Shazia M. Siddique

Market Evaluation: Finances, Bundled Payments, and Accountable Care Organizations

To control costs and improve quality, changes in health care delivery and financing have emerged, resulting in shifting of financial risk to providers for the quality and cost of care, including emergence of accountable care organizations and bundled payment models. This article discusses health care financing and delivery models in the context of procedures and surgeries that happen outside of the operating room. It describes the history of health insurance, trends in ambulatory surgery centers, and new payment models that have emerged from the Affordable Care Act and the Medicare Access and Childrens Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act.

Outcomes of Emergency Medical Patients Admitted to an Intermediate Care Unit With Detailed Admission Guidelines

Background An important, but not well characterized, population receiving intermediate care is that of medical patients admitted directly from the emergency department. Objective To characterize emergency medical patients and their outcomes when admitted to an intermediate care unit with clearly defined admission guidelines. Methods Demographic data, admitting diagnoses, illness severity, comorbid conditions, lengths of stay, and hospital mortality were characterized for all emergency medical patients admitted directly to an intermediate care unit from July through December 2012. Results A total of 317 unique patients were admitted (mean age, 54 [SD, 16] years). Most patients were admitted with respiratory (26.5%) or cardiac (17.0%) syndromes. The mean (SD) Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation score version II, Simplified Acute Physiology Score version II, and Charlson Comorbidity Index were 15.6 (6.5), 20.7 (11.8), and 2.7 (2.3), respectively. Severity of illness and length of stay were significantly different for patients who required intensive care within 24 hours of admission (n = 16) or later (n = 25), patients who continued with intermediate care for more than 24 hours (n = 247), and patients who were downgraded or discharged in less than 24 hours (n = 29). Overall hospital mortality was 4.4% (14 deaths). Conclusions Emergency medical patients with moderate severity of illness and comorbidity can be admitted to an intermediate level of care with relatively infrequent transfer to intensive care and relatively low mortality.

Exploring opportunities to prevent cirrhosis admissions in the emergency department: A multicenter multidisciplinary survey

Patients with cirrhosis have high admission and readmission rates, and it is estimated that a quarter are potentially preventable. Little data are available regarding nonmedical factors impacting triage decisions in this patient population. This study sought to explore such factors as well as to determine provider perspectives on low‐acuity clinical presentations to the emergency department, including ascites and hepatic encephalopathy. A survey was distributed in four liver transplant centers to both emergency medicine and hepatology providers, who included attending physicians, house staff, and advanced practitioners; 196 surveys were returned (estimated response rate 50.6%). Emergency medicine providers identified several influential nonmedical factors impacting inpatient triage decisions, including input from a hepatologist (77.7%), inadequate patient access to outpatient specialty care (68.6%), and patient need for diagnostic testing for a procedure (65.6%). When given patient‐based scenarios of low‐acuity cases, such as ascites requiring paracentesis, only 7.0% believed patients should be hospitalized while 48.9% said these patients would be hospitalized at their institution (P < 0.0001). For mild hepatic encephalopathy, the comparable numbers were 19.5% and 55.2%, respectively (P < 0.001). Several perceived barriers were cited for this discrepancy, including limited resources both in the outpatient setting and emergency department. Most providers believed that an emergency department observation unit protocol would influence triage toward an emergency department observation unit visit instead of inpatient admission for both ascites requiring large volume paracentesis (83.2%) and mild hepatic encephalopathy (79.4%). Conclusion: Many nonmedical factors that influence inpatient triage for patients with cirrhosis could be targeted for quality improvement initiatives. In some scenarios, providers are limited by resource availability, which results in triage to an inpatient admission even when they believe this is not the most appropriate disposition. (Hepatology Communications 2018;2:237‐244)

How to Incorporate Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Projects in Your Training

QI and PS training is an important aspect to integrate within GI fellowship. There are a variety of ways to incorporate these efforts, including modifying existing divisional and departmental resources, building new curricula, completing available online modules and courses, and obtaining degrees through the university. There are numerous opportunities for scholarship within QI which fellows should be encouraged to pursue. Engagement in QI and PS efforts will help provide a more formal methodology for fellows to improve upon the practice of gastroenterology in the future.

American Gastroenterological Association Institute Technical Review on the Medical Management of Opioid-Induced Constipation

Abbreviations used in this paper: AE, adverse event; AGA, American Gastroenterological Association; BFI, Bowel Function Index; BM, bowel movement; BSFS, Bristol Stool Form Scale; CI, confidence interval; FDA, Food and Drug Administration; GI, gastrointestinal; GRADE, Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation; MD, mean difference; OIC, opioid-induced constipation; PAC-QOL, Patient Assessment of Constipation-Quality of Life; PAMORA, peripherally acting m-opioid receptor antagonist; PEG, polyethylene glycol; PICO, population, intervention, comparator, and outcomes; PROM, patient-reported outcome measure; QOL, quality of life; RCT, randomized controlled trial; RFBM, rescue-free bowel movement; RR, relative risk; SBM, spontaneous bowel movement.

Low Referral Rate for Genetic Testing in Racially and Ethnically Diverse Patients Despite Universal Colorectal Cancer Screening

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Guidelines recommend that all colorectal tumors be assessed for mismatch repair deficiency, which could increase identification of patients with Lynch syndrome. This is of particular importance for minority populations, in whom hereditary syndromes are under diagnosed. We compared rates and outcomes of testing all tumor samples (universal testing) collected from a racially and ethnically diverse population for features of Lynch syndrome. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of colorectal tumors tested from 2012 through 2016 at 4 academic centers. Tumor samples were collected from 767 patients with colorectal cancer (52% non‐Hispanic white [NHW], 26% African American, and 17% Hispanic patients). We assessed rates of tumor testing, recommendations for genetic evaluation, rates of attending a genetic evaluation, and performance of germline testing overall and by race/ethnicity. We performed univariate and multivariate regression analyses. RESULTS: Overall, 92% of colorectal tumors were analyzed for mismatch repair deficiency without significant differences among races/ethnicities. However, minority patients were significantly less likely to be referred for genetic evaluation (21.2% for NHW patients vs 16.9% for African American patients and 10.9% for Hispanic patients; P = .02). Rates of genetic testing were also lower among minority patients (10.7% for NHW patients vs 6.0% for AA patients and 3.1% for Hispanic patients; P < .01). On multivariate analysis, African American race, older age, and medical center were independently associated with lack of referral for genetic evaluation and genetic testing. CONCLUSION: In a retrospective analysis, we found that despite similar rates of colorectal tumor analysis, minority patients are less likely to be recommended for genetic evaluation or to undergo germline testing for Lynch syndrome. Improvements in institutional practices in follow up after tumor testing could reduce barriers to diagnosis of Lynch diagnosis in minorities.

Su1450 Gastric Mucosal Innervation in Endoscopic Biopsies in Patients With Idiopathic Gastroparesis Is Not Significantly Different Than Normals

Introduction. Diabetic gastroparesis is defined as delayed gastric emptying not caused by obstruction or structural abnormality. Normal function of the gastric and intestinal mechanical activity is mediated by slow wave electrical activity in the stomach and small bowel. Previous studies using both electrogastrogram and magnetogastrogram have shown gastric slowwave dysrhythmias associated with gastroparesis, but no study has yet examined possible effects of gastroparesis on the intestinal slow wave. Methods. We recorded intestinal slow waves in diabetic patients with gastroparesis (N=7) and healthy controls (N=7) using the magnetoenterogram (MENG), which uses a Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID) to convert magnetic fields associated with intestinal slow waves into voltage signals. Second Order Blind Identification (SOBI) was used to reduce noise and isolate the intestinal slow wave signal from confounding magnetic artifact, and we computed the power spectrum of the intestinal slow wave using a Fast Fourier Transform technique. We analyzed dominant frequency, amplitude and percentage of power distributed (PPD) in brady, normo and tachyarrhythmic frequency ranges. Results. In gastroparesis patients, we found a significant decrease in postprandial dominant intestinal slow wave frequency from 10.2 ± 0.4 cpm to 8.8 ± 0.5 cpm (p<0.05) whereas the dominant frequency for control subjects increased from 9.9 ± 0.5 cpm to 10.8 ± 0.4 cpm (p<0.05). We did not observe significant differences in preand postprandial PPDs computed from controls or patients. Conclusions. Diabetic gastroparesis is associated with bradyarrhythmia, but not uncoupling, of the intestinal slow wave. Biomagnetic measurements of the MENG can assess intestinal slow wave activity in healthy and diseased tissue noninvasively.