scholarly journals G180(P) Exploring equity, patient experience and engagement in paediatric sickle cell disease (SCD): a quality improvement project

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Huckerby ◽  
H Lynch ◽  
R Clubb ◽  
G Haddock ◽  
K Turner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Sickle Cell Disease ◽  
Sickle Cell ◽  
Patient Experience ◽  
Quality Improvement Project ◽  
Cell Disease ◽  
Improvement Project

A Clinic to Improve Care of Patients with Sickle Cell Disease and the Role of Medical Students in Quality Improvement

Blood ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 126 (23) ◽  
pp. 5586-5586
Author(s):  
Annie Press ◽  
Robert Lucito ◽  
Ilene Friedman ◽  
Samara Ginzburg
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Medical Students ◽  
Sickle Cell Disease ◽  
Sickle Cell ◽  
Cell Disease ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Clinical Microsystems ◽  
One Year

Abstract Background: At Hofstra-North Shore LIJ School of Medicine, we have opportunities for our medical students to participate in experiential quality improvement projects. As part of this initiative, some students participate on health-care improvement teams using a Clinical Microsystems approach. This approach is a conceptual framework that has been applied to various departments in the North Shore-LIJ Health System in order to improve quality and patient safety. The basis of Clinical Microsystems is to identify a need in the hospital that may be targeted in order to improve the efficacy of healthcare quality and delivery. Once the objective for healthcare improvement is determined, a multidisciplinary team is created spanning one or more microsystems to target the specific barrier. One of the multidisciplinary teams focuses on the care of patients with sickle cell disease. LIJ Hospital admits between 150 and 200 patients with sickle cell disease a year primarily due to recurrent pain crises. The initial sickle cell multidisciplinary improvement team included physicians, patients, nurses, social workers and two medical students. The role of the students on this team included literature searches and survey administration. The team's initial analysis found that a lack of consistent outpatient follow up was resulting in frequent readmissions for this population to acute care facilities for pain control. To address this, the team was instrumental in establishing a primary care outpatient clinic focused exclusively on caring for patients with sickle cell disease, run by a primary care physician, in 2012. The current study was conducted by a medical student, and her mentor, who were original members of the sickle cell improvement team. The study tested the hypothesis that enrolling patients with sickle cell disease in an outpatient clinic with a dedicated physician focused on sickle cell disease management and pain control would decrease the number of admissions this population has for acute care at LIJ. The study also highlights the opportunity to involve medical students in a meaningful way in hands-on quality improvement projects in the early stages of training. Methods: This was a retrospective study of all adults with sickle cell disease, 21 years or older, who were seen at the primary care outpatient sickle cell clinic. We compared the rates of hospital admissions and length of stay in the one-year prior and one-year after their establishment of care at the clinic. All data was identified through manual and automated searches of the Electronic Health Record. Results: Since the opening of the clinic in 2012, 107 adults established care at the clinic. Within the first year that a patient began being cared for by the clinic, their admission rate dropped 27%, from an average of 3.775 to 2.75 admissions per year (p=0.0003). There were a total of 151 admissions one-year pre-intervention and 110 admissions one-year post-intervention. Conclusion: This project supports the value of a dedicated primary care outpatient sickle cell clinic on decreasing the admission rates for patients with sickle cell disease. Within one year of establishing care at the clinic, admissions rates decreased significantly, emphasizing the role of dedicated outpatient primary care in the management of patients with sickle cell disease. This study also highlights the importance and feasibility of integrating medical students into a quality improvement project early on during medical school. There are opportunities for students to have meaningful roles on hospital based improvement projects and learn quality improvement methodologies. An important component to this success is faculty mentoring to support a student's involvement in the project. The student involved in this study experientially participated in multidisciplinary team-based rapid cycles of change, process mapping, data collection and analysis. Similar projects could offer students an opportunity to participate during medical school in a longitudinal quality improvement project to develop skills they will need as physicians to identify, participate and measure the effects of improvement efforts. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

scholarly journals National Emergency Cards for Sickle Cell Disease: A Survey on Usefulness from the Patient Perspective

Blood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 2171-2171
Author(s):  
Aisha Aiko Bruce ◽  
Lauren Bolster ◽  
Catherine Corriveau-Bourque ◽  
Michelle Dang ◽  
Ghazi S. Alotaibi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Sickle Cell Disease ◽  
Sickle Cell ◽  
Emergency Care ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emergency Department Utilization ◽  
Cell Disease ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Sense Of Security

Patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) frequently present for emergency care with pain or fever. The rate of emergency visits/year is between 2-4 per patient every year with 12% of patients visiting the emergency 4 or more times/year1. National medical organizations in Canada and the United States recommend pain therapy within 30 minutes of arriving to the emergency department2,3. Feedback from patients in Canada reflected a lack of awareness of the medical community regarding the disease and optimal management. As a response Canadian Haemoglobinopathy Association2 (CanHaem), created the "Sickle Cell Disease Emergency Wallet Cards" which were inspired from the successful Hemophilia "Factor First Card4". The goal of the cards was to provide simple care instructions to an emergency responder and facilitate timely care for patients in crisis. These wallet cards have recommendations for treatment of pain and fever within 30 minutes, patient's diagnosis, program contact details, and patient's individual pain plan. The cards have been in circulation for 4 years. The purpose of this study was to determine if the cards are used by parents and patients as intended. Research Questions: 1.Are the CanHaem Cards used by patients and families? 2. Do patients find the card helpful in facilitating their care delivery? Methods: The surveys were administered to patients and/or proxies. Prior to survey distribution three parents/patients have verified the utility of the questions, the content and the readability of the survey. The survey was translated into French/Arabic by two independent translators per language. It was distributed in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada in specialty clinics known to use the cards. The University of Alberta Ethics Board deemed the project a quality improvement initiative and the ARECCI tool: A pRoject Ethics Community Consensus Initiative was completed prior to quality improvement project start. Results: 140/184 participants completed the survey. The response rate: 76%. Demographics: 91% province of Alberta. Proxy: 49%; Patients: 51%. The majority of respondents were female: 54%, median age: 37 years (range 16-84 years). See graphs 1-4 below: 72.3% felt the card was helpful in their care. 78.6% carry the physical card (purse, wallet, and diaper bag), while 10.7% have a picture on their phone, 9.3% don't carry the card, 7.1% state they never received a card. The majority (63.6%) show the card at first contact in emergency, 48.9% felt staff read the card. Total of 68 comments. 67.6% of comments were positive: "Sense of security"; "Get us in to see the doctor faster..." Neutral comments (22%) ranged from requests for lamination to provider response to the card being variable "sometimes it is faster and sometime(s) doesn't really change anything". Finally, 10% were negative reflecting long wait times "Good concept, the idea itself is great. Execution... could be improved greatly", and requests for more information on the card. Conclusion: In Canada, SCD is an uncommon disease and many healthcare providers may not be aware of national and international guidelines regarding acute presentations. To help facilitate knowledge transfer and to aid communication with emergency services, CanHaem created wallet cards as a Canada-wide initiative. This survey demonstrates the patient/parent perspective of the emergency cards. Eighty-nine percent of patients/proxies carried the card (either digitally or physically) and 63% showed the card in the acute care setting. The discrepancy between those who carry the card and those who show it may reflect that numerous respondents stated they had not required emergency care since receiving the card as well some respondents were "carried away by the pain and forget to use the card". Comments revealed a sense of security and patient's appreciation for having the card available to them indicating the value of card to patients. The card demonstrates a simple and low cost intervention to facilitate emergency care for hemoglobinopathy patients. References: 1. Paulukonis ST et al. Emergency department utilization by Californians with sickle cell disease. Ped Blood and Ca 2017. doi: 1002/pbc.26390 2. CanHaem https://www.canhaem.org/healthcare-professionals/ 3. Evidence-Based Management of Sickle Cell Disease: Expert Panel, 2014. 4. Canadian Hemophilia Society. Stop the Bleeding. https://www.hemophilia.ca/files/ER%20CARD%20E_%20Jan%2009.pdf Figure Disclosures Ezzat: Novartis: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; ApoPharma: Research Funding.

scholarly journals Improving Completion Rates of Transcranial Doppler Ultrasounds in Children with Sickle Cell Disease Using Quality Improvement Efforts: In-Clinic Vs. Population-Based Assessments

Blood ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 138 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 1886-1886
Author(s):  
Madhav Vissa ◽  
Marsha Treadwell ◽  
Naomi Bardach
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Sickle Cell Disease ◽  
Sickle Cell ◽  
Chart Review ◽  
Claims Data ◽  
Administrative Claims ◽  
Completion Rates ◽  
Cell Disease

