Provider-to-Provider Communication during Transitions of Care from Outpatient to Acute Care: A Systematic Review

Conditions and Co-production of Integrated Care for Patients with Multimorbidity

Introduction

People with multimorbidity can experience fragmented healthcare and burden of treatment and the evidence-base for integrated care in multimorbidity is weak. The aim of this study was to develop a model for integrated care for patients with multimorbidity: The Primary Organization and Relations-Team (PORT).

Description

The PORT prototype was formed using a co-production approach including workshops with healthcare professionals from hospital, general practice and municipalities, and interviews with patients with multimorbidity. The qualitative data were analyzed with systematic text condensation. During the co-production phase, 38 persons were interviewed or participated in workshops. Four themes emerged as central for integrated care for patients with multimorbidity: Information sharing, decision making across sectors, healthcare fragmentation, and patient-centeredness. A prototype aimed at these themes was developed and included continuous information sharing and case management by a joint specialty clinic, a total healthcare plan, and systematic needs assessment.

Discussion

The results and PORT prototype were developed through a comprehensive co-production process and the results and model may be transferred to other healthcare systems that are divided into sectors.

Conclusion

Integrated multimorbidity care may be met through continuous information sharing, case management by a joint specialty clinic, a total healthcare plan, and systematic needs assessment.

Hospitalists' perception of their communication with primary care providers - survey results from six hospitals in Central Switzerland

OBJECTIVES

Due to the increasing complexity of the healthcare system, effective communication and data exchange between hospitalists (in-hospital physicians) and primary care physicians (PCPs) is both central and challenging. In Switzerland, little is known about hospitalists' perception of their communication with PCPs. The primary objective was to assess hospitalists' satisfaction with their communication with PCPs. Secondary objectives addressed all information about the referral process and communication with PCPs during and after the hospital encounter. Lastly, the results of a previous survey among PCPs were juxtaposed to compare their responses to similar questions.

METHODS

This study surveyed hospitalists in six hospitals in the Central Switzerland region. The survey was sent via email to hospitalists from November 2021 to February 2022. The questionnaire contained 17 questions with single- and multiple-choice answers and the option of free-text entry. Exploratory multivariable logistic regression was used to analyse independent associations.

RESULTS

In total, 276 of 1134 hospitalists responded (response rate 24.3%): (1) the majority of hospitalists are satisfied with the general communication (n = 162, 58.7%) as well as with referral letters (n = 145, 52.5%), (2) preferred information channels for referral letters are email (n = 212, 76.8%) and electronic portals (n = 181, 65.5%), (3) the three most important items of information in referrals are: medication list, diagnoses and reason for referral. In multivariable regression, compared to other clinicians, internists independently favoured informing PCPs of emergency admissions of their patients in a timely manner (OR 2.04; 95%CI 1.21-3.49). Comparing responses from PCPs (n = 109), the most prominent discrepancy was that 67% (n = 184) of hospitalists claimed to "always" inform after an encounter, whereas only 7% (n = 8) of PCPs agreed.

CONCLUSION

Most hospitalists are satisfied with the communication with PCPs and prefer electronic communication channels. Room for improvement was found around timely transmission of patient information before and after hospital encounters.

Enhanced Safety and Efficiency of Ambulatory Cardiology Admissions: A Quality Improvement Initiative

Background

Pediatric cardiac patients have experienced evolving illnesses progressing to instability while awaiting inpatient admission from ambulatory settings. Admission delays and communication breakdowns increase the risk for tenuous patients. This quality improvement initiative aimed to improve safety and efficiency for patients admitted from an ambulatory Clinic to the Acute Cardiac Care Unit (ACCU) using standardized communication and admission processes within one year.

Methods

An admission process map, in-clinic nurse monitoring, and communication pathways were developed and implemented. A standardized team handoff occurred via virtual huddle using illness severity, patient summary, action list, situational awareness, and synthesis. Escalation of care events and timeliness were compared pre- and postimplementation.

Results

There was a reduction of transfers to the intensive care unit within 24 hours of ACCU admission from 9.2% to 3.8% (P = 0.26), intensive care unit evaluations (without transfer) from 5.6% to 0% (P = 0.06), and arrests from 3.7% to 0% (P = 0.16). After the pilot, clinic nurses monitored 100% of at-risk patients. Overall mean time from admission decision to virtual huddle decreased from 81 to 61 minutes and mean time to admission from 144 to 115 minutes, with 41% (n = 33) arriving ≤ 60 minutes (goal). The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected admission timeliness while safety metrics remained optimized.

