Reducing Wasted Time Prior To Starting Thoracic Surgical Operations.

To design and implement multidisciplinary interventions to decrease the interval between when a patient entered the operating room and when skin incision was made during thoracic surgical operations. Thirty-eight steps that occurred during the pre-incision time were identified during meetings with surgery, anesthesia, and nursing teams. Using a critical path method and Pareto analysis, standardization of intubation and positioning techniques as well as establishing strict guidelines to avoid unnecessary urinary catheter and arterial line placement were identified as high-value interventions.

Reducing Opioid Mortality in Illinois (ROMI): A case management/peer recovery coaching critical time intervention clinical trial protocol.

Individuals with a history of opioid use are disproportionately represented in Illinois jails and prisons and face high risks of overdose and relapse at community reentry. Case management and peer recovery coaching are established interventions that may be leveraged to improve linkage to substance use treatment and supportive services during these critical periods of transition. We present the protocol for the Reducing Opioid Mortality in Illinois (ROMI), a type I hybrid effectiveness-implementation randomized trial of a case management, peer recovery coaching and overdose education and naloxone distribution (CM/PRC + OEND) critical time intervention (CTI) compared to OEND alone.

Collegiate-based emergency medical service: impact on alcohol-related emergency department transports at a small liberal arts college.

Objective: The authors examined the impact of a collegiate-based emergency medical service (CBEMS) on the frequency of emergency department (ED) transports.

Participants: Students transported to the ED for acute alcohol intoxication during the Fall 2008 and the Fall 2009 semesters (N = 50).

Methods: The frequency of students receiving transportation to a hospital ED and the reported blood alcohol content (BAC) levels during the initial operational semester of the CBEMS were compared to those values over the same time period the previous year.