Russell Migita

Implementation of FilmArray respiratory viral panel in a core laboratory improves testing turnaround time and patient care

Abstract The FilmArray respiratory virus panel detects 15 viral agents in respiratory specimens using polymerase chain reaction. We performed FilmArray respiratory viral testing in a core laboratory at a regional children’s hospital that provides service 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The average and median turnaround time were 1.6 and 1.4 hours, respectively, in contrast to 7 and 6.5 hours documented 1 year previously at an on-site reference laboratory using a direct fluorescence assay (DFA) that detected 8 viral agents. During the study period, rhinovirus was detected in 20% and coronavirus in 6% of samples using FilmArray; these viruses would not have been detected with DFA. We followed 97 patients with influenza A or influenza B who received care at the emergency department (ED). Overall, 79 patients (81%) were given oseltamivir in a timely manner defined as receiving the drug in the ED, a prescription in the ED, or a prescription within 3 hours of ED discharge. Our results demonstrate that molecular technology can be successfully deployed in a nonspecialty, high-volume, multidisciplinary core laboratory.

Creating a leaner pediatric emergency department: how rapid design and testing of a front-end model led to decreased wait time.

Objective To use Lean methodologies and the Model for Improvement to rapidly redesign and pilot test a new pediatric emergency department (ED) front-end model that reduces time to a licensed independent provider to 30 minutes or less. Methods Lean improvement methodologies were applied during a 5-day multidisciplinary model of care redesign event. The new ED front-end model of care included: (1) placement of a registered nurse in the lobby; (2) direct patient rooming with elimination of traditional triage; 3) early documentation of home medications; 4) Team-based immediate assessment; 5) “early Initiation” providers to place orders when a team was not available. An observational, cohort controlled before-and-after study design was used. The new model was tested over 2 pilot periods and compared to a similar period of control days, defined as the “current state.” Results The ED census and patient acuity were similar during both pilot periods. Eighteen patients were included in pilot 1, and 80 patients were included in the expanded second pilot. Patients seen within 30 minutes improved from a baseline of 33% to 93% in pilot 2. Time to a licensed independent provider, to a room, and to visual assessment by a nurse all decreased. The largest decrease was in median time to provider, from 43 minutes in the current state to 7 minutes during pilot 2. Conclusions Rapid process improvement methodology was used to design and test a front-end model that reduced patient waiting time. Our experience demonstrates the feasibility of employing Lean principles and the Model for Improvement in actual practice environments to rapidly improve care delivery processes in pediatric emergency departments.

Standardized Asthma Admission Criteria Reduce Length of Stay in a Pediatric Emergency Department

OBJECTIVES Asthma is the most common chronic illness in children and accounts for > 600,000 emergency department (ED) visits each year. Reducing ED length of stay (LOS) for moderate to severe asthmatics improves ED throughput and patient care for this high-risk population. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of adding standardized, respiratory score-based admission criteria to an asthma pathway on ED LOS for admitted patients, time to bed request, overall percentage of admitted asthmatics, inpatient LOS, and percentage of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions. METHODS This was a retrospective study of a quality improvement intervention. Statistical process control methodologies were used to analyze measures 15 months before and after implementation of a modified asthma pathway (June 2010 to December 2012; pathway modification September 2011). RESULTS A total of 3,688 patients aged 1 through 18 years who presented to the ED with an asthma exacerbation during the study period were included. Patients were excluded if they were not eligible for the asthma pathway. Patient characteristics were similar before and after the intervention. Mean ED LOS and time to bed request for admitted asthmatics both decreased by 30 minutes. There was no change in percentage of asthma admissions (34%), mean inpatient LOS (1.4 days), or percentage of PICU admissions (2%). CONCLUSIONS Standardizing care for asthma patients to include objective admission criteria early in the ED course may optimize patient care and improve ED flow.

Improving Patient Flow Using Lean Methodology: an Emergency Medicine Experience

Opinion statementIn today’s rapidly changing health care milieu, organizations are expected to continuously improve the quality of care delivered to an expanding population of patients. To do so, they need a framework for developing, testing and implementing changes. Lean provides a methodology to engage workers and leaders to identify waste in a process, develop standards, implement a change, assess the results of that change, review next steps, and repeat the process. This can be successfully accomplished in the highly variable world of emergency medicine and can help health care providers be more productive, engaged, and satisfied while enabling patients to receive the value-added care they want and expect. Successful implementation of Lean or any other improvement framework requires that the hospital and medical leadership are all strong supporters of the methodology, speak the same process improvement language and are able to generate support and resources for operation-wide forward movement.

Improving Time to Antibiotics for Pediatric Oncology Patients With Suspected Infections: An Emergency Department–Based Quality Improvement Intervention

Objective Studies in pediatric patients with fever and neutropenia demonstrate that shorter time to antibiotics is associated with a decrease in pediatric intensive care unit admissions and in-hospital mortality. In 2012, a 2-phase quality improvement intervention was implemented in a pediatric emergency department (ED) to improve care for this high-risk patient population. The objective was to determine if the introduction of (1) a rapid absolute neutrophil count (ANC) test and (2) a standardized prearrival process decreased time to antibiotics for febrile hematology/oncology(heme/onc) patients presenting to the ED. Methods The rapid ANC test introduced in February 2012 decreased turn-around-times in the laboratory from 60 to 10 minutes. The standardization of the prearrival communication between the heme/onc team and ED was implemented in August 2012 as part of a clinical standard work pathway for heme/onc patients who presented to the ED with fever and possible neutropenia. Time from arrival to the ED to administration of first antibiotic was measured. Data from January 2011 to December 2013 were analyzed using statistical process control. Results Seven hundred eighteen encounters for 327 patients were included. After the rapid ANC test, the proportion of patients who received antibiotics within 60 minutes of arrival increased from 47% to 60%. There was further improvement to 69% with implementation of the clinical standard work pathway. Mean time to antibiotics decreased from 83 to 65 minutes (21% decrease). Conclusion This 2-phase quality improvement intervention increased the proportion of patients who received antibiotics within 60 minutes of arrival to the ED. Similar processes may be implemented in other pediatric EDs to improve timeliness of antibiotic administration.

Waterfalls and Handoffs: A Novel Physician Staffing Model to Decrease Handoffs in a Pediatric Emergency Department

Study objective: Patient handoffs at shift change in the emergency department (ED) are a well‐known risk point for patient safety. Numerous methods have been implemented and studied to improve the quality of handoffs to mitigate this risk. However, few have investigated processes designed to decrease the number of handoffs. Our objective is to evaluate a novel attending physician staffing model in an academic pediatric ED that was designed to decrease patient handoffs. Methods: A multidisciplinary team met in August 2012 to redesign the attending physician staffing model. The team sought to decrease patient handoffs, optimize provider efficiency, and balance workload without increasing total attending physician hours. The original model required multiple handoffs at shift change. This was replaced with overlapping “waterfall” shifts. This was a retrospective quality improvement study of a process change that evaluated the percentage of intradepartmental handoffs before and after implementation of a new novel attending physician staffing model. In addition, surveys were conducted among attending physicians and charge nurses to inquire about perceived impacts of the change. Results: A total of 43,835 patient encounters were analyzed. Immediately after implementation of the new model, there was a 25% reduction in the proportion of encounters with patient handoffs, from 7.9% to 5.9%. A survey of physicians and charge nurses demonstrated improved perceptions of patient safety, ED flow, and job satisfaction. Conclusion: This new emergency physician staffing model with overlapping shifts decreased the proportion of patient handoffs. This innovative system can be implemented and scaled to suit EDs that have more than single‐physician coverage.