Early-onset sepsis: can we screen fewer babies safely?

BACKGROUND: Over the past 2-3 years at the Southwest Peninsula tertiary neonatal unit in Plymouth, the authors have observed an increase in the number of clinically well term infants being screened and treated with antibiotics for infection in accordance with NICE guidance. The aim of our study was to assess the safety of implementing the Kaiser Permanente Early Onset Sepsis (KPEOS) calculator to minimise antibiotic usage in term infants in line with antimicrobial stewardship, reducing separation from mother at birth and facilitating earlier discharge. METHODS: A 2-year retrospective review of medical records from 2014 to 2015 inclusive revealed 9217 deliveries, with 1550 infants (16.8%) having risk factors, 945 (10.2%) being term infants. Of those, 507 (53.6%) had a clinical reason to screen and 438 (46.4%) had risk factors alone treated with antibiotics for variable periods of time. This enabled us to review our usual practice and compare it with our KPEOS implementation. INTERVENTION: National Health Service England permission was obtained to implement the KPEOS for a 6-month period. We collected data on all 175 term infants with risk factors to compare with our previous practice when The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology maternal guidance was being followed. RESULTS: The percentage of infants screened with a suspected infection previously receiving 5 days of antibiotics reduced from 31% (136/438) to 5% (9/157, p<0.0001) using the KPEOS calculator. Clinically well infants with risk factors alone previously receiving 36 hours of antibiotics, reduced from 63% (275/438) to 3% (5/157, p<0.0001) of infants treated. There was no late-onset sepsis in this study cohort or any observed adverse outcomes. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrated a potentially safe and effective quality improvement (QI) in our hospital with fewer babies treated and a reduced length of stay for this cohort. Considering individual hospitals rates for term Group B Streptococcal sepsis, this QI may be a safe and economical alternative to current practices for screening well term infants.

A cross-sectional mixed methods study protocol to generate learning from patient safety incidents reported from general practice.

INTRODUCTION: Incident reports contain descriptions of errors and harms that occurred during clinical care delivery. Few observational studies have characterised incidents from general practice, and none of these have been from the England and Wales National Reporting and Learning System. This study aims to describe incidents reported from a general practice care setting. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A general practice patient safety incident classification will be developed to characterise patient safety incidents. A weighted-random sample of 12,500 incidents describing no harm, low harm and moderate harm of patients, and all incidents describing severe harm and death of patients will be classified. Insights from exploratory descriptive statistics and thematic analysis will be combined to identify priority areas for future interventions. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The need for ethical approval was waivered by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board research risk review committee given the anonymised nature of data (ABHB R&D Ref number: SA/410/13). The authors will submit the results of the study to relevant journals and undertake national and international oral presentations to researchers, clinicians and policymakers.

How asking patients a simple question enhances care at the bedside: medical students as agents of quality improvement.

Medical students have traditionally played a passive role in the delivery of health care. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement Open School members and leaders initiated the Ask One Question project in December 2011. Through a commitment to the project, students are learning to assume a unique position in health care settings, as both learners and caregivers. They are improving care at the bedside by asking a simple question: "How can I improve your stay today?" Using the Model for Improvement to adapt the Ask One Question concept for local use, medical students at Cardiff University (United Kingdom) asked 120 patients. A content analysis of those responses identified 89 issues across 4 broad areas for improvement, including communication issues (uncertainty about their care management and desire for more time with their health care professional); practical issues (assistance with tasks made difficult because of ill health); wider organizational and National Health Services requests; and medical needs (requiring medical or nursing intervention). A medical student, a clinical colleague, or the hospital organization could act on those issues. Actions ranged from attending to simple tasks (eg, finding spectacles) or basic care needs (eg, giving a drink) to suggestions requiring wider institutional change. On a simple but effective level, Ask One Question reflects good manners and is a demonstrable competency of patient-centered practice. It is a vehicle for enabling students to seek improvements in health care and initiate relevant actions to improve the patient experience at the bedside.