Reducing Tracheostomy-Related Pressure Injuries.

An interprofessional team was established to prevent tracheostomy-related acquired pressure injuries. The team performed an in-depth analysis of practice from tracheostomy insertion through postinsertion care. A literature evaluation identified best practices, and a root cause analysis for all tracheostomy-related pressure injury cases identified common causes.

Evaluation of User-Interface Alert Displays for Clinical Decision Support Systems for Sepsis.

Background: Hospitals are increasingly turning to clinical decision support systems for sepsis, a life-threatening illness, to provide patient-specific assessments and recommendations to aid in evidence-based clinical decision-making. Lack of guidelines on how to present alerts has impeded optimization of alerts, specifically, effective ways to differentiate alerts while highlighting important pieces of information to create a universal standard for health care providers.

Objective: To gain insight into clinical decision support systems-based alerts, specifically targeting nursing interventions for sepsis, with a focus on behaviors associated with and perceptions of alerts, as well as visual preferences.

Hourly rounding and patient falls: what factors boost success?

Background: Falls are a persistent problem in all healthcare settings, with rates in acute care hospitals ranging from 1.3 to 8.9 falls per 1,000 inpatient days, about 30% resulting in serious injury.

Do patients accurately perceive their fall risk?

Background: In U.S. hospitals, from 700,000 to 1 million inpatients fall each year.

Emergency department tachypnea predicts transfer to a higher level of care in the first 24 hours after ED admission.

Objectives: The authors hypothesized that vital sign abnormalities detected in the emergency department (ED) can be used to forecast clinical deterioration occurring within 24 hours of hospital admission.

Methods: This was a retrospective case-control study performed after implementation of a hospitalwide rapid response team (RRT) system. Inclusion criteria for study patients consisted of age > or = 18 years, admission to the general floor though the ED, and RRT activation and subsequent transfer to a higher level of care in the first 24 hours.

Improving handoff communication.

By improving our process, we enhanced patient care and made handoff communication more effective.