Evaluation of an institutional project to improve venous thromboembolism prevention.

Background: Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) was historically a poor performer on the venous thromboembolism (VTE) outcome measure. As this measure has been shown to be flawed by surveillance bias, NMH embraced process-of-care measures to ensure appropriate VTE prophylaxis to assess healthcare-associated VTE prevention efforts.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of an institution-wide project aimed at improving hospital performance on VTE prophylaxis measures.

Development of a Novel Composite Process Measure for Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis.

Background: Postoperative venous thromboembolism (VTE) is important clinically, and VTE quality metrics are used in public reporting and pay-for-performance programs. However, current VTE outcome measures are not valid due to surveillance bias, and the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP-VTE-2) process measure only requires prophylaxis within 24 hours of surgery.

Objectives: We sought to (1) develop a novel measure of VTE prophylaxis that requires early ambulation, mechanical prophylaxis, and chemoprophylaxis throughout the hospitalization, and (2) compare hospital performance on the SCIP-VTE-2 process measure to this novel measure.

Busulfan dosing in children with BMIs ≥ 85% undergoing HSCT: a new optimal strategy.

Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. The prevalence of overweight and obese children has also increased in the pediatric cancer setting, causing substantial concern over proper chemotherapeutic dosing in this population. The purpose of this study was to determine if children with an increased body mass index (BMI) have an alteration in busulfan pharmacokinetics during hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) conditioning.