Quality Improvement Commons^™

Development Of A Continous Renal Replacement Therapy Protocol For A Midsize Community Hospital, Srinidhi Shyamkumar, Eric Riha, Crystal Ike, Rachel Wright, D Villareal, Justin Shanks, Damon Cao

Gulf Coast Division GME Research Day 2025

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Exploration Of Barriers, Facilitators And Best Practices For Implementing Environmental Sustainability Standards And Reducing Food Waste In Veterans Affairs Hospitals, Bethany D Williams, Stephanie Jilcott Pitts, Stephen J Onufrak, Emma Sirois, Anne Utech, Michelle Wood, Jessi Silverman, Funke Ajenikoko, Meghan Murphy, Amy Lowry Warnock

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: To improve the healthfulness of foods offered while accelerating the use of environmental sustainability practices, it is important to engage hospital food service operators in the adoption of such practices. The purpose of this study was to explore barriers, facilitators and best practices for implementing environmental sustainability standards in food service among veterans affairs (VA) hospitals in the United States.

METHODS: We conducted an online survey with 14 VA hospital food service directors and then 11 qualitative interviews. The survey assessed motivations for initiating sustainability standards and included a self-rating of implementation for each of five standards: increasing plant-forward …

Enhancing Patient Safety: The Role Of Interdisciplinary Teams In Reducing Blood Culture Contamination, Austin Patrick Eisenberg, Fady M. Awad, Brian Watson, Mohammed Faris

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Background

Blood cultures are vital to diagnostic workups among many hospitalized patients, providing valuable information about bloodstream infections (BSIs), which cause roughly 250 000 deaths annually between North America and Europe. Despite advances in health care, blood culture contamination remains a substantial problem, with deleterious effects on patient mortality, patient and hospital costs, and microbial resistance. This article reviews the repercussions of blood culture contamination on the health care system and delineates evidence-based strategies to decrease contamination rates.

Methods

To reduce blood culture contamination rates, our health care facility undertook a quality improvement initiative. A task force was created, consisting …

Assessing The State Of Obesity Care: Quality, Access, Guidelines, And Standards, Lee M Kaplan, Caroline M Apovian, Jamy D Ard, David B Allison, Louis J Aronne, Rachel L Batterham, Luca Busetto, Dror Dicker, Deborah B Horn, Aaron S Kelly, Jeffrey I Mechanick, Jonathan Q Purnell, Ximena Ramos-Salas, Assessing The State Of Obesity Care Writing Group

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: An international panel of obesity medicine experts from multiple professional organizations examined patterns of obesity care and current obesity treatment guidelines to identify areas requiring updating in response to emerging science and clinical evidence.

AIMS: The panel focused on multiple medical health and societal issues influencing effective treatment of obesity and identified several unmet needs in the definition, assessment, and care of obesity.

METHODS: The panel was held in Leesburg, Virginia in September 2019.

RESULTS: The panelists recommended addressing these unmet needs in obesity medicine through research, education, evaluation of delivery and payment of care, and updating clinical practice …

Development And Implementation Of A Digital Quality Measure Of Emergency Cancer Diagnosis, Paarth Kapadia, Andrew J Zimolzak, Divvy K Upadhyay, Saritha Korukonda, Riyaa Murugaesh Rekha, Umair Mushtaq, Usman Mir, Daniel R Murphy, Alexis Offner, Gary A Abel, Georgios Lyratzopoulos, Luke T A Mounce, Hardeep Singh

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

PURPOSE: Missed and delayed cancer diagnoses are common, harmful, and often preventable. Automated measures of quality of cancer diagnosis are lacking but could identify gaps and guide interventions. We developed and implemented a digital quality measure (dQM) of cancer emergency presentation (EP) using electronic health record databases of two health systems and characterized the measure's association with missed opportunities for diagnosis (MODs) and mortality.