Conclusions

Implementing a standardized admission process between the Clinic and ACCU enhanced safety by reducing admission wait time and escalation of care post-admission. Sustainable, reliable handoff processes, in-clinic monitoring, and standardized admission processes were established. The pandemic hindered admission efficiency without compromising safety.

Deprescribing in Real Time: Hospitalized Septuagenarian With Polypharmacy

Polypharmacy is a common and potentially preventable contributor to recurring emergency room visits, hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality. Its consequences are magnified in older adults due to the age-related decrease in functional and physiologic reserves, increased blood-brain barrier permeability, and altered drug metabolism, among others. In this article, we describe a case of polypharmacy in a septuagenarian to highlight the deprescribing approach implemented by the inpatient care team and to offer patient-centered insights to clinicians (primary care providers and hospitalists) when making deprescribing decisions. The overarching aim of this article is to build on existing literature regarding polypharmacy, prescribing cascades, and deprescribing in the context of what matters most and aligns with patient health priorities. This article highlights the importance of good geriatric medication reconciliation stewardship to avoid harm.

Building a Reliable Health Care System: A Lean Six Sigma Quality Improvement Initiative on Patient Handoff

BACKGROUND

There is limited evidence available identifying best practices to promote and sustain optimal outpatient-to-inpatient handoff processes to ensure safe and reliable continuity of care.

LOCAL PROBLEM

A sentinel event occurred during the transition of care from the outpatient-to-inpatient setting. A root cause analysis revealed that the facility's standard operating procedure for patient handoffs was not consistently followed.

METHODS

A Lean Six Sigma approach was used to improve patient transfer with the implementation of a Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation handoff policy. Inferential and statistical process control methods were used to assess performance outcomes pre- and postdissemination.

RESULTS

Over 36 months there was a slow, steady decrease in patient transfer time including reduced variability. The most significant improvement effect occurred in the third year with a 50% reduction in transfer time.

CONCLUSIONS

Longitudinal monitoring provides the opportunity to accurately identify beneficial outcomes, which develop downstream from initial quality improvement efforts.

"It's Difficult, There's No Formula": Qualitative Study of Stroke Related Communication Between Primary and Secondary Healthcare Professionals

Introduction:

Stroke survivors have complex health needs requiring long-term, integrated care. This study aimed to elicit generalists’ and specialists’ experience of stroke-related interprofessional communication, including perceived barriers and enablers.

Design and Setting:

Qualitative study involving generalist (primary care) and specialist services (acute and community) in England. Six focus groups (n = 48) were conducted.

Method:

Healthcare professionals were purposively selected and invited to participate. Audio-recordings were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework Analysis.

Results:

Four themes were identified: 1) Generalists and specialists have overlapping roles but are working in silos; 2) Referral decision-making process as influential to generalist-specialist communication; 3) Variable quality of communication; and 4) Improved dialogue between generalist and specialist services.

Conclusions:

Generalists and specialists recognise the need for better communication with each other. Current care is characterised by silo-based working that ignores the contribution of other sectors. Failure to bridge this communication gap will result in people with stroke continuing to experience unmet stroke needs and fragmented care.

Implementing receiver-driven handoffs to the emergency department to reduce miscommunication

BACKGROUND

Miscommunications during care transfers are a leading cause of medical errors. Recent consensus-based recommendations to standardise information transfer from outpatient clinics to the emergency department (ED) have not been formally evaluated. We sought to determine whether a receiver-driven structured handoff intervention is associated with 1) increased inclusion of standardised elements; 2) reduced miscommunications and 3) increased perceived quality, safety and efficiency.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective intervention study in a paediatric ED and affiliated clinics in 2016-2018. We developed a bundled handoff intervention included a standard template, receiver training, awareness campaign and iterative feedback. We assessed a random sample of audio-recorded handoffs and associated medical records to measure rates of inclusion of standardised elements and rate of miscommunications. We surveyed key stakeholders pre-intervention and post-intervention to assess perceptions of quality, safety and efficiency of the handoff process.

