Molly Harrod

Variations in risk perceptions: a qualitative study of why unnecessary urinary catheter use continues to be problematic

BackgroundCatheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) is one of the most commonly acquired health care associated infections within the United States. We examined the implementation of an initiative to prevent CAUTI, to better understand how health care providers’ perceptions of risk influenced their use of prevention practices and the potential impact these risk perceptions have on patient care decisions. Understanding such perceptions are critical for developing more effective approaches to ensure the successful uptake of key patient safety practices and thus safer care for hospitalized patients.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured phone and in-person interviews with staff from 12 hospitals. A total of 42 interviews were analyzed using open coding and a constant comparative approach. This analysis identified “risk” as a central theme and a “risk explanatory framework” was identified for its sensitizing constructs to organize and explain our findings.ResultsWe found that multiple perceptions of risk, some non-evidence based, were used by healthcare providers to determine if use of the indwelling urethral catheter was necessary. These risks included normative work where staff deal with competing priorities and must decide which ones to attend too; loosely coupled errors where negative outcomes and the use of urinary catheters were not clearly linked; process weaknesses where risk seemed to be related to both the existing organizational processes and the new initiative being implemented and; workarounds that consisted of health care workers developing workarounds in order to bypass some of the organizational processes created to dissuade catheter use.ConclusionsHospitals that are implementing patient safety initiatives aimed at reducing indwelling urethral catheters should be aware that the risk to the patient is not the only risk of perceived importance; implementation plans should be formulated accordingly.

The Use of Multiple Qualitative Methods to Characterize Communication Events Between Physicians and Nurses

Despite the importance of communication to patient safety in hospital settings, we know surprisingly little about communication patterns between physicians and nurses, particularly on general medical–surgical units. Poor communication is the leading cause of preventable adverse events in hospitals, as well as a major root cause of sentinel events. The literature provides little guidance on what qualitative methods are best for capturing different types of communication events and patterns. The purpose of this study was to develop a methodology for identifying and characterizing communication events between physicians and nurses to better understand communication patterns on general medical–surgical units. We used a sequential qualitative mixed method design beginning with general observation, progressing to shadowing and focus groups of physicians and nurses who worked on two medical–surgical units at one academically affiliated U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital. Each data collection method (observation, shadowing, and focus groups) had its own advantages and disadvantages for capturing communication events and patterns. Through observation we were able to see the “what”: communication activities. Shadowing was most useful for understanding “how” physicians and nurses communicated. Focus groups helped answer “why” certain patterns emerged and allowed us to further explore communication events within a group setting. By using all three methods we were able to more thoroughly characterize communication events than by using a single method alone, providing a more holistic picture of how communication occurs on an inpatient medical–surgical unit.

First Things First: Foundational Requirements for a Medical Home in an Academic Medical Center

ABSTRACTBACKGROUNDIn 2010, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) began implementation of its medical home, Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACT), in 900 primary care clinics nationwide, with 120 located in academically affiliated medical centers. The literature on Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) implementation has focused mainly on small, nonacademic practices.OBJECTIVETo understand the experiences of primary care leadership, physicians and staff during early PACT implementation in a VHA academically affiliated primary care clinic and provide insights to guide future PCMH implementation.DESIGNWe conducted a qualitative case study during early PACT implementation.PARTICIPANTSPrimary care clinical leadership, primary care providers, residents, and staff.APPROACHBetween February 2011 and March 2012, we conducted 22 semi-structured interviews, purposively sampling participants by clinic role, and convenience sampling within role. We also conducted observations of 30 nurse case manager staff meetings, and collected data on growth in the number of patients, staff, and physicians. We used a template organizing approach to data analysis, using select constructs from the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).KEY RESULTSEstablishing foundational requirements was an essential first step in implementing the PACT model, with teamlets able to do practice redesign work. Short-staffing undermined development of teamlet working relationships. Lack of co-location of teamlet members in clinic and difficulty communicating with residents when they were off-site hampered communication. Opportunities to educate and reinforce PACT principles were constrained by the limited clinic hours of part-time primary care providers and residents, and delays in teamlet formation.CONCLUSIONSLarge academic medical centers face special challenges in implementing the medical home model. In an era of increasing emphasis on patient-centered care, our findings will inform efforts to both improve patient care and train clinicians to move from physician-centric to multidisciplinary care delivery.

Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter Use in Skilled Nursing Facilities: A Pilot Study

To describe patterns of use, care practices, and outcomes related to peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) use in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).