Abstract Introduction: People living with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at risk for stroke due to progressive cerebral vasculopathy. The Stroke Prevention Trial in Sickle Cell Anemia (STOP) study showed that transfusion therapy in patients with abnormal cerebral blood flow velocities measured by transcranial doppler (TCD) ultrasound significantly reduced the risk for stroke. Based on the STOP and STOP II studies, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and American Society of Hematology (ASH) recommend annual TCD screenings for children with HbSS and HbSb0 genotypes from age 2-16. Despite this recommendation, studies show that fewer than half of eligible children with SCD complete annual TCD screening. Recently, Cabana and Treadwell et al. (2020) found high TCD referral and completion rates in a multi-site quality improvement (QI) initiative (85% baseline) using chart review. Another feasible approach to tracking guideline adherence uses administrative claims data which are derived from diagnostic and billing codes from statewide claims. Claims data can be used to assess population estimates for a clinic or a state, for all eligible patients, including those who may not routinely access care. In this study, we use administrative claims to assess TCD completion rates in the same clinics participating in the aforementioned QI initiative. We hypothesized that, population level rates would be lower than those assessed via chart review and that QI strategies may not lead to sustained TCD completion rates. Methods: Between August 2017 to August 2018, a QI initiative within the Pacific Sickle Cell Regional Collaborative (PSCRC) was conducted to improve referral and completion rates of TCD screenings. Site leads participated in a monthly QI learning collaborative, implementing and reporting on Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles, with bimonthly chart review data collection. Medicaid administrative claims from the four states with participating clinics, from 2017, 2018 (to assess baseline and post-QI initiative performance) and 2019 (to assess sustainability), were used to assess rates of TCD completion in the eligible pediatric population, using the specifications of a previously validated quality measure by Reeves et al (2019). Annual TCD completion rates and changes in completion rates over time were assessed for each site and state. Results: Five sites from four states in the PSCRC were included in the analysis. There was large variability in the number of eligible patients in each clinic (13-75) and state (23-588). Based on administrative claims, TCD clinic-level completion rates at baseline ranged from 41.7% to 69.2% at individual clinics. After 12 months of QI participation, TCD completion rates improved at all sites (range 4.6% to 29.2%). The site with the largest change improved TCD completion rate from 41.7% to 70.8% (n=24). All but one site had a decrease in TCD completion rate after completing the QI initiative and in 2019, TCD completion rates were within 10% of baseline completion rates at all sites (range -8.2% to 8.3%). At the statewide level, one state had a sustained improvement in TCD completion (improvement from baseline: 8.8%). In three of the four states providing data, TCD completion rates decreased from baseline (range -0.7% to -12.6%). Discussion: In a regional collaborative, we found improvements in TCD completion in the setting of a QI initiative focused on TCD, which were not sustained in the year after. This suggests the need for a systems-level approach to improvement, leading to feasible sustainability when no longer the focus of a collaborative. In addition, our data show that, when using administrative claims, rates of TCD completion are lower than rates when using chart review data (41.7% to 69.2% vs. 85% by chart review noted in prior publication). Thus, while site-specific medical record review provides insight into the quality of care for patients seen in the clinic, administrative claims data allow for a global understanding of the quality of care for the clinic population at risk, including those who do not attend clinic regularly. This suggests additional potential focus for quality improvement initiatives, such as systems to optimize outreach to patients who may not routinely access care. This type of outreach may best be done by health plans, potentially in partnership with sickle cell specialists, and would be an important tool for improving health for children with SCD. Disclosures Vissa: Global Blood Therapeutics Inc: Research Funding. Treadwell: National Alliance of Sickle Cell Centers: Other: Early Evaluation of the Use of Crizanlizumab in Sickle Cell Disease.

Faces of all clinically engaged staff: a quality improvement project that enhances the hospitalised patient experience

2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (11) ◽  
pp. 923-929 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael I. Brener ◽  
Jeremy A. Epstein ◽  
Jeremy Cho ◽  
Hsin-Chieh Yeh ◽  
Robert A. Dudas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Patient Experience ◽  
Quality Improvement Project ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Hospitalised Patient

Poster 495 Patient Experience in an Outpatient Pain Clinic: A Plan-Do-Study-Act Quality Improvement Project

PM&R ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. S321
Author(s):  
Larry B. Guinto ◽  
Giuseppe Amore ◽  
Ashish Khanna ◽  
Laurentiu I. Dinescu
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Patient Experience ◽  
Quality Improvement Project ◽  
Pain Clinic ◽  
Improvement Project
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