Deimplementation: Discontinuing Low-Value, Potentially Harmful Hospital Care

Decreasing Blood Culture Collection in Hospitalized Patients with CAP, SSTI, and UTI

Background

Blood culture collection in pediatric patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI), and urinary tract infections (UTI) remains high despite evidence of its limited utility. We aimed to decrease the number of cultures collected in children hospitalized for CAP, SSTI, and UTI by 25% over 11 months.

Methods

Quality improvement initiative at a children's hospital among well-appearing patients aged 2 months or more to 18 years diagnosed with CAP, SSTI, or UTI. Our primary and secondary outcomes were blood culture collection rate and positivity rate, respectively. Interventions focused on three key drivers: academic detailing, physician awareness of personal performance, and data transparency.

Results

Over the 2-year study period, there were 105 blood cultures collected in 223 hospitalized patients. Blood culture collection rates demonstrated special cause variation, decreasing from 63.5% to 24.5%. For patients with UTI, 86% (18/21) of blood cultures were negative, whereas 100% were negative for CAP and SSTI. All three patients with bacteremic UTI had a concurrent urine culture growing the same pathogen. Balancing measures remained unchanged, including escalation to a higher level of care and return to the emergency department or hospital within 14 days for the same infection.

Conclusions

A multifaceted quality improvement approach can reduce blood culture collection for hospitalized patients with CAP, SSTI, and UTI without significant changes to balancing measures. Despite the reduction achieved, the near-universal negative culture results suggest continued overutilization and highlight the need for more targeted approaches to blood culture collection.

FeBRILe3: Safety Evaluation of Febrile Infant Guidelines Through Prospective Bayesian Monitoring

OBJECTIVES

Despite