Surgical Technical Evidence Review for Colorectal Surgery Conducted for the AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery

Electronic health record-supported implementation of an evidence-based pathway for perioperative surgical care

OBJECTIVES

Enhanced recovery pathways (ERPs) are evidence-based approaches to improving perioperative surgical care. However, the role of electronic health records (EHRs) in their implementation is unclear. We examine how EHRs facilitate or hinder ERP implementation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted interviews with informaticians and clinicians from US hospitals participating in an ERP implementation collaborative. We used inductive thematic analysis to analyze transcripts and categorized hospitals into 3 groups based on process measure adherence. High performers exhibited a minimum 80% adherence to 6 of 9 metrics, high improvers demonstrated significantly better adherence over 12 months, and strivers included all others. We mapped interrelationships between themes using causal loop diagrams.

RESULTS

We interviewed 168 participants from 8 hospitals and found 3 thematic clusters: (1) "EHR difficulties" with the technology itself and contextual factors related to (2) "EHR enablers," and (3) "EHR barriers" in ERP implementation. Although all hospitals experienced issues, high performers and improvers successfully integrated ERPs into EHRs through a dedicated multidisciplinary team with informatics expertise. Strivers, while enacting some fixes, were unable to overcome individual resistance to EHR-supported ERPs.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

We add to the literature describing the limitations of EHRs' technological capabilities to facilitate clinical workflows. We illustrate how organizational strategies around engaging motivated clinical teams with informatics training and resources, especially with dedicated technical support, moderate the extent of EHRs' support to ERP implementation, causing downstream effects for hospitals to transform technological challenges into care-improving opportunities. Early and consistent involvement of informatics expertise with frontline EHR clinician users benefited the efficiency and effectiveness of ERP implementation and sustainability.

Truth of Colorectal Enhanced Recovery Programs: Process Measure Compliance in 151 Hospitals

BACKGROUND

Commonly cited studies have reported substantial improvements (defined as >20%) in process measure compliance after implementation of colorectal enhanced recovery programs (ERPs). However, hospitals have anecdotally reported difficulties in achieving similar improvement gains. This study evaluates improvement uniformity among 151 hospitals exposed to an 18-month implementation protocol for 6 colorectal ERP process measures (oral antibiotics, mechanical bowel preparation, multimodal pain control, early mobilization, early liquid intake, and early solid intake).

STUDY DESIGN

One hundred fifty-one hospitals implemented a colorectal ERP with pathway, educational and supporting materials, and data capture protocols; 906 opportunities existed for process compliance improvement across the cohort (151 hospitals × 6 process measures). However, 240 opportunities were excluded due to high starting compliance rates (ie compliance >80%) and 3 opportunities were excluded because compliance rates were recorded for fewer than 2 cases. Thus, 663 opportunities for improvement across 151 hospitals were studied.

RESULTS

Of 663 opportunities, minimal improvement (0% to 20% increase in compliance) occurred in 52% of opportunities, substantial improvement (>20% increase in compliance) in 20%, and worsening compliance occurred in 28%. Of the 6 processes, multimodal pain control and use of oral antibiotics improved the most.

CONCLUSIONS

Contrary to published ERP literature, the majority of study hospitals had difficulty improving process compliance with 80% of the opportunities not achieving substantial improvement. This discordance between ERP implementation success rates reported in the literature and what is observed in a large sample could reflect differences in hospitals' culture or characteristics, or a publication bias. Attention needs to be directed toward improving ERP adoption across the spectrum of hospital types.

Successful Implementation of Enhanced Recovery in Elective Colorectal Surgery is Variable and Dependent on the Local Environment

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate local hospital success with enhanced recovery implementation as measured by colorectal surgery process measure (PM) compliance and characterize local environment factors associated with success within a contemporary quality improvement collaborative.

SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA

Enhanced recovery programs (ERP) have proven an effective perioperative quality improvement strategy, but local variation in implementation can hinder patient outcome improvement.

