Becker's Hospital Review

50 CMO / CARE DELIVERY NYU Langone Health builds measles alerts in EHR By Mackenzie Garrity N ew York City-based NYU Langone Health installed measles alerts within its Epic EHR system to identify patients who are unvaccinated and those who have been potentially infected, according to Reuters. When a patient visits any NYU Langone Health hospital, the EHR system notifies the physician or nurse if the patient lives in an outbreak area, based on their zip code. e alerts in the patient's electronic record also prompt conversations to have with patient visitors, who may also have been exposed to the measles virus. NYU Langone Health treats patients in both Rockland County, N.Y., and Brooklyn, N.Y., the two epicenters of the outbreak. e goal of the measles alerts is to identify all incoming patients and anyone who steps foot into one of NYU Lan- gone Health's hospitals who need to be assessed to contain the worst U.S. measles outbreak in 25 years, Reuters reported. New York City-based Mount Sinai Health Sys- tem also instituted a similar program. e health system is not only raising awareness about iden- tifying patients but also hospital visitors who may have been exposed to the measles virus. Epic developed the alerts aer hospitals began requesting help to address the measles out- break, reported Reuters. e EHR vendor re- leased a how-to guide in April that incorporates many best ideas from other hospitals who are fighting the outbreak. In the guide, Epic instructs health systems on how to use EHRs to identify and reach out to patients who are unvaccinated, according to Re- uters. e guide also gives tips for physicians on how to screen, track and treat measles patients. Hospitals in Illinois, Texas and California are also using Epic's tools to combat the measles outbreak. Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health imple- mented a screening questionnaire to help iden- tify patients who may have been exposed to measles. e health system plans to use Epic's soware to build a program that increases mea- sles vaccination coverage, Jeffrey Silvers, MD, Sutter Health's medical director of infectious disease, told Reuters. n 'Eat, sleep and console' a boon for opioid-exposed newborns, study shows By Anuja Vaidya O pioid-exposed newborns responded well to a new quality im- provement approach called Eat, Sleep and Console, documented in Medical Xpress. Researchers detailed their findings at the 2019 meeting of Pediatric Aca- demic Societies taking place in Baltimore April 24 through May 1. Researchers tested the new approach in a hospital newborn intensive care unit. Their quality improvement process emphasized non-pharmacologic care, increasing family involvement and using morphine on an as-needed basis instead of tapered methadone. The changes in clinical practice were supplemented with educa- tion, charting tools and teaching moments on bedside rounds and during morning huddles. The study shows that during the pre-intervention period in 2017, 635 in- fants were admitted to the NICU, of which 11.2 percent had fetal opioid exposure. Nearly 65 percent of the infants were treated with methadone for neonatal abstinence with an average length of stay of 22.7 days. Between Jan. 1, 2018, and Oct. 31, 2018, the period during which the qual- ity improvement process was initiated, there were 50 infants admitted to the NICU with fetal opioid exposure. The length of stay decreased from a median of 21 days in the first quarter to 5.5 days in the third quarter of the study period. Additionally, medication to treat neonatal abstinence decreased from 75 percent in the first quarter to 27.8 percent in the third quarter. n USC's cardiovascular fellowship program to lose national accreditation By Mackenzie Bean T he cardiovascular fellowship program at Los Angeles-based Univer- sity of Southern California will lose its accreditation in 2020, reported the Los Angeles Times. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education notified USC in late April that it would revoke the medical school's accreditation next year. In an April 25 memo to staff members, Laura Mosqueda, MD, dean of USC's medical school, said ACGME's decision was based on outside ex- perts' concerns over "resident safety and wellness processes," according to the Los Angeles Times. In a rare move, ACGME also placed USC and LA County — which run the program together — on immediate probation, saying they "failed to demonstrate substantial compliance" with some requirements. The news comes a year after allegations surfaced that school officials failed to respond properly when a resident accused a fellow in the program of sexual assault. n

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