Random variation drives a critical bias in the comparison of healthcare-associated infections.

Objective: To evaluate random effects of volume (patient days or device days) on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and the standardized infection ratio (SIR) used to compare hospitals.

Design: A longitudinal comparison between publicly reported quarterly data (2014-2020) and volume-based random sampling using 4 HAI types: central-line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, infections, methicillin-resistant infections.

Methods: Using 4,268 hospitals with reported SIRs, we examined relationships of SIRs to volume and compared distributions of SIRs and numbers of reported HAIs to the outcomes of simulated random sampling.

Variation in the Reporting of Elective Surgeries and Its Influence on Patient Safety Indicators.

Background: US hospital safety is routinely measured via Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs). Receiving a score for most PSIs requires a minimum number of qualifying cases to meet specific criteria; for example, whether an admission was elective. Because admission type is determined by hospitals' internal policies, the study team suspected that hospitals may be exempted from elective-based PSI scores as a result of their internal admission classification policies.

An interactive tool to forecast US hospital needs in the coronavirus 2019 pandemic.

Objective: We developed an application (https://rush-covid19.herokuapp.com/) to aid US hospitals in planning their response to the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Substance Use Intervention Team: A Preliminary Analysis of a Population-level Strategy to Address the Opioid Crisis at an Academic Health Center.

Objective: In 2017, an academic health center in Chicago launched the multidisciplinary Substance Use Intervention Team (SUIT) to address opioid misuse across 18 inpatient units and in a new outpatient addiction medicine clinic. This report assesses the first 5 months of implementation and associations with patient health and healthcare utilization.

Methods: Patient demographic and screening data were extracted from the administrative data warehouse of the electronic health record (EHR) infrastructure.

Consumer Rankings and Health Care: Toward Validation and Transparency.

Background: Differences between the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-measured rates of safety events for Rush University Medical Center (RUMC; Chicago) and the U. S. News & World Report (USNWR)-deter mined patient safety score were evaluated in an attempt to validate the USNWR patient safety score-based ranking.

Comparison of FOLFIRI with or without cetuximab in patients with resected stage III colon cancer; NCCTG (Alliance) intergroup trial N0147.

Background: Two arms with FOLFIRI, with or without cetuximab, were initially included in the randomized phase III intergroup clinical trial NCCTG (North Central Cancer Treatment Group) N0147. When other contemporary trials demonstrated no benefit to using irinotecan as adjuvant therapy, the FOLFIRI-containing arms were discontinued. We report the clinical outcomes for patients randomized to FOLFIRI with or without cetuximab.

Effect of oxaliplatin, fluorouracil, and leucovorin with or without cetuximab on survival among patients with resected stage III colon cancer: a randomized trial.

Context: Leucovorin, fluorouracil, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) is the standard adjuvant therapy for resected stage III colon cancer. Adding cetuximab to FOLFOX benefits patients with metastatic wild-type KRAS but not mutated KRAS colon cancer.

Objective: To assess the potential benefit of cetuximab added to the modified sixth version of the FOLFOX regimen (mFOLFOX6) in patients with resected stage III wild-type KRAS colon cancer.