RESULTS

Across 162 handoffs, implementation of a receiver-driven intervention was associated with significantly increased inclusion of important elements, including illness severity (46% vs 77%), tasks completed (64% vs 83%), expectations (61% vs 76%), pending tests (0% vs 64%), contingency plans (0% vs 54%), detailed callback request (7% vs 81%) and synthesis (2% vs 73%). Miscommunications decreased from 48% to 26%, a relative reduction of 23% (95% CI -39% to -7%). Perceptions of quality (35% vs 59%), safety (43% vs 73%) and efficiency (17% vs 72%) improved significantly post-intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

Implementation of a receiver-driven intervention to standardise clinic-to-ED handoffs was associated with improved communication quality. These findings suggest that expanded implementation of similar programmes may significantly improve the care of patients transferred to the paediatric ED.

Exploring factors of diagnostic delay for patients with bipolar disorder: a population-based cohort study

BACKGROUND

Bipolar disorder if untreated, has severe consequences: severe role impairment, higher health care costs, mortality and morbidity. Although effective treatment is available, the delay in diagnosis might be as long as 10-15 years. In this study, we aim at documenting the length of the diagnostic delay in Hungary and identifying factors associated with it.

METHODS

Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards model was employed to examine factors associated with the time to diagnosis of bipolar disorder measured from the date of the first presentation to any specialist mental healthcare institution. We investigated three types of factors associated with delays to diagnosis: demographic characteristics, clinical predictors and patient pathways (temporal sequence of key clinical milestones). Administrative data were retrieved from specialist care; the population-based cohort includes 8935 patients from Hungary.

RESULTS

In the sample, diagnostic delay was 6.46 years on average. The mean age of patients at the time of the first bipolar diagnosis was 43.59 years. 11.85% of patients were diagnosed with bipolar disorder without any delay, and slightly more than one-third of the patients (35.10%) were never hospitalized with mental health problems. 88.80% of the patients contacted psychiatric care for the first time in outpatient settings, while 11% in inpatient care. Diagnostic delay was shorter, if patients were diagnosed with bipolar disorder by non-specialist mental health professionals before. In contrast, diagnoses of many psychiatric disorders received after the first contact were coupled with a delayed bipolar diagnosis. We found empirical evidence that in both outpatient and inpatient care prior diagnoses of schizophrenia, unipolar depression without psychotic symptoms, and several disorders of adult personality were associated with increased diagnostic delay. Patient pathways played an important role as well: the hazard of delayed diagnosis increased if patients consulted mental healthcare specialists in outpatient care first or they were hospitalized.

CONCLUSIONS

We systematically described and analysed the diagnosis of bipolar patients in Hungary controlling for possible confounders. Our focus was more on clinical variables as opposed to factors controllable by policy-makers. To formulate policy-relevant recommendations, a more detailed analysis of care pathways and continuity is needed.

Healthcare Transition Readiness, Family Support, and Self-management Competency in Korean Emerging Adults with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

PURPOSE

The current study investigated factors related to healthcare transition readiness, including family support and self-management competency, in emerging adults with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM).

DESIGN AND METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 87 individuals, aged 16-24 years. Participants were recruited both from the outpatient clinic of Severance Children's Hospital, and an online self-help group for emerging adults with T1DM in South Korea. Participants reported perceived levels of family support, self-management competency, and healthcare transition readiness through a structured questionnaire.

RESULTS

Healthcare transition readiness was positively correlated with family support (r = 0.257, p = .016) and self-management competency (r = 0.606, p < .001). Multivariate linear regression analyses revealed that only self-management competency was a significant factor associated with healthcare transition readiness (β = 0.699, p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

For emerging adults with T1DM, ongoing family involvement in diabetes care and enhanced self-management competency can strengthen their healthcare transition readiness. Furthermore, primary factors associated with healthcare transition readiness in the present study were identified as self-management competency and participants' age.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Healthcare providers should assess and enhance healthcare transition readiness in emerging adults with T1DM. A primary method of addressing transition readiness is helping people strengthen their self-management competency.

Stakeholder perspectives on pharmacist involvement in a memory clinic to review patients' medication management and assist with deprescribing

BACKGROUND

Memory clinics usually involve a team of health professionals who assess and review people with memory impairment. Memory clinic patients are typically older, have multiple comorbidities and potentially inappropriate polypharmacy. Pharmacists are not typically part of memory clinic teams.

OBJECTIVE

To explore stakeholder perspectives on pharmacist involvement in a memory clinic to conduct medication reviews and assist with deprescribing potentially inappropriate/unnecessary medications.