METHODS

Individual hospitals participating in a national colorectal ERP quality improvement program were evaluated with quantitative (patient-level process and outcome) and qualitative (survey and structured interviews with hospital teams) data between 2017 and 2020. Hospitals with implementation success were identified: high performers (80% of elective colorectal surgery patients compliant with >6/9 PMs) and high improvers (top quartile of PM adherence improvement over time). Hospital and implementation characteristics were compared with chi-square tests. Trends in average annual outcome change were estimated with logistic and linear regression.

RESULTS

Of 207 total hospitals, 62 were characterized as High Performance and 52 as High Improvement. High Performance hospitals were larger, with more annual colorectal surgeries (128 vs 101, P = 0.039). Qualitative assessment revealed fewer barriers of staff buy-in and competing priorities, and more experience with standardized perioperative care in High Performance hospitals. High Improvement hospitals had lower baseline PM adherence (54.1% vs 69.6%, P < 0.001) and less experience with standardized perioperative care (30.8% vs 58.1%, P < 0.001) but were noted to have a positive trend in annual patient outcomes: annual morbidity (Δ-1.14% vs -0.20%, P = 0.035), readmission (Δ-1.85% vs 0.002%, P = 0.037), and prolonged length of stay (Δ-3.94 vs -1.19, P = 0.037) compared to Low Improvement hospitals.

CONCLUSIONS

When evaluating a collection of hospitals implementing ERP, only half of hospitals reached consistent High Performance or high improvement. Characteristics of the local environment need further study to understand the barriers to effective implementation in a pragmatic setting.

Enhancing recovery: Joining the Improving Surgical Care and Recovery programme to decrease colorectal surgical site infections

AIM

Surgical site infections after colorectal surgery are a clinical and financial challenge in healthcare. The purpose of this project was to decrease the rate of surgical site infections in colorectal surgical patients in a community hospital with an academic cancer centre in the United States of America.

METHOD

The Quality Improvement Department obtained data to measure the hospital's performance with colorectal surgical patients. The data examined the surgical site infection rate and the length of stay. A multidisciplinary team was established to implement protocols to improve compliance.

RESULTS

More than 200 patients received a colorectal surgical resection at the hospital. The implemented protocols decreased both the surgical site infection rate and the length of stay (9.1-0% and median 6-4 days respectively).

DISCUSSION

Challenges with implementation of the Improving Surgical Care and Recovery programme, in a community setting, are discussed. The challenges were worked through collaboratively to achieve the best outcomes for the patients.

CONCLUSION

The interdisciplinary committee used evidence-based practices to enhance the care of the colorectal patients. Some of the protocols that emerged were: patient education, pain medication, mechanical bowel preparation and antibiotics, as well as early alimentation. The protocols are discussed in Tables 1 to 4.

Standardized Care Pathways as a Means to Improve Patient Safety

The literature overwhelmingly supports standardized, evidence-based care to improve patient safety in the surgical setting, including checklists and enhanced recovery programs. Although local culture, patient complexity, and hospital setting can represent barriers to implanting standardized practices, they can be overcome with thoughtful strategies.

Visualization of aggregate perioperative data improves anesthesia case planning: A randomized, cross-over trial

STUDY OBJECTIVE

A challenge in reducing unwanted care variation is effectively managing the wide variety of performed surgical procedures. While an organization may perform thousands of types of cases, privacy and logistical constraints prevent review of previous cases to learn about prior practices. To bridge this gap, we developed a system for extracting key data from anesthesia records. Our objective was to determine whether usage of the system would improve case planning performance for anesthesia residents.

DESIGN

Randomized, cross-over trial.

SETTING

Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

MEASUREMENTS

We developed a web-based, data visualization tool for reviewing de-identified anesthesia records. First year anesthesia residents were recruited and performed simulated case planning tasks (e.g., selecting an anesthetic type) across six case scenarios using a randomized, cross-over design after a baseline assessment. An algorithm scored case planning performance based on care components selected by residents occurring frequently among prior anesthetics, which was scored on a 0-4 point scale. Linear mixed effects regression quantified the tool effect on the average performance score, adjusting for potential confounders.