METHODS: On the basis of literature and expert input, we defined EP as a new cancer diagnosis within 30 days after emergency department or inpatient visit. We identified EPs for lung cancer and colorectal cancer (CRC) …

Implementation Of Home Blood Pressure Monitoring, Sarah Gutzke

Dissertations

Approximately 48.1% of adults in the United States have high blood pressure. Providers may encourage patients to monitor and log their blood pressure at home. Still, patients often fail to bring this information to appointments, leading to reliance on less comprehensive in-office measurements. This quality improvement project aimed to increase adherence to home blood pressure logs using a Blood Pressure Toolkit. A descriptive, observational design was utilized to record patient adherence of taking home blood pressure measurements and increase the number of patients who brought their blood pressure logs to their healthcare provider visits over two months. A convenience sample …

Cva In Patient With Systemic Sclerosis On Aspirin Therapy: A Case Report, Rahyan Mahmud, Bianna Koutsenko, Kenneth Goich, Usaid Hasan

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Introduction

Systemic sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder characterized by microvascular damage and multiorgan fibrosis. These patients have a higher risk of cerebrovascular events, but it is difficult to develop strategies for prevention due to limited understanding of underlying pathophysiology.

Case Presentation

A 76-year-old female with a history of systemic sclerosis presented to the emergency department with acute onset slurred speech, facial droop, and left arm pain with a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Stroke Scale of 1. She was outside the thrombolytic window. Other history includes hypertension and hyperlipidemia; both were well controlled. MRI confirmed right frontal lobe ischemic stroke …

" Does Educational Level Affect The Outcome Of Myocardial Infarction? ", Ahmed Magdy Ahmed Elsayed

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Heath awareness plays a major role in determining the outcomes of serious medical conditions specially when response time is crucial. STEMI patients are prone to serious compilations if they didn’t receive the appropriate treatment on time. Raising the health awareness of the community would result in seeking medical help at earlier stage of the disease. Earlier presentation to the medical center would result in better health outcomes. Certain factors form the health awareness of the community. This includes educational level, previous exposure to similar situations, and exposure to health awareness materials.

Methods: This is a cohort study in …

Effectiveness Of Antibiotic Stewardship For Healthcare Providers At Urgent Care Clinics, Helen T. Adewole

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Antibiotics have revolutionized modern medicine; however, the overuse in urgent care and primary care significantly contributes to the global burden of infections resistant to available antimicrobial medicines. Approximately 30% of the antimicrobials prescribed in acute care settings are unnecessary. Patient demand for antibiotics has seemingly skyrocketed following the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Practitioners must be knowledgeable about antibiotic stewardship initiatives, such as the wait-and-see approach, to reduce antibiotic overuse and improve the trajectory of antibiotic resistance and patient health outcomes. The gap in practice was the limited awareness of scientific evidence-based tools to partner with patients and improve antibiotic prescription patterns. …

De-Implementation Of Fecal Occult Blood Testing In The Emergency Department And Hospital Units: A Quality Improvement Project, Adewale Ajumobi, Joline De Castro, Ammar Qureshi

Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives

Background: Fecal occult blood tests (FOBT) are inappropriately used in patients with melena, hematochezia, coffee ground emesis, iron deficiency anemia, and diarrhea. The use of FOBT for reasons other than screening for colorectal cancer is considered low-value and unnecessary. Methods: Quality Improvement Project that utilized education, Best Practice Advisory (BPA) and modification of order sets in the electronic health record (EHR). The interventions were done in a sequential order based on the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) method. An annotated run chart was used to analyze the collected data. Results: Education and Best Practice Advisory within the EHR led to significant reduction in …

Identity: Inpatient Dialogue And Engagement With Nurses To Improve Team Dynamics, Anna Maria Abi Nehme, Ashley Becker, Raheeq Mohamedsaleh, Shin Zaw, Vigneshwar K. Ramasamy, Raj Shah, Victoria Odeleye, Jorge Restrepo, Ashwini Komarla

North Florida Division GME Research Day 2024

No abstract provided.

Improving Depression Screening In Primary Care By Implementing A Systematic Annual Screening Protocol: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Trang Nguyen, Ian Whitaker, Danny Tran, Aidan Lum Kong, Nan Crossley

South Atlantic Division GME Research Day 2024

No abstract provided.