METHODS

Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of stakeholder perspectives within a deprescribing feasibility study. Patient/carer questionnaires were administered at 6-month follow-up. Fax-back surveys were sent to general practitioners (GPs) shortly after the pharmacist review. A focus group was conducted with memory clinic staff and semi-structured interviews with pharmacists at conclusion of the study. Focus group/interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed.

RESULTS

Most patients/carers found the pharmacist medication review helpful (84%, 31/37) and believed it was important to have pharmacists in the memory clinic (92%, 36/39). Twenty-one (48%) GPs responded to the survey; most found the pharmacist reports useful for identifying inappropriate medication and providing deprescribing recommendations (86% and 81%, respectively), and 90% thought a pharmacist review should be part of the memory clinic service. Feedback from memory clinic staff and pharmacists was largely positive. Questions were raised by some staff about whether deprescribing fell within the clinic's scope of practice. Challenges associated with memory clinic-GP communication were highlighted.

CONCLUSION

Patients, GPs and memory clinic staff were receptive to increased pharmacist involvement in the memory clinic. Stakeholder feedback will inform the development and delivery of pharmacist medication reviews and deprescribing in memory clinics.

Triaging Inpatient Admissions: an Opportunity for Resident Education

In the context of internal medicine, "triage" is a newly popularized term that refers to constellation of activities related to determining the most appropriate disposition plans for patients, including assessing patients for admissions into the inpatient medicine service. The physician or "triagist" plays a critical role in the transition of care from the outpatient to the inpatient settings, yet little literature exists addressing this particular transition. The importance of this set of responsibilities has evolved over time as health systems become increasingly complex to navigate for physicians and patients. With the emphasis on hospital efficiency metrics such as emergency department throughput and appropriateness of admissions, this type of systems-based thinking is a necessary skill for practicing contemporary inpatient medicine. We believe that triaging admissions is a critical transition in the care continuum and represents an entrustable professional activity that integrates skills across multiple Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies that internal medicine residents must master. Specific curricular competencies that address the domains of provider, system, and patient will deliver a solid foundation to fill a gap in skills and knowledge for the triagist role in IM residency training.

The Introduction of a Full Medication Review Process in a Local Hospital: Successes and Barriers of a Pilot Project in the Geriatric Ward

For the majority of Belgian hospitals, a pharmacist-led full medication review process is not standard care and, therefore, challenging to introduce. With this study, we aimed to evaluate the successes and barriers of the implementation of a pharmacist-led full medication review process in the geriatric ward at a local Belgian hospital. To this end, we carried out an interventional study, performing a full medication review on older patients (≥70 years) with polypharmacy (≥5 drugs) who had an unplanned admission to the geriatric ward. The process consisted of 3 steps: (1) medication reconciliation upon admission; (2) medication review using an explicit reviewing tool (STOPP/START criteria or GheOP³S tool), followed by a discussion between the pharmacist and the geriatrician; and (3) medication reconciliation upon discharge. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethical Commission of the Ghent University Hospital. Outcomes included objective data on the interventions (e.g., number of drug discrepancies; number of potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIP)); as well as subjective experiences (e.g., satisfaction with service; opinion on inter-professional communication). There was a special focus on communication aspects within the introduction of this process. In total, 52 patients were included in the study, taking a median of 10 drugs (IQR 8-12). Upon admission, 122 drug discrepancies were detected. During medication review, 254 PIPs were detected and discussed, leading to an improvement in the appropriateness of medication use. The satisfaction of community pharmacists concerning additional communication and the satisfaction of the patients after counselling at discharge were positive. However, several barriers were encountered, such as the time-consuming process to gather necessary information from different sources, the non-continuity of the service due to the lack of trained personnel or the lack of safe, electronic platforms to share information. The communicative and non-communicative successes and hurdles encountered during this project need to be addressed in order to improve the full medication review process and to strengthen the role of the clinical pharmacist.

A multi-center prospective cohort study of patient transfers from the intensive care unit to the hospital ward

PURPOSE

To provide a 360-degree description of ICU-to-ward transfers.

METHODS

Prospective cohort study of 451 adults transferred from a medical-surgical ICU to a hospital ward in 10 Canadian hospitals July 2014-January 2016. Transfer processes documented in the medical record. Patient (or delegate) and provider (ICU/ward physician/nurse) perspectives solicited by survey 24-72 h after transfer.