MAIN RESULTS

We analyzed 516 survey questionnaires from 19 residents. The mean performance score was 2.55 ± SD 0.32. Utilization of the tool was associated with an average score improvement of 0.120 points (95% CI 0.060 to 0.179; p < 0.001). Additionally, a 0.055 point improvement due to the "learning effect" was observed from each assessment to the next (95% CI 0.034 to 0.077; p < 0.001). Assessment score was also significantly associated with specific case scenarios (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrated the feasibility of developing of a clinical data visualization system that aggregated key anesthetic information and found that the usage of tools modestly improved residents' performance in simulated case planning.

Feasibility of Enhanced Recovery in Emergency Colorectal Operation

BACKGROUND

Emergency colorectal operations account for considerable surgical morbidity, leading to increased recognition of the importance of standardized care. Enhanced recovery pathways (ERPs) have successfully provided a framework to standardize elective surgical care, with some ERP elements spreading to emergency procedures. This study aims to characterize the degree of spread and demonstrate feasibility of ERP extension to emergency colorectal operations.

STUDY DESIGN

Patients undergoing colorectal operations were identified from a national ERP collaborative. Adherence to ERP process measures-multimodal pain control, early Foley removal, postoperative venous thromboembolism prophylaxis, early mobilization, early feeding, and 30-day clinical outcomes-was analyzed. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate association between process measure adherence and 30-day clinical outcomes.

RESULTS

A total of 31,511 patients underwent colorectal operations at 235 hospitals; 3,086 were emergencies and 28,425 were elective. For emergency cases, rates of early Foley removal (92.0%) and venous thromboembolism prophylaxis (75.7%) were highest. Rates of multimodal pain control (55.9%), early mobilization (37.1%), and early liquid intake (33.4%) were modest. Nonadherence was more common in patients younger than 65 years (43.4%), with independent functional status (94%), American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Classification 1 to 3 (62.5%), and without physiologic derangement (39.9%). Lack of mobilization or liquid intake was independently associated with increased odds of ileus (odds ratio [OR] 1.43; 95% CI, 1.18 to 1.75 and OR 2.41; 95% CI, 1.96 to 2.95) and prolonged length of stay (OR 2.29; 95% CI, 1.85 to 2.83 and OR 2.05; 95% CI, 1.70 to 2.47).

CONCLUSIONS

Although the unplanned nature of emergency colorectal operations historically excluded patients from ERPs, our findings suggest ERPs have observable diffusion beyond elective surgical procedures. Deliberate implementation with adherence auditing can improve ERP uptake and outcomes in emergency colorectal operations.

A baseline assessment of enhanced recovery protocol implementation at pediatric surgery practices performing inflammatory bowel disease operations

BACKGROUND

Enhanced recovery protocols (ERPs) have been used to improve patient outcomes and resource utilization after surgery. These evidence-based interventions include patient education, standardized anesthesia protocols, and limited fasting, but their use among pediatric populations is lagging. We aimed to determine baseline recovery practices within pediatric surgery departments participating in an ERP implementation trial for elective inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) operations.

METHODS

To measure baseline ERP adherence, we administered a survey to a staff surgeon in each of the 18 participating sites. The survey assessed demographics of each department and utilization of 21 recovery elements during patient encounter phases. Mixed-methods analysis was used to evaluate predictors and barriers to ERP element implementation.

RESULTS

The assessment revealed an average of 6.3 ERP elements being practiced at each site. The most commonly practiced elements were using minimally invasive techniques (100%), avoiding intraabdominal drains (89%), and ileus prophylaxis (72%). The preoperative phase had the most elements with no adherence including patient education, optimizing medical comorbidities, and avoiding prolonged fasting. There was no association with number of elements utilized and total number of surgeons in the department, annual IBD surgery volume, and hospital size. Lack of buy-in from colleagues, electronic medical record adaptation, and resources for data collection and analysis were identified barriers.

