompetent residents (66%). The presence of vaccination policies was higher for influenza vaccine than pneumococcal vaccine expressed as verbal agreement (27% versus 3%), written policies with set target (24% versus 5%) and written policies without set target (17% versus 2%). Advice from the members of the community health care team was the principal reason for the receipt of both vaccines. The predominant reasons for non-receipt of vaccine were refusal by residents and family members (both vaccines) and lack of advice from general practitioners (pneumococcal vaccine). The substantial disparity in coverage of influenza and pneumococcal vaccine reflects the lack of national recommendations and policies for reimbursements for pneumococcal vaccination. These data suggest that greater efforts are needed to improve prevention behaviors of health care professionals and the public, organized vaccine delivery strategies and systematic vaccination documents to increase influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

The changing epidemiology of bacterial meningitis and invasive non-meningitic bacterial disease in scotland during the period 1983-99.

We reviewed population-based laboratory reports of invasive meningococcal, pneumococcal, Haemophilus influenzae, Group B Streptococcus (GBS) and Listeria monocytogenes isolates in order to examine the changing epidemiology of meningitis and invasive non-meningitic disease (INMD) caused by these 5 pathogens in the 2 periods before (1983-91) and after (1992-99) routine use of H. influenzae type B conjugate vaccine (Hib) in Scotland. Neissieria meningitidis was the most common cause of meningitis, accounting for 39.2% of cases of meningitis in 1983-91 and 47% of cases in 1992-99, followed by H. influenzae (31%), Streptococcus pneumoniae (22.4%), GBS (3.9%) and L. monocytogenes (3.5%) in 1983-91 and S. pneumoniae (36.3%), H. influenzae (7.8%), GBS (6.1%) and L. monocytogenes (2.8%) in 1992-99. The important epidemiological features of meningitis and INMD caused by these 5 pathogens between 1983-91 and 1992-99 include: 1. The incidence of bacterial meningitis due to S. pneumoniae and GBS was stable; 2. S. pneumoniae was the predominant cause of INMD in both periods; 3. The incidences of INMD caused by N. meningitidis, GBS and S. pneumoniae increased, by 27%, 55% and 56%, respectively; 4. Decreases in the incidences of bacterial meningitis (by 50%) and INMD (by 50%) due to L. monocytogenes were detected; and 5. There were dramatic reductions in the proportions of bacterial meningitis (by 92%) and INMD (by 56%) due to H. influenzae in vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals. Continued surveillance is necessary to monitor the disease trend, population at risk, serotype distribution and antimicrobial susceptibility in order to implement appropriate public health interventions against invasive bacterial disease.

Invasive meningococcal disease in Scotland, 1994 to 1999, with emphasis on group B meningococcal disease.

A review was carried out on 774 invasive meningococcal isolates reported to the active meningococcal surveillance system in Scotland from 1994 to 1999. This showed that serogroups B (51.7%) and C (39.2%) caused the majority of disease. The six common PorB proteins (4, 1, 15, 2B, 12, and 21) and PorA proteins (serosubtypes) (P1.4, P1.15, P1.9, P1.14, P1.7, and P1.16) accounted for 50 and 51% of all group B isolates, respectively, during the study period.