Resuscitation Practices Associated With Survival After In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Nationwide Survey

IMPORTANCE Although survival of patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest varies markedly among hospitals, specific resuscitation practices that distinguish sites with higher cardiac arrest survival rates remain unknown. OBJECTIVE To identify resuscitation practices associated with higher rates of in-hospital cardiac arrest survival. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Nationwide survey of resuscitation practices at hospitals participating in the Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation registry and with 20 or more adult in-hospital cardiac arrest cases from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2013. Data analysis was performed from June 10 to December 22, 2015. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Risk-standardized survival rates for cardiac arrest were calculated at each hospital and were then used to categorize hospitals into quintiles of performance. The association between resuscitation practices and quintiles of survival was evaluated using hierarchical proportional odds logistic regression models. RESULTS Overall, 150 (78.1%) of 192 eligible hospitals completed the study survey, and 131 facilities with 20 or more adult in-hospital cardiac arrest cases comprised the final study cohort. Risk-standardized survival rates after in-hospital cardiac arrest varied substantially (median, 23.7%; range, 9.2%-37.5%). Several resuscitation practices were associated with survival on bivariate analysis, although only 3 were significant after multivariable adjustment: monitoring for interruptions in chest compressions (adjusted odds ratio [OR] for being in a higher survival quintile category, 2.71; 95% CI, 1.24-5.93; P = .01), reviewing cardiac arrest cases monthly (adjusted OR for being in a higher survival quintile category, 8.55; 95% CI, 1.79-40.00) or quarterly (OR, 6.85; 95% CI, 1.49-31.30; P = .03), and adequate resuscitation training (adjusted OR, 3.23; 95% CI, 1.21-8.33; P = .02). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Using survey information from acute care hospitals participating in a national quality improvement registry, we identified 3 resuscitation strategies associated with higher hospital rates of survival for patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest. These strategies can form the foundation for best practices for resuscitation care at hospitals given the high incidence and variation in survival for in-hospital cardiac arrest.

Introducing the No Preventable Harms campaign: Creating the safest health care system in the world, starting with catheter-associated urinary tract infection prevention

BACKGROUND Endemic health care-associated safety problems, including health care-associated infection, account for substantial morbidity and mortality. We outline a regional No Preventable Harms campaign to reduce these safety problems and describe the initial results from the first initiative focusing on catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) prevention. METHODS We formed a think tank composed of multidisciplinary experts from within a 7-hospital Midwestern Veterans Affairs network to identify hospital-acquired conditions that had strong evidence on how to prevent the harm and outcome data that could be easily collected to evaluate improvement efforts. The first initiative of this campaign focused on CAUTI prevention. Quantitative data on CAUTI rates and qualitative data from site visit interviews were used to evaluate the initiative. RESULTS Quantitative data showed a significant reduction in CAUTI rates per 1,000 catheter days for nonintensive care units across the region (2.4 preinitiative and 0.8 postinitiative; P = .001), but no improvement in the intensive care unit rate (1.4 preinitiative and 2.1 postinitiative; P = .16). Themes that emerged from our qualitative data highlight the need for considering local context and the importance of communication when developing and implementing regional initiatives. CONCLUSIONS A regional collaborative can be a valuable strategy for addressing important endemic patient safety problems.

The Effect of Health Information Technology on Health Care Provider Communication: A Mixed-Method Protocol.

Background Communication failures between physicians and nurses are one of the most common causes of adverse events for hospitalized patients, as well as a major root cause of all sentinel events. Communication technology (ie, the electronic medical record, computerized provider order entry, email, and pagers), which is a component of health information technology (HIT), may help reduce some communication failures but increase others because of an inadequate understanding of how communication technology is used. Increasing use of health information and communication technologies is likely to affect communication between nurses and physicians. Objective The purpose of this study is to describe, in detail, how health information and communication technologies facilitate or hinder communication between nurses and physicians with the ultimate goal of identifying how we can optimize the use of these technologies to support effective communication. Effective communication is the process of developing shared understanding between communicators by establishing, testing, and maintaining relationships. Our theoretical model, based in communication and sociology theories, describes how health information and communication technologies affect communication through communication practices (ie, use of rich media; the location and availability of computers) and work relationships (ie, hierarchies and team stability). Therefore we seek to (1) identify the range of health information and communication technologies used in a national sample of medical-surgical acute care units, (2) describe communication practices and work relationships that may be influenced by health information and communication technologies in these same settings, and (3) explore how differences in health information and communication technologies, communication practices, and work relationships between physicians and nurses influence communication. Methods This 4-year study uses a sequential mixed-methods design, beginning with a quantitative survey followed by a two-part qualitative phase. Survey results from aim 1 will provide a detailed assessment of health information and communication technologies in use and help identify sites with variation in health information and communication technologies for the qualitative phase of the study. In aim 2, we will conduct telephone interviews with hospital personnel in up to 8 hospitals to gather in-depth information about communication practices and work relationships on medical-surgical units. In aim 3, we will collect data in 4 hospitals (selected from telephone interview results) via observation, shadowing, focus groups, and artifacts to learn how health information and communication technologies, communication practices, and work relationships affect communication. Results Results from aim 1 will be published in 2016. Results from aims 2 and 3 will be published in subsequent years. Conclusions As the majority of US hospitals do not yet have HIT fully implemented, results from our study will inform future development and implementation of health information and communication technologies to support effective communication between nurses and physicians.