RESULTS

Medical records (100%) and survey responses (ICU physicians-80%, ICU nurses-80%, ward physicians-46%, ward nurses-64%, patients-74%) were available for most transfers. The median time from initiation to completion of transfer was 25 h (IQR 6-52). ICU physicians and nurses reported communicating with counterparts via telephone (78 and 75%) when transfer was requested (82 and 24%) or accepted (31 and 59%) and providing more elements of clinical information than ward physicians (mean 4.7 vs. 3.9, p < 0.001) and nurses (5.0 vs. 4.4, p < 0.001) reported receiving. Patients were more likely to report satisfaction with the transfer when they received more information (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.18-1.48), had their questions addressed (OR 3.96, 95% CI 1.33-11.84), met the ward physician prior to transfer (OR 4.61, 95% CI 2.90-7.33), and were assessed by a nurse within 1 h of ward arrival (OR 4.70, 95% CI 2.29-9.66). Recommendations for improvement included having a documented care plan travel with the patient (all stakeholders), standardized face-to-face handover (physicians), avoiding transfers at shift change (nurses) and informing patients about pending transfers in advance (patients).

CONCLUSIONS

ICU-to-ward transfers are characterized by failures of patient flow and communication; experienced differently by patients, ICU/ward physicians and nurses, with distinct suggestions for improvement.

The Chief Primary Care Medical Officer: Restoring Continuity

The year 2016 marked the 20th anniversary of the hospitalist profession, with more than 50,000 physicians identifying as hospitalists. The Achilles heel of hospitalist medicine, however, is discontinuity. Despite many current payment and delivery systems rewarding this discontinuity and severing long-term relationships between patient and primary care teams at the hospital door, primary care does not stop being important when a person is admitted to the hospital. The notion of a broken primary care continuum is not an academic construct, it causes real harm to patients. As a step toward fixing the discontinuity in our health care systems, we propose that every hospital needs a Chief Primary Care Medical Officer (CPCMO), an expert in practice across the spectrum of care. The CPCMO can lead hospital efforts to create systems that ensure primary care's continuum is complete, while strengthening physician collaboration across specialties, and moving toward achieving the Quadruple Aim of enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing costs, and improving the work life of health care providers. For hospitals operating on value-based payment structures, anticipated improvement in measurable outcomes such as decreased length of stay, decreased readmission rates, improved transitions of care, improved patient satisfaction, improved access to primary care, and improved patient health, will enhance the rate of return on the hospital's investment. The speciality of family medicine should reevaluate our purpose, and reembrace our mission as personal physicians by championing the creation of Chief Primary Care Medical Officers.

Psychosocial Factors and 30-Day Hospital Readmission among Individuals Receiving Maintenance Dialysis: A Prospective Study

BACKGROUND

Thirty-day hospital readmissions are common among maintenance dialysis patients. Prior studies have evaluated easily measurable readmission risk factors such as comorbid conditions, laboratory results, and hospital discharge day. We undertook this prospective study to investigate the associations between hospital-assessed depression, health literacy, social support, and self-rated health (separately) and 30-day hospital readmission among dialysis patients.

METHODS

Participants were recruited from the University of North Carolina Hospitals, 2014-2016. Validated depression, health literacy, social support, and self-rated health screening instruments were administered during index hospitalizations. Multivariable logistic regression models with 30-day readmission as the dependent outcome were used to examine readmission risk factors.

RESULTS

Of the 154 participants, 58 (37.7%) had a 30-day hospital readmission. In unadjusted analyses, individuals with positive screening for depression, lower health literacy, and poorer social support were more likely to have a 30-day readmission (vs. negative screening). Positive depression screening and poorer social support remained significantly associated with 30-day readmission in models adjusted for race, heart failure, admitting service, weekend discharge day, and serum albumin: adjusted OR (95% CI) 2.33 (1.02-5.15) for positive depressive symptoms and 2.57 (1.10-5.91) for poorer social support. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the multivariable model adjusted for social support status was significantly greater than the AUC of the multivariable model without social support status (test for equality; p value = 0.04).

CONCLUSION

Poor social support and depressive symptoms identified during hospitalizations may represent targetable readmission risk factors among dialysis patients. Our findings suggest that hospital-based assessments of select psychosocial factors may improve readmission risk prediction.