Early Implementation Of Chf Orders And Physician Education​, Qazi Haider, Tapannita Padhi, Hunter Thornberg, Barry Brown, Alexandra Villacres, Justin Roy P. Sanchez, Ashley Henderson

North Texas GME Research Forum 2024

Each year, 700,000 patients are hospitalized with acute decompensated congestive heart failure. In order to effectively treat these patients, they require delicate management of volume status. Measuring volume status incorporates the following components: recording strict inputs and outputs of urine/fluids, recording daily standing weights and fluid restriction. This project focused on recording daily weights as a measure of accurate volume status and how that affected length of hospital stay. Data will be gathered by patient chart review including patient's admitted from Jan 2023 -Jan 2024 at Medical City Weatherford admitted with a primary/admitting diagnosis of congestive heart failure. Using PDSA …

Increasing Online Reviews And New Patients In Clinic With Qr Codes, Tristan Fun, Danielle Ford

North Texas GME Research Forum 2024

Introduction: Patient census at the Medical City Internal Medicine Grand Prairie clinic has been lower comparatively to other HCA Healthcare clinics. Although the cause can be multifaceted, the clinic’s online presence (e.g. Google Maps) is minimal. One initial issue with the clinic’s online presence was the lack of reviews on the Google page for the clinic. One way to increase online reviews is to provide Quick Response (QR) codes in the clinic for patients to scan on their smartphone. The goal of this project is to increase the number of Google reviews for the clinic through QR codes to at …

Discharge Implementation Project: Ascertaining If Discharge Implementation Orders Overall Improves Discharge Metrics At A Texas Hospital, Zachary Paras, Omar Nawab, Komthorn Cunvong, Jackson V. Littlejohn, Sathish Karmegam

North Texas GME Research Forum 2024

There are several factors preventing discharges out of the hospital within 24 hours that ultimately affects metrics for both hospital systems and physicians. These factors include pending labs, imaging, or procedures; pending placement approval at a facility outside of the hospital upon discharge; notification of family and caretakers; secured funding for devices and medicines; and others. In an attempt to mitigate preventable extra days spent in the hospital once a patient is medically ready for discharge, a Texas hospital implemented a discharge order set for providers to utilize that informs all involved parties including case management, PT/OT, social work, nurses, …

The Impact Of Tamsulosin And Duration In Catheter-Associated Uti (Cauti) At Weatherford, Feeza Hasan, Diana Steedley, Maria Guerrero, Muhammad Siddique

North Texas GME Research Forum 2024

Among Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) acquired in the hospital, approximately 75% are associated with a urinary catheter, which is a tube inserted into the bladder through the urethra to drain urine. Between 15-25% of hospitalized patients receive urinary catheters during their hospital stay. A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection involving any part of the urinary system, including urethra, bladder, ureters, and kidney. UTIs are the most common type of healthcare-associated infection reported to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). The most important risk factor for developing a CAUTI is prolonged use of the urinary catheter. Therefore, catheters …

Improvement Of Diabetes Mellitus Management In A Resident-Run Clinic By Using Continuous Glucose Monitoring (Cgm), Janet Tam, Nathan Holt, Rakahn Haddadin, Ranier Rivera, Yasra Badi, Esar Dini, Andrey E. Manov

Far West Division GME Research Day 2024

No abstract provided.

Successful Implementation Of Pulmonary Embolism Response Team At Oak Hill Hospital, Shaikh Afaq, Michael Cox, Jaafar Hamdan, Hayder Abidali

West Florida Division GME Research Day 2024

No abstract provided.

Improving The Screening For Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm At Grand Prairie Internal Medicine Clinic ​, Riddhi H. Patel, Danielle Ford

North Texas GME Research Forum 2024

Introduction: An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is typically defined as aortic enlargement with a diameter of 3.0 cm or larger. The prevalence of AAA has declined over the past 2 decades among screened men 65 years or older in various European countries. The current prevalence of AAA in the United States is unclear because of the low uptake of screening. This QI project will involve MCA residents and Grand Prairie clinic attending to incorporate screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm guidelines used by USPSTF and attempt to encourage all our established and new patients who fit into the criteria for …

Enhancing Interprofessional Communication: Strategies For Nurses And Residents At Hca Florida Osceola Hospital, Juan Thomas Del Calvo, Mehuliben Upadhyaya, Sathvik Saineni, Minh Anh Le, Awss Shalhoub, Nima Hosseinian, Ashwini Komarla, Olga Karasik

North Florida Division GME Research Day 2024

No abstract provided.

Improving The Blood Product Administration Process At Hcaflorida Osceola Hospital, Neha Meda, Kar Shun Constant Mak, Parasto Asnaashari, Natalia Irina Tejada, Joshua Sutarwan, Olga Karasik, Sarah Tinsley

North Florida Division GME Research Day 2024

No abstract provided.

