scholarly journals Using Clinical Decision Support to Improve Evidence Based Testing and Diagnosis of Clostridium difficile Infection

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S396-S396
Author(s):  
Bahnsen Miller ◽  
Catherine O’Neal ◽  
Diana Hamer

Abstract Background Diagnosing Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) requires clinical understanding of the disease and knowledge of diagnostic testing limitations. It is important for providers to utilize CDI testing only in patients with suspected disease. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays are sensitive but cannot differentiate between symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Individual hospitals have reported a 50% to 100% increase in the rate of CDI after substituting toxin tests with molecular tests such as PCR. We conducted a quality improvement project, implementing clinical decision support in ordering diagnostic testing of CDI, while measuring the number of diagnostic tests ordered and positive results. Methods We implemented evidence based clinical decision support into Cerner order entry system on March 1, 2016. The Cepheid Xpert C. difficile molecular test is used for diagnosis of CDI at our facility. The decision support included a message stating Òuse the test with caution in patients who are receiving tube feeds or recent laxative useÓ and prompted ordering providers to select one of three indications for using the test: 3 or more diarrheal stools per 24 hour period, leukocytosis with abdominal pain, or ileus. A control chart was used to monitor the number of tests ordered and positive tests per month (inpatient adults) for a total of 24 months; 14 months pre-intervention and 10 months post-intervention. Results A decrease in the number of tests ordered per month was seen post intervention. Average number of monthly tests ordered was 207 pre-intervention and 163 post-intervention. After controlling for patient-days per month, there was a 13.5% decrease in the number of tests ordered from a mean of 14.29 vs.. 12.37 tests per thousand patient-days per month. This resulted in special cause variation (Figure 1). There was no special cause variation detected with the number of positive PCRs per month, pre and post intervention. Conclusion Implementing decision support into the electronic medical record may assist providers with evidence-based utilization of the C. difficile PCR by decreasing unnecessary testing. This decrease may also have an impact on overall hospital costs, antibiotic utilization, and public reporting related to CDI. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

2016 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 299-307
Author(s):  
Dang Tran ◽  
Bonnie Westra ◽  
Kevin Smith

SummaryStudies demonstrate poor guideline adherence by health care providers for the treatment of upper respiratory infections, particularly acute bacterial rhinosinusitis (ABRS), in the appropriate prescribing of antibiotic medications.The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the effect of implementing interventions for improving adherence to a clinical practice guideline for the management of ABRS for patients treated in the e-visit setting. Interventions included: providing a report to providers of their adherence to the ABRS clinical guideline prior to the intervention, providing updated education on the ABRS guideline, and implementing a clinical decision support system reminder.A pre and post intervention evaluation design was used. Data were obtained from a retrospective electronic health record (EHR) data extract of all 316 diagnoses for ABRS in the preintervention 2-month time period and all 368 diagnoses of ABRS in the post-intervention 2-month time period. A review of the structured clinical data elements was performed to determine whether the provider adhered to the clinical guideline, meaning that only patients meeting the criteria for ABRS were to receive an antibiotic prescription.The interventions resulted in a 3.3% improvement in adherence to the ABRS clinical guideline from 95.25% adherence pre-intervention to 98.4% post-intervention. These results demonstrated that the use of an educational intervention and clinical decision support resulted in improved adherence to the ABRS clinical guideline in the e-visit setting. The implications for practice could be significant in that these quality improvement interventions improve guideline adherence and reduce unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics.


Author(s):  
Tessa Jaspers ◽  
Marjolijn Duisenberg-van Essenberg ◽  
Barbara Maat ◽  
Marc Durian ◽  
Roy van den Berg ◽  
...  

AbstractBackground Venous thromboembolism is a potentially fatal complication of hospitalisation, affecting approximately 3% of non-surgical patients. Administration of low molecular weight heparins to the appropriate patients adequately decreases venous thromboembolism incidence, but guideline adherence is notoriously low. Objective To determine the effect of a multifaceted intervention on thromboprophylaxis guideline adherence. The secondary objective was to study the effect on guideline adherence specifically in patients with a high venous thromboembolism risk. As an exploratory objective, we determined how many venous thromboembolisms may be prevented. Setting A Dutch general teaching hospital. Method A prospective study with a pre- and post-intervention measurement was conducted. A multifaceted intervention, consisting of Clinical Decision Support software, a mobile phone application, monitoring of duplicate anticoagulants and training, was implemented. Guideline adherence was assessed by calculating the Padua prediction and Improve bleeding score for each patient. The number of preventable venous thromboembolisms was calculated using the incidences of venous thromboembolism in patients with and without adequate thromboprophylaxis and extrapolated to the annual number of admitted patients. Main outcome measure Adherence to thromboprophylaxis guidelines in pre- and post-intervention measurements. Results 170 patients were included: 85 in both control and intervention group. The intervention significantly increased guideline adherence from 49.4 to 82.4% (OR 4.78; 95%CI 2.37–9.63). Guideline adherence in the patient group with a high venous thromboembolism risk also increased significantly from 54.5 to 84.3% (OR 2.46; 95%CI 1.31–4.62), resulting in the potential prevention of ± 261 venous thromboembolisms per year. Conclusions Our multifaceted intervention significantly increased thromboprophylaxis guideline adherence.