CONCLUSIONS

Higher intervention utilization for IBD surgery was associated with elements surgeons directly control such as use of laparoscopy and avoiding drains. Elements requiring system-level changes had lower use. The study characterizes the scope of ERP utilization and the need for effective tools to improve adoption.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level III.

TYPE OF STUDY

Mixed-methods survey.

Use of bowel preparation does not reduce postoperative infectious morbidity following minimally invasive or open hysterectomies

BACKGROUND

Literature on the use of bowel preparation in gynecologic surgery is scarce and limited to minimally invasive gynecologic surgery. The decision on the use of bowel preparation before benign or malignant hysterectomies is mostly driven by extrapolating data from the colorectal literature.

OBJECTIVE

Bowel preparation is a controversial element within enhanced recovery protocols, and literature investigating its efficacy in gynecologic surgery is scarce. Our aim was to determine if mechanical bowel preparation alone, oral antibiotics alone, or a combination are associated with decreased rates of surgical site infections or anastomotic leaks compared to no bowel preparation following benign or malignant hysterectomy.

STUDY DESIGN

We identified women who underwent hysterectomy between January 2006 and July 2017 using OptumLabs, a large US commercial health plan database. Inverse propensity score weighting was used separately for benign and malignant groups to balance baseline characteristics. Primary outcomes of 30-day surgical site infection, anastomotic leaks, and major morbidity were assessed using multivariate logistic regression that adjusted for race, census region, household income, diabetes, and other unbalanced variables following propensity score weighting.

RESULTS

A total of 224,687 hysterectomies (benign, 186,148; malignant, 38,539) were identified. Median age was 45 years for the benign and 54 years for the malignant cohort. Surgical approach was as follows: benign: laparoscopic/robotic, 27.2%; laparotomy, 32.6%; vaginal, 40.2%; malignant: laparoscopic/robotic, 28.8%; laparotomy, 47.7%; vaginal, 23.5%. Bowel resection was performed in 0.4% of the benign and 2.8% of the malignant cohort. Type of bowel preparation was as follows: benign: none, 93.8%; mechanical bowel preparation only, 4.6%; oral antibiotics only, 1.1%; mechanical bowel preparation with oral antibiotics, 0.5%; malignant: none, 87.2%; mechanical bowel preparation only, 9.6%; oral antibiotics only, 1.8%; mechanical bowel preparation with oral antibiotics, 1.4%. Use of bowel preparation did not decrease rates of surgical site infections, anastomotic leaks, or major morbidity following benign or malignant hysterectomy. Among malignant abdominal hysterectomies, there was no difference in the rates of infectious morbidity between mechanical bowel preparation alone, oral antibiotics alone, or mechanical bowel preparation with oral antibiotics, compared to no preparation.

CONCLUSION

Bowel preparation does not protect against surgical site infections or major morbidity following benign or malignant hysterectomy, regardless of surgical approach, and may be safely omitted.

Combining Surgical Outcomes and Patient Experiences to Evaluate Hospital Gastrointestinal Cancer Surgery Quality

BACKGROUND

Assessments of surgical quality should consider both surgeon and patient perspectives simultaneously. Focusing on patients undergoing major gastrointestinal cancer surgery, we sought to characterize hospitals, and their patients, on both these axes of quality.

METHODS

Using the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program registry, hospitals were profiled on a risk-adjusted composite measure of death or serious morbidity (DSM) generated from patients who underwent colectomy, esophagectomy, hepatectomy, pancreatectomy, or proctectomy for cancer between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2016. These hospitals were also profiled using the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Highest-performing hospitals on both quality axes, and their respective patients, were compared to the lowest-performing hospitals.

