Publications by authors named "Dukes K"

Introduction: Hospitalizations present an opportunity to initiate naltrexone for patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Understanding factors associated with post-hospitalization adherence could inform practice.

Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of a clinical trial in which patients with AUD were randomized to oral (PO) versus long-acting injectable (LAI) naltrexone at hospital discharge.

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  • - The study examines antibiotic overuse in walk-in clinics, focusing on the effectiveness of a specific metric that tracks antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract diagnoses (RTDs) while excluding complicating factors.
  • - Data from 331,496 clinic visits between 2018-2022 revealed that 36.5% met RTD criteria, with 36.7% of those receiving antibiotics; factors like patient age and comorbidities influenced prescribing rates.
  • - Provider interviews indicated that the RTD metric is acceptable for assessing antibiotic prescribing practices, suggesting it has validity, but further research is needed to evaluate its effectiveness as a feedback tool.
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  • - The study examines the value and potential harms of ordering preoperative urine cultures, particularly in non-urological surgeries, by interviewing a diverse group of medical professionals at Veterans Affairs hospitals.
  • - Key findings show that surgeons are anxious about missing signs of infection and perceive risks associated with not conducting urine cultures, which complicates the potential for changing these practices.
  • - Suggestions for improving acceptance of de-implementing urine cultures include leadership support and engagement from peers to counteract concerns about perceived risks.
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Importance: Survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) varies widely across emergency medical service (EMS) agencies in the US. However, little is known about which EMS practices are associated with higher agency-level survival.

Objective: To identify resuscitation practices associated with favorable neurological survival for OHCA at EMS agencies.

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Background: A substantial proportion of patients undergoing hemodialysis carry in their noses, and carriers are at increased risk of bloodstream infections. Our pragmatic clinical trial implemented nasal povidone-iodine (PVI) decolonization for the prevention of bloodstream infections in the novel setting of hemodialysis units.

Objective: We aimed to identify pragmatic strategies for implementing PVI decolonization among patients in outpatient hemodialysis units.

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Individual-level assessment of health and well-being permits analysis of community well-being and health risk evaluations across several dimensions of health. It also enables comparison and rankings of reported health and well-being for large geographical areas such as states, metropolitan areas, and counties. However, there is large variation in reported well-being within such large spatial units underscoring the importance of analyzing well-being at more granular levels, such as ZIP codes.

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  • The study aims to develop better methods for assessing health inequity by examining racial, occupational, and rural disparities at the county level during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Researchers used a phased approach, analyzing data from rural counties with high COVID-19 rates and comparing them with similar control counties within the same state, focusing on the first six months of the pandemic.
  • Findings revealed that disparities were significantly linked to structural factors such as economic conditions and healthcare infrastructure, highlighting the need for comprehensive multivariable modeling to address health inequity effectively.
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Objectives: For patients requiring transfer to a higher level of care, excellent interfacility communication is essential. Our objective was to characterize verbal handoffs for urgent interfacility transfers of children to the PICU and compare these characteristics with known elements of high-quality intrahospital shift-to-shift handoffs.

Design: Mixed methods retrospective study of audio-recorded referral calls between referring clinicians and receiving PICU physicians for urgent interfacility PICU transfers.

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Objectives: To understand patients' experiences with diabetes care during the COVID-19 pandemic, with an emphasis on rural, medically underserved, and/or minoritised racial and ethnic groups in the Midwestern USA.

Design: Community-engaged, semi-structured interviews were conducted by medical student researchers trained in qualitative interviewing. Transcripts were prepared and coded in the language in which the interview was conducted (English or Spanish).

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Importance: Although recent guidelines recommend against performance of preoperative urine culture before nongenitourinary surgery, many clinicians still order preoperative urine cultures and prescribe antibiotics for treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in an effort to reduce infection risk.

Objective: To assess the association between preoperative urine culture testing and postoperative urinary tract infection (UTI) or surgical site infection (SSI), independent of baseline patient characteristics or type of surgery.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study analyzed surgical procedures performed from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019, at any of 112 US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers.

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Clinical guidelines suggest that hospital antibiograms are a key component when deciding empiric therapy, but little is known about how often clinicians use antibiograms and how they influence clinicians' empiric therapy decisions. We surveyed hospitalists at seven healthcare systems in the United States on their reported practices related to antibiograms and their hypothetical prescribing for four clinical scenarios associated with gram-negative rod pathogens. Each was given a randomly assigned antibiogram susceptibility percentage, and we used contingent valuation analysis to assess whether the antibiogram susceptibility percentage was associated with prescribing practices.

