Publications by authors named "Deborah Kahaku"
Purpose: A primary cause of hospital readmission is medication-related problems (MRPs). Polypharmacy patients taking multiple medications concurrently experience an increased likelihood of MRPs and high occurrence of readmissions to the hospital within 30 days. This study assessed the ability of a pharmacist-led transition of care program to decrease readmissions in polypharmacy patients by evaluating and rectifying MRPs.
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- Surgical site infections (SSIs) are a major issue in healthcare, causing increased morbidity, mortality, and costs.
- A study was conducted at a large urban medical center to evaluate the impact of home pre-operative surgical skin preparation (Nose-to-Toes or N2T) on SSI rates between 2019 and 2020.
- Results showed a significant reduction in SSIs post-N2T implementation, with rates dropping from 8.6% to 2.2% overall, indicating that the pre-operative skin preparation was effective in decreasing SSI occurrences.
Background: Delays in first cases contribute to multiple operating room (OR) inefficiencies and decreases in OR productivity.
Methods: Lean process improvement methods were used to redesign the existing workflow for elective first cases of the day in a large, urban, public hospital. First case start times were prospectively recorded from May 2, 2016 through December 29, 2017.