RESULTS

Overall, 60,526 patients underwent their cancer operation at 530 hospitals. There were 38 highest- and 48 lowest-performing hospitals. The correlation between quality axes was poor (ρ = 0.10). Compared to the lowest-performing hospitals, the highest-performing hospitals were more often NCI-designated cancer centers (29.0% vs. 4.2%, p = 0.002) and cared for a lower proportion of Medicaid patients (0.14 vs. 0.23, p < 0.001). Patients who had their operations at the lowest- versus highest-performing hospitals were more often black (17.2% vs. 8.4%, p < 0.001), Hispanic (8.3% vs. 3.5%, p < 0.001), functionally dependent (3.8% vs. 0.9%, p < 0.001), and not admitted from home (4.4% vs. 2.4%, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Hospital performance varied when assessed by both risk-adjusted surgical outcomes and patient experiences. In this study, poor-performing hospitals appeared to be disproportionately serving disadvantaged and minority cancer patients.

Optimizing Preanesthesia Care for the Gynecologic Patient

In the past, best practices for perioperative management have been based as much on dogma as science. The creation of optimized perioperative pathways, known as enhanced recovery after surgery, has been shown to simultaneously improve patient outcomes and reduce cost. In this article, we critically review interventions (and omission of interventions) that should be considered by every surgical team to optimize preanesthesia care. This includes patient education, properly managing existing medical comorbidities, optimizing nutrition, and the use of medications before incision that have been shown to reduce surgical stress, opioid requirements, and postoperative complications. Anesthetic techniques, the use of adjunct medications administered after incision, and postoperative management are beyond the scope of this review. When possible, we have relied on randomized trials, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews to support our recommendations. In some instances, we have drawn from the general and colorectal surgery literature if evidence in gynecologic surgery is limited or of poor quality. In particular, hospital systems should aim to adhere to antibiotic and thromboembolic prophylaxis for 100% of patients, the mantra, "nil by mouth after midnight" should be abandoned in favor of adopting a preoperative diet that maintains euvolemia and energy stores to optimize healing, and bowel preparation should be abandoned for patients undergoing gynecologic surgery for benign indications and minimally invasive gynecologic surgery.

Surgical technical evidence review for gynecologic surgery conducted for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery

BACKGROUND

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, in partnership with the American College of Surgeons and the Armstrong Institute at Johns Hopkins, developed the Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery, which integrates principles of implementation science into adoption of enhanced recovery pathways and promotes evidence-based perioperative care.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to review the enhanced recovery pathways literature in gynecologic surgery and provide the framework for an Improving Surgical Care and Recovery pathway for gynecologic surgery.

STUDY DESIGN

We searched PubMed and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases from 1990 through October 2017. Studies were included in hierarchical and chronological order: meta-analyses, systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, and interventional and observational studies. Enhanced recovery pathways components relevant to gynecologic surgery were identified through review of existing pathways. A PubMed search for each component was performed in gynecologic surgery and expanded to include colorectal surgery as needed to have sufficient evidence to support or deter a process. This review focuses on surgical components; anesthesiology components are reported separately in a companion article in the anesthesiology literature.

RESULTS

Fifteen surgical components were identified: patient education, bowel preparation, elimination of nasogastric tubes, minimization of surgical drains, early postoperative mobilization, early postoperative feeding, early intravenous fluid discontinuation, early removal of urinary catheters, use of laxatives, chewing gum, peripheral mu antagonists, surgical site infection reduction bundle, glucose management, and preoperative and postoperative venous thromboembolism prophylaxis. In addition, 14 components previously identified in the colorectal Improving Surgical Care and Recovery pathway review were included in the final pathway.

CONCLUSION

Evidence and existing guidelines support 29 protocol elements for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery in gynecologic surgery.

Trends in perioperative outcomes of hospitals performing major cancer surgery

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Cancer surgery outcomes at National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers (NCI-CCs) have been shown to vary, and have not been uniformly better than outcomes among non-NCI-CCs. We aimed to assess whether NCI-CCs have improved their short-term outcomes over time and whether variation across these centers has changed.