“It goes beyond good camaraderie”: A qualitative study of the process of becoming an interprofessional healthcare “teamlet”

ABSTRACT Within the US, the patient-centred medical home has become a predominant model in the delivery of primary care. This model requires a shift from the physician-centric model to an interprofessional team-based approach. Thus, healthcare staff are being reorganized into teams, resulting in having to work and relate to one another in new ways. In 2010, the Veterans Health Administration implemented the patient aligned care team (PACT) model, its version of the patient-centred medical home. The transition to the PACT model involved restructuring primary care staff into “teamlets”, consisting of a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, and administrative clerk for each full-time-equivalent primary care provider. This qualitative study used observation and semi-structured interviews to understand the factors that affect teamlet functioning as they implement this new model of care and how teams are interacting to address those factors. Findings suggest that role understanding includes understanding how each teamlet member’s tasks are performed in the daily operations of the clinic. In addition, willingness to perform tasks that benefit the teamlet and acceptance of delegation from all teamlet members were found to be important for teamlet functioning and cohesion. In order for healthcare teams to provide patient-centred care, it is important to provide guidance and support about what these new relationships and roles will entail. The building of team relationships is not a static process; ways of working together build over time and, therefore, should be seen as a continuous cycle of quality improvement.

How Do Resuscitation Teams at Top-Performing Hospitals for In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Succeed?: A Qualitative Study

Background: In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is common, and outcomes vary substantially across US hospitals, but reasons for these differences are largely unknown. We set out to better understand how top-performing hospitals organize their resuscitation teams to achieve high survival rates for IHCA. Methods: We calculated risk-standardized IHCA survival to discharge rates across American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines–Resuscitation registry hospitals between 2012 and 2014. We identified geographically and academically diverse hospitals in the top, middle, and bottom quartiles of survival for IHCA and performed a qualitative study that included site visits with in-depth interviews of clinical and administrative staff at 9 hospitals. With the use of thematic analysis, data were analyzed to identify salient themes of perceived performance by informants. Results: Across 9 hospitals, we interviewed 158 individuals from multiple disciplines including physicians (17.1%), nurses (45.6%), other clinical staff (17.1%), and administration (20.3%). We identified 4 broad themes related to resuscitation teams: (1) team design, (2) team composition and roles, (3) communication and leadership during IHCA, and (4) training and education. Resuscitation teams at top-performing hospitals demonstrated the following features: dedicated or designated resuscitation teams; participation of diverse disciplines as team members during IHCA; clear roles and responsibilities of team members; better communication and leadership during IHCA; and in-depth mock codes. Conclusions: Resuscitation teams at hospitals with high IHCA survival differ from non–top-performing hospitals. Our findings suggest core elements of successful resuscitation teams that are associated with better outcomes and form the basis for future work to improve IHCA.

Implementing infection prevention practices across European hospitals: an in-depth qualitative assessment

Objective The Prevention of Hospital Infections by Intervention and Training (PROHIBIT) project included a cluster-randomised, stepped wedge, controlled study to evaluate multiple strategies to prevent catheter-related bloodstream infection. We report an in-depth investigation of the main barriers, facilitators and contextual factors relevant to successfully implementing these strategies in European acute care hospitals. Methods Qualitative comparative case study in 6 of the 14 European PROHIBIT hospitals. Data were collected through interviews with key stakeholders and ethnographic observations conducted during 2-day site visits, before and 1 year into the PROHIBIT intervention. Qualitative measures of implementation success included intervention fidelity, adaptation to local context and satisfaction with the intervention programme. Results Three meta-themes emerged related to implementation success: ‘implementation agendas’, ‘resources’ and ‘boundary-spanning’. Hospitals established unique implementation agendas that, while not always aligned with the project goals, shaped subsequent actions. Successful implementation required having sufficient human and material resources and dedicated change agents who helped make the intervention an institutional priority. The salary provided for a dedicated study nurse was a key facilitator. Personal commitment of influential individuals and boundary spanners helped overcome resource restrictions and intrainstitutional segregation. Conclusion This qualitative study revealed patterns across cases that were associated with successful implementation. Consideration of the intervention–context relation was indispensable to understanding the observed outcomes.