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Purpose/aim: Improve content validity of the Ageism Scale for Dental Students (ASDS) and identify barriers to using the scale.

Methods: Thematic analysis of transcripts of three purposively sampled focus groups of 1) geriatric dentistry specialists, 2) older adult dental patients, and 3) dental students.

Results: Twenty-five participants engaged in focus groups.

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Public health studies routinely use simplistic methods to calculate proximity-based "access" to greenspace, such as by measuring distances to the geographic centroids of parks or, less frequently, to the perimeter of the park area. Although computationally efficient, these approaches oversimplify exposure measurement because parks often have specific entrance points. In this tutorial paper, we describe how researchers can instead calculate more-accurate access measures using freely available open-source methods.

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  • A novel survey was conducted among 577 emergency medical service (EMS) agencies in the U.S. to gather information on their response and quality improvement activities related to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).
  • Out of these agencies, 470 (81.5%) completed the survey, likely due to personalized outreach and incentives like a chance to win an automated external defibrillator.
  • The survey aimed to identify best practices and obstacles in OHCA responses, linking this data to the Cardiac Arrest Registry to enhance understanding of survival rates and disparities in outcomes across different EMS agencies.
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Importance: Black and Hispanic patients are less likely to survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) than White patients. Given the central importance of emergency medical service (EMS) agencies in prehospital care, a better understanding of OHCA survival at EMS agencies that work in Black and Hispanic communities and White communities is needed to address OHCA disparities.

Objective: To examine whether EMS agencies serving catchment areas with primarily Black and Hispanic populations (Black and Hispanic catchment areas) have different rates of OHCA survival than agencies serving catchment areas with primarily White populations (White catchment areas).

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  • * A study involving 30 hospital staff from 6 different hospitals revealed that the complexity of these bundles and varying barriers across departments hindered successful implementation.
  • * Effective interprofessional collaboration and tailored strategies are essential for overcoming these challenges and improving the adoption and sustainability of SSI prevention practices.
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Background: Healthcare personnel (HCP) may encounter unfamiliar personal protective equipment (PPE) during clinical duties, yet we know little about their doffing strategies in such situations.

Objective: To better understand how HCP navigate encounters with unfamiliar PPE and the factors that influence their doffing strategies.

Setting: The study was conducted at 2 Midwestern academic hospitals.

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Unlabelled: As part of a multicenter evidence-based intervention for surgical site infection prevention, a qualitative study was conducted with infection control teams and surgical staff members at three Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems in the USA. This study aimed to identify strategies used by nurses and other facility champions for the implementation of a nasal decolonization intervention. Site visit observations and field notes provided contextual information.

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Background: Empathic care is considered extremely important by patients and providers alike but there is still an ample need for assessing empathy among healthcare students and professionals and identifying appropriate educational interventions to improve it. This study aims to assess empathy levels and associated factors among students at different healthcare colleges at the University of Iowa.

Methods: An online survey was delivered to healthcare students, including nursing, pharmacy, dental, and medical colleges (IRB ID #202,003,636).

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Post-acute sequelae of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (PASC) is a complex condition with multisystem involvement. We assessed patients' experience with a PASC clinic established at University of Iowa in June 2020. A survey was electronically mailed in June 2021 asking about (1) symptoms and their impact on functional domains using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) measures (Global Health and Cognitive Function Abilities) (2) satisfaction with clinic services, referrals, barriers to care, and recommended support resources.

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Rapid Response Systems (RRS) improve patient outcomes at large medical centers. Little is known about how RRS are used in other medical settings. The purpose of this exploratory study was to describe RRS events at a long-term acute care hospital (LTACH).

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Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) is a poorly understood condition with significant impact on quality of life. We aimed to better understand the lived experiences of patients with PASC, focusing on the impact of cognitive complaints ("brain fog") and fatigue on (1) daily activities, (2) work/employment, and (3) interpersonal relationships. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 15 patients of a Midwestern academic hospital's post-COVID-19 clinic.

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Background: Placental abnormalities have been described in clinical convenience samples, with predominately adverse outcomes. Few studies have described placental patterns in unselected samples.

Objective: We aimed to investigate associations between co-occurring placental features and adverse pregnancy outcomes in a prospective cohort of singletons.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Out of 248 participants, the majority had severe AUD, but the study found no significant links between drug use and increased heavy drinking or differences in quality of life.
  • * The results suggest that cannabis and cocaine use may not impact heavy drinking or quality of life in hospital inpatients with AUD, prompting further research on these associations in individuals with less severe AUD and in longer-term studies.
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