Outpatient Fall Prevention In Ambulatory Adults 65 Years Old And Over, Dorothy L. Osborne-White

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Background: In the United States (U.S.), falls are the leading cause of injury among adults 65 and over, resulting in 36 million falls yearly (Moreland et al., 2020). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2023), one in four older adults experiences a fall each year. Falls are the world's second most prominent cause of accidental deaths (World Health Organization [WHO], 2021). Falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries among older adults (Moreland et al., 2020).

Methods: A quality improvement project that included a fall bundle was implemented in a primary clinic. A …

Developing Toolkit For Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder In An Oncology Outpatient Clinic, Brittany J. Johnson Dnp, Fnp-C

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Autistic adults are at higher risk of being diagnosed with co-occurring health conditions, and yet they are a vulnerable group for disparities in access and outcomes. One of the key barriers to better outcomes is poor patient-provider communication. This study the use of AASPIRE’s AHAT communication toolkit as a channel between healthcare workers and autistic adults to facilitate their appointments within the outpatient oncology department, as well as assessing healthcare providers’ knowledge and self-efficacy in caring for the patients. Sixteen healthcare providers (12 registered nurses and four patient care assistants) completed pre and post intervention surveys and utilized the AHAT …

Screen It Out! Improving Colon Cancer Screening Among Kingwood Clinic Patients, Daniel J. Avila Castillo, Bhavin Patel, Dhruv Patel, Rajeev Raghavan, Zuhair Ali

Gulf Coast Division GME Research Symposium 2024

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Breast Cancer Screening In Kims Clinic: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Daniel J. Avila Castillo, Crystal Ike, Mina Choudhry

Gulf Coast Division GME Research Symposium 2024

No abstract provided.

Artificial Intelligence Response To Common Medication Concerns With Heart Failure Gdmt In Outpatient Setting, Dominique Pean, Laaraeb Nadeem, Suhas Kandimalla, Brotee Rahman

Gulf Coast Division GME Research Symposium 2024

No abstract provided.

Reducing Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Use By Appropriately Treating Community Acquired Pneumonia, Caleb I. Nieves-Velez, Richard Pieri, Miki Otta

Central & West Texas GME Research Day 2024

No abstract provided.

Victory Out Of Tragedy: Organ Donation, Ali Salim, Bryan A Cotton

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Major improvements in trauma care during the last decade have improved survival rates in the severely injured. The unintended consequence is the presentation of patients with non-survivable injuries in a time frame in which intervention is considered and often employed due to prognostic uncertainty. In light of this, discerning survivability in these patients remains increasingly problematic. Evidence-based cut-points of futility can guide early decisions for discontinuing aggressive treatment and use of precious resources in severely injured patients arriving in extremis.

Clinical Practice Implementation To Address Ascvd Risk: A Practice Change In Primary Care, Elizabeth Wooten

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Heart disease stands as the leading cause of mortality in the United States. While healthcare providers strive to identify and optimize prevention strategies, particularly in high-risk patient populations, notable gaps in care persist, notably in the management of modifiable risk factors such as low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL). By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) integrated software within clinical settings, we can revolutionize the landscape of this devastating chronic disease.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: In Primary Care Advanced Practice Providers (APP) caring for high-risk and/or very high-risk patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) …

Exploration Of Burnout, Emotional Thriving, And Emotional Recovery In An Academic Medical Center: A Mixed Methods Quality Improvement Project, Roxana Naderi, Katherine T. Morrison, Zuzanna Czernik, James E. Carter Jr, Katherine N. Dickerman, Alexandra Gallant, Lara Kirkbride-Romeo, Lauren Mcbeth, Angela Keniston, Kristin M. Jensen

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Healthcare provider burnout, an indicator of wellbeing, impacts patient safety, provider distress, and employee turnover. In this mixed methods, multi-site quality improvement study conductedpandemic, we assessed employee wellbeing in a large clinical department.

Methods: Wellbeing surveys were sent electronically to Department of Medicine clinicians, researchers, administrators, and staff from August-September 2019 assessing perceptions of Burnout, Emotional Thriving (ET), and Emotional Recovery (ER). Qualitative responses were reviewed for themes using mixed inductive-deductive analysis. The initial coding was done by small teams with consensus obtained through large group discussions. This study was IRB-approved as non-human subjects research.

Results: Of the 671 …