METHODS

Patients who underwent colectomy, esophagectomy, hepatectomy, pancreatectomy, and proctectomy for cancer were identified from the 2010 to 2016 American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program registry. Hospital trends in risk-adjusted, smoothed observed-to-expected ratios were assessed to evaluate improvement and variation in perioperative complications, stratified by NCI-CC status.

RESULTS

Complications occurred in 18.8% of 204 732 patients who underwent major cancer operations at 645 hospitals, and complications occurred in 19.9% of 60,903 patients at 54 NCI-CCs studied. More NCI-CCs than non-NCI-CCs improved over the period (85.2% vs 58.4%, P < 0.001; relative risk [RR] 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.28-1.66); this remained significant after adjusting for years of participation (RR 1.33, 95% CI, 1.17-1.51). Variation in performance remained unchanged over time.

CONCLUSION

NCI-CCs were detected to have improved over a contemporary seven-year period and to have improved more than non-NCI-CCs. However, NCI-CCs do not uniformly outperform non-NCI-CCs, and variation in perioperative outcomes remains, warranting continued quality improvement efforts targeting cancer-specific operations.

The impact of complications on a programme of enhanced recovery in colorectal surgery

Background

The advantages of Enhanced Recovery (ER) programmes are well known, in terms of improved overall experience of the patients, which associates with low morbidity and reduced length of stay. As a result, the pattern of morbidity is changing and some patients may develop complications after discharge. Aim of this work was to evaluate the impact of morbidity and related outcomes such as unplanned readmission and reoperation rate on an ER programme in colorectal surgery.

Methods

Prospectively collected clinical data of patients who underwent colorectal resection have been retrospectively analysed. Endpoints were: 90-day mortality and morbidity, length of hospital stay (LOS) and rate of unplanned readmissions and reoperations.

Results

Mortality and morbidity did not change in the analysed period, but LOS reduced significantly. Main determinant of postoperative LOS was the type of surgical approach, laparoscopy being associated with earlier discharge. LOS was longer in patients who developed complications. Morbidity and reoperation rate were significantly higher in patients discharged after day 4. Majority of complications happened in patients who were still in the hospital. However, the few patients who developed complications after discharge did not have a worse outcome if compared to those who had complications in hospital.

Conclusions

ER protocols must become integral part of the perioperative management of colorectal patients. ER and laparoscopy have a synergic effect to improve the postoperative recovery and reduce morbidity. Early discharge of patients does not affect the outcome of postoperative complications.

Surgical Technical Evidence Review for Elective Total Joint Replacement Conducted for the AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery

Background:

Use of enhanced recovery pathways (ERPs) can improve patient outcomes, yet national implementation of these pathways remains low. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ; funder), the American College of Surgeons, and the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patent Safety and Quality have developed the Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery—a national effort to catalyze implementation of practices to improve perioperative care and enhance recovery of surgical patients. This review synthesizes evidence that can be used to develop a protocol for elective total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA).

Study Design:

This review focuses on potential components of the protocol relevant to surgeons; anesthesia components are reported separately. Components were identified through review of existing pathways and from consultation with technical experts. For each, a structured review of MEDLINE identified systematic reviews, randomized trials, and observational studies that reported on these components in patients undergoing elective TKA/THA. This primary evidence review was combined with existing clinical guidelines in a narrative format.

Results:

Sixteen components were reviewed. Of the 10 preoperative components, most were focused on risk factor assessment including anemia, diabetes mellitus, tobacco use, obesity, nutrition, immune-modulating therapy, and opiates. Preoperative education, venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis, and bathing/Staphylococcus aureus decolonization were also included. The routine use of drains was the only intraoperative component evaluated. The 5 postoperative components included early mobilization, continuous passive motion, extended duration VTE prophylaxis, early oral alimentation, and discharge planning.

Conclusion:

This review synthesizes the evidence supporting potential surgical components of an ERP for elective TKA/THA. The AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery aims to guide hospitals and surgeons in identifying the best practices to implement in the surgical care of TKA and THA patients.