Limits of the Glasgow Coma Scale When Assessing for Sepsis in Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Recipients.

BACKGROUND: The well-documented association between acute mental status changes and sepsis development and progression makes acute mental status an attractive factor for sepsis screening tools. However, the usefulness of acute mental status within these criteria is limited to the frequency and accuracy of its capture. The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score-the acute mental status indicator in many clinical sepsis criteria-is infrequently captured among allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipients with suspected infections, and its ability to serve as an indicator of acute mental status among this high-risk population is unknown. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the GCS score as an indicator of acute mental status during the 24 hours after suspected infection onset among allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipients. METHODS: Using data from the first 100 days posttransplant for patients transplanted at a single center between September 2010 and July 2017, we evaluated the GCS score as an indicator of documented acute mental status during the 24 hours after suspected infection onset. From all inpatients with suspected infections, we randomly selected a cohort based on previously published estimates of GCS score frequency among hematopoietic cell transplant recipients with suspected infections and performed chart review to ascertain documentation of clinical acute mental status within the 24 hours after suspected infection onset. RESULTS: A total of 773 patients had ≥1 suspected infections and experienced 1,655 suspected infections during follow-up-625 of which had an accompanying GCS score. Among the randomly selected cohort of 100 persons with suspected infection, 28 were accompanied with documented acute mental status, including 18 without a recorded GCS. In relation to documented acute mental status, the GCS had moderate to high sensitivity and high specificity. DISCUSSION: These data indicate that, among allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant recipients with suspected infections, the GCS scores are infrequently collected and have a moderate sensitivity. If sepsis screening tools inclusive of acute mental status changes are to be used, nursing teams need to increase measurement of GCS scores among high sepsis risk patients or identify a standard alternative indicator.

Building a Program: Implications for Infrastructure, Nursing Education, and Training for CAR T-Cell Therapy.

BACKGROUND: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy program development has regulatory demands and unique operational processes that vary across settings. The infrastructure in which CAR T-cell therapy is implemented has implications for nursing education and competencies. OBJECTIVES: This article presents an overview of operational approaches to CAR T-cell therapy program development and oncology nurse education considerations. These are provided through the lens of two institutions approved to administer CAR T-cell therapy, with differing approaches to CAR T-cell program development, implementation, and staff training. METHODS: Development of freestanding CAR T-cell therapy programs are compared with programs embedded in a specialty area. Issues related to accreditation and financial considerations are explored. Distinct features of inpatient and ambulatory care settings are presented. FINDINGS: CAR T-cell therapy continues to expand as the number of centers offering approved therapies increases. Standardized workflow components and staff education are essential for best patient outcomes regardless of location and type of program that provides the therapy.

Outpatient management following intensive induction or salvage chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia.

Adults with newly diagnosed or relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) commonly receive intensive chemotherapy to achieve disease remission. In the United States and many other countries, it is standard practice that these patients remain hospitalized "preemptively" until blood count recovery, owing to the risk for overwhelming infections and bleeding during pancytopenia. This care policy requires hospitalization for an average of 3 to 4 weeks after completion of chemotherapy. However, highly effective oral prophylactic antimicrobials are now available, and transfusion support of outpatients has become routine in recent years. As a result, the care of patients with hematologic malignancies treated with intensive modalities is increasingly shifting from inpatient to outpatient settings. Benefits of this shift could include the reduced need for medical resources (eg, transfusions or intravenous antimicrobial therapy), improved quality of life (QOL), decreased rates of nosocomial infections, and lower costs. Increasing evidence indicates that select AML patients undergoing intensive remission induction or salvage chemotherapy can be discharged early after completion of chemotherapy and followed closely in a well-equipped outpatient facility in a safe and costeffective manner. Further demonstration that the current approach of preemptive hospitalization is medically unjustified, economically more burdensome, and adversely affects health-related QOL would very likely change the management of these patients throughout this country and elsewhere, resulting in the establishment of a new standard practice that improves cancer care.