Addressing Transportation Insecurity Improves Attendance at Posthospitalization Appointments

BACKGROUND: Transportation influences attendance at posthospitalization appointments (PHAs). In 2017, our pediatric hospital medicine group found that our patients missed 38% of their scheduled PHAs, with several being due to transportation insecurity. To address this, we implemented a quality improvement project to perform inpatient assessment of transportation insecurity and provide mitigation with the goal of improving attendance at PHAs. METHODS: The process measure was the percentage of patients with completed transportation insecurity screening, and the outcome measure was PHA attendance. An interprofessional team performed plan-do-study-act cycles. These included educating staff about the significance of transportation insecurity, its assessment, and documentation; embedding a list of local transportation resources in discharge instructions and coaching families on using these resources; notifying primary care providers of families with transportation insecurity; and auditing PHA attendance. RESULTS: Between July 2018 and December 2019, electronic health record documentation of transportation insecurity assessment among patients on the pediatric hospital medicine service and discharged from the hospital (n = 1731) increased from 1% to 94%, families identified with transportation insecurity increased from 1.2% to 5%, and attendance at PHAs improved for all patients (62%–81%) and for those with transportation insecurity (0%–57%). Our balance measure, proportion of discharges by 2 pm, remained steady at 53%. Plan-do-study-act cycles revealed that emphasizing PHA importance, educating staff about transportation insecurity, and helping families identify and learn to use transportation resources all contributed to improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions implemented during the inpatient stay to assess for and mitigate transportation insecurity led to improvement in pediatric PHA attendance.

Retrospective evaluation of patients with and without 14-day readmissions following hospitalization for COVID-19

Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 must have a safe discharge plan to prevent readmissions. We assessed patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospitals belonging to a single health system between April 2020 and June 2020. Demographics, vitals and laboratory data were obtained by electronic data query and discharge processes were reviewed by manual abstraction. Over the study period, 94 out of 912 (10.3%) patients were readmitted within 14 days of discharge. Readmitted patients were older and spent more time in the intensive care unit (p<0.01). Statistical differences were noted in discharge-day heart rates, temperatures, platelet counts, and neutrophil and lymphocyte percentages between the readmitted and non-readmitted groups. Readmitted patients were less likely to be discharged home and to receive complete discharge instructions or home oxygen (p<0.01). Age, duration of intensive care unit stay, disposition destinations other than home, incomplete discharge planning and no arrangement for home oxygen may be associated with 14-day readmissions in patients with COVID-19. Certain clinical parameters on discharge day, while statistically different, may not reach clinically discriminant thresholds. Structured discharge processes may improve outcomes.

20 Adolescent and caregiver perspectives on living with a limb fracture: A qualitative study

Primary Subject area Emergency Medicine - Paediatric Background Fractures occur in up to half of children by age 16 years. After initial emergency care for a fracture, function is universally impaired in children, and impacts extend to the immediate family. Knowledge of expected functional limitations is key to providing proper discharge instructions and anticipatory guidance to families. Objectives Our study objectives were to understand: 1) how adolescents (12-17 years) describe the functional impact of fractures on their lives; 2) how adolescents’ reports of their experiences compare to those of their caregivers; and 3) the impact of the fracture on the family unit. Design/Methods We conducted individual, semi-structured interviews from June 2019 to November 2020 with adolescents and their caregivers, 7-14 days following their initial visit to a pediatric emergency department. We utilized qualitative content analysis methodology. Recruitment proceeded until thematic saturation was achieved. Coding and analysis were concurrent with recruitment and interviews. A secondary coder reviewed 40% of the transcripts, and the coding team met regularly to discuss the coding framework and key themes. The interview script was modified in an iterative process, to reflect emerging themes. Results We completed a total of 29 interviews. The most commonly affected functions were: a) showering and hygiene (which required the most caregiver support); b) sleep variability (due to pain and cast-related discomfort); and c) exclusion from sports/activities. Many adolescents experienced disruptions to social activities and gatherings. Adolescents valued independence and often chose to take more time to complete a task to preserve this, regardless of inconvenience. Both adolescents and caregivers reported feelings of frustration as a result of day-to-day impacts imposed by the injury. Generally, caregivers’ perspectives were in keeping with the experiences that adolescents described for themselves. Notable family impacts included what we described as ‘sibling burden’ or conflicts that arose when a sibling had to take on extra chores/tasks. Conclusion These themes highlight an opportunity to better tailor discharge instructions for adolescents with fractures. Key messages include: 1) expect pain and impaired sleep, especially in the first few days; 2) allow extra time to complete tasks independently, especially for grooming and hygiene; 3) consider family impact, especially sibling burden; 4) prepare for changes in activities and social dynamics; and 5) frustration is normal, for both adolescents and caregivers. Future work can focus on developing a novel, family-informed tool to assess functional outcomes following injury.

