The Johns Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool: A Study of Reliability and Validity.

Patient falls and fall-related injury remain a safety concern. The Johns Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool (JHFRAT) was developed to facilitate early detection of risk for anticipated physiologic falls in adult inpatients. Psychometric properties in acute care settings have not yet been fully established; this study sought to fill that gap.

Use of the ABC care bundle to standardize guideline implementation in a cardiac surgical population: a pilot study.

A cardiac surgical progressive care unit implemented the ABC's of Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Care Bundle to determine whether the use of a packaged approach to medication prescription and lifestyle counseling would improve adherence to secondary risk-reduction guidelines in postcoronary artery bypass graft patients. A pilot study was carried out to assess changes in adherence to guideline recommendations post-Care Bundle implementation. Findings support using a systematic strategy to improve guideline adherence in this population.

Critical pathway effectiveness: assessing the impact of patient, hospital care, and pathway characteristics using qualitative comparative analysis.

Objective: To qualitatively describe patient, hospital care, and critical pathway characteristics that may be associated with pathway effectiveness in reducing length of stay.

Data Sources/study Setting: Administrative data and review of pathway documentation and a sample of medical records for each of 26 surgical critical pathways in a tertiary care center's department of surgery, 1988-1998.

Study Design: Retrospective qualitative study.

Pain experienced by laparoscopic donor nephrectomy patients in an academic medical setting.

Context: Since 1996, 414 laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy procedures have been completed at our institution. Although this procedure has gained acceptance within the past 5 years, little is known about its nursing implications.

Objective: The purpose of this performance improvement project was to identify pain management practices, satisfaction levels, and clinical outcomes among patients undergoing laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy.

Are critical pathways effective for reducing postoperative length of stay?

Background: Many hospitals use critical pathways to attempt to reduce postoperative length of stay (PLOS) for diverse conditions and procedures.

Objective: To evaluate whether critical pathways were associated with reductions in postoperative PLOS after accounting for prepathway trends in PLOS.

Research Design: Retrospective cohort study, from 1988 to 1998.