Becker's Hospital Review

30 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT Daily care team briefings cut hospital stays for lung disease patients By Anuja Vaidya H olding daily briefings where care teams can exchange informa- tion helped significantly reduce the length of a patient's stay, according to a study published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. Researchers examined lengths of stay for 1,683 chronic obstructive pul- monary disease patients at two community hospitals within the Cleve- land-based University Hospitals network. One hospital implemented daily integrated care conferences, where representatives from each faction of the patient's multidisciplinary care team met to discuss the patient's progress. The other hospital did not implement daily integrat- ed care conferences. The study found that the average length of stay for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients at the hospital with daily team briefings was 3.37 days versus 5.55 days in the hospital without them. At the hospital with daily team briefings, patients between the ages of 40 and 69 years had a hospital stay that was 67 percent shorter than patients in the same age range at the hospital. n Age bias influences 80-year-olds' heart attack care, study suggests By Mackenzie Bean A ge may subconsciously play a role in cardiologists' treatment deci- sions for heart attack patients, according to a study cited by STAT. The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed 2006-12 Medicare data for more than 9,000 heart attack patients hospi- talized two weeks before or after their 80th birthday, according to U.S. News and World Report. Researchers found 7 percent of patients nearing their 80th birthday received bypass surgery, compared to 5.3 percent of patients who just turned 80. This trend was only seen among patients nearing the mile- stone of 80. Researchers said these findings are an example of "left-digit bias," best demonstrated by the perception that $4.99 is cheaper than $5, even though the cost is nearly the same. The findings suggest that cardiologists subconsciously assume patients who are 80 are frailer and more at risk of surgical complications. "Studies like this are really to show physicians, 'Here's a common mistake or error that people make,'" study author Andrew Olenski, a PhD student at Columbia University in New York City, told STAT. "This is not to say, 'You should now be giving a lot more bypass surgeries to 80-year-olds than you would have." n Texas initiative to improve childbirth outcomes is working By Anuja Vaidya I n the summer of 2018, Texas hospitals united to improve childbirth safety in the state, and the initiative has led to significant changes in hospital protocols since, according to Houston Public Media. e Texas Hospital Association and Texas De- partment of State Health Services launched the initiative, TexasAIM, which today includes 218 of the 225 hospitals in the state. e initiative focuses on reducing obstetric hem- orrhage, improving obstetric care for women with opioid use disorder and reducing severe hyperten- sion in pregnancy. So far, the initiative has led to several changes in how hospitals care for women during childbirth. Jeny Ghartey, DO, maternal medical director at Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin, told Houston Public Media that the initiative has helped change how physicians screen for hem- orrhage. In the past, physicians "just estimated the blood loss at the time of delivery," she said. Now physicians measure exactly how much blood a woman has lost, even weighing any sponges soaked in blood. e initiative also has encouraged more open communication among hospitals. Leslie Barnard, RN, director of the family birth place unit at Permian Regional Medical Center in Andrews, told Houston Public Media that in the past when she had questions about improving care she could only get in touch with big hospitals in the state. But since Permian Regional only sees about 330 deliveries a year, advice from larger hospitals was somewhat useless for her team. Now, smaller hospitals and those in rural areas can share best practices via their participation in the initiative. TexasAIM also led to the creation of a central place for childbirth outcomes data, which has resulted in more hospitals conducting multidisci- plinary reviews to improve care, Manda Hall, MD, associate commissioner for community health improvement at the Texas Department of State Health Services, told Houston Public Media. n

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