Empowering patients: simplifying discharge instructions

Patients who do not have enough information about their discharge plans have decreased treatment compliance, decreased patient safety, increased emergency department (ED) recidivism, and poor satisfaction. This project aimed to develop and implement a method to assess and improve patient understanding of treatment and discharge plan in the ED. The authors developed a questionnaire to assess patient knowledge using Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Joint Commission recommendations, areas of communication deficits reported in other manuscripts, and ED staff and provider input. Responses from patient interviews were then scored against the medical record. Three trained scorers graded all responses, and inter-rater reliability was calculated using the kappa statistic.Baseline observations found that written discharge instructions were long and tedious, and important information was difficult to find. Based on initial patient scores, stakeholder interviews, and fishbone diagrams, the team developed a one-page simplified information page (SIP) targeted to inform patients their most relevant discharge instructions. Next, the SIP was tested on 118 patients to measure its effect on patient understanding. At the baseline study, no patients had complete understanding of their discharge instructions. The areas of lowest scores were medication instructions and indications to return to the ED. Implementation of the SIP resulted in statistically significant changes in score distribution across all questions assessed with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Interrater reliability between scorers was high (kappa=0.84). We incorporated the concept of the SIP to the cover page of our standard discharge instructions.Healthcare providers often spend valuable time educating their patients, and it is important to assess the effectiveness of this teaching to identify areas in which we may improve health literacy and patient understanding. This project has shown that a simple, easy-to-read, concise page developed with patient input significantly improved ED discharge instruction knowledge.

An Automated Tobacco Cessation Intervention for Emergency Department Discharged Patients

Introduction: Nearly 14% of US adults currently smoke cigarettes. Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. Emergency department (ED) patients are frequently asked for their use of tobacco. Manual selection of pre-formed discharge instructions is the norm for most ED. Providing tobacco cessation discharge instructions to ED patients presents another avenue to combat the tobacco use epidemic we face. The objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an automated discharge instruction system in increasing the frequency of discharging current tobacco users with instructions for tobacco cessation. Methods: The study was done at an urban academic tertiary care center. A before and after study was used to test the hypothesis that use of an automated discharged instruction system would increase the frequency that patients who use tobacco were discharged with tobacco cessation instructions. Patients that were admitted, left against medical advice, eloped or left without being seen were excluded. The before phase was from 09/21/14-10/21/14 and the after phase was from the same dates one year later, 09/21/15-10/21/15. This was done to account for confounding by time of year, ED volume and other factors. A Fisher’s Exact Test was calculated to compare these two groups. Results: Tobacco cessation DC instructions were received 2/486 (0.4%) of tobacco users in the pre-implementation period compared to 357/371 (96%) in the post-implementation period (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The automated discharge instructions system increases the proportion of tobacco users who receive cessation instructions. Given the public health ramifications of tobacco use, this could prove to be a significant piece in decreasing tobacco use in patients who go to the emergency department.