Author(s):  
Neurilene Batista de Oliveira ◽  
Heloísa Helena Ciqueto Peres

Objective: to compare the quality of the Nursing process documentation in two versions of a clinical decision support system. Method: a quantitative and quasi-experimental study of the before-and-after type. The instrument used to measure the quality of the records was the Brazilian version of the Quality of Diagnoses, Interventions and Outcomes, which has four domains and a maximum score of 58 points. A total of 81 records were evaluated in version I (pre-intervention), as well as 58 records in version II (post-intervention), and the scores obtained in the two applications were compared. The interventions consisted of planning, pilot implementation of version II of the system, training and monitoring of users. The data were analyzed in the R software, using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: the mean obtained at the pre-intervention moment was 38.24 and, after the intervention, 46.35 points. There was evidence of statistical difference between the means of the pre- and post-intervention groups, since the p-value was below 0.001 in the four domains evaluated. Conclusion: the quality of the documentation of the Nursing process in version II of the system was superior to version I. The efficacy of the system and the effectiveness of the interventions were verified. This study can contribute to the quality of documentation, care management, visibility of nursing actions and patient safety.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Oluwafunmilola Kolawole

BACKGROUND The clinical decision support system (CDSS) has been an important achievement of health technology in the 21st century. In developed countries, it has transformed the way health services are being delivered and has shown to be a tool that reduces medical errors and misdiagnoses in Healthcare. However, CDSS remains underutilized in developing countries in Africa. OBJECTIVE This study aims to review the literature to improve our understanding of the “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)” associated with CDSS implementation in African health systems. METHODS This study included a literature review conducted in PubMed with a total of 19 articles between the year 2010 to date (past 10years) reviewed for key themes and categorized into one of 4 possible areas within the SWOT analysis. RESULTS Articles reviewed showed common strengths of efficiency at the workplace, Improved healthcare quality, benefits in developed countries, good examples of evidence-based decision making. unreliable electric power supply, inconsistent Internet connectivity, clinician's limited computer skills, and lack of enough published evidence of benefits in developing countries are listed as a weakness. The opportunities are high demand for evidence-based practice in healthcare, a strong demand for quality healthcare, growing interest to use modern technologies. The common threats identified are government policy, political instability, low funding and resistance of use by providers. CONCLUSIONS There’s the need to work on the technical, organizational and financial barriers to ensure high adoption and implementation of the CDSS in African Health systems. Also, the lag on the knowledge available on its impact in developing countries must be worked on by supporting more studies to add to the body of knowledge.


CJEM ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (S1) ◽  
pp. S90-S90
Author(s):  
S. Dowling ◽  
E. Lang ◽  
D. Wang ◽  
T. Rich

Introduction: In certain circumstances, skin and soft tissue infections are managed with intravenous (IV) antibiotics. In our center, patients initiated on outpatient IV antibiotics are followed up by a home parental therapy program the following day. A significant number of these patients require a repeat visit to the ED because of clinic hours. Probenecid is a drug that can prolong the half-life of certain antibiotics (such as cefazolin) and can therefore avoid a repeat ED visit, reducing health care costs and improve ED capacity. Our goal was to increase probenecid usage in the ED in order to optimize management of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) in the ED. The primary outcome was to compare the usage of probenecid in the pre and post-intervention phase. Secondary outcomes were to compare revisit rates between patients receiving cefazolin alone vs cefazolin + probenecid. Methods: Using administrative data merged with Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), we extracted data 90 days pre- and 90 post-intervention (February 11, 2015 to August 11, 2015). The setting for the study is an urban center (4 adult ED’s with an annual census of over 320,000 visits per year). Our CPOE system is fully integrated into the ED patient care. The multi-faceted intervention involved modifying all relevant SSTI order sets in the CPOE system to link any cefazolin order with an order for probenecid. Physicians and nurses were provided with a 1 page summary of probenecid (indications, contra-indications, pharmacology), as well as decision support with the CPOE. Any patients who were receiving outpatient cefazolin therapy were included in the study. Results: Our analysis included 2512 patients (1148 and 1364 patients in the pre/post phases) who received cefazolin in the ED and were discharged during the 180 day period. Baseline variables (gender, age, % admitted) and ED visits were similar in both phases. In the pre-intervention phase 30.2% of patients received probenecid and in the post-intervention phase 43.0%, for a net increase of 12.8% (p=<0.0001). Patients who received probenecid had a 2.2% (11.4% vs 13.6%, p=0.014) lower re-visit rate in the following 72H. Conclusion: We have implemented a CPOE based clinical decision support intervention that demonstrated significant increase in probenecid usage by emergency physician and resulted in a decrease in ED revisits. This intervention would result in health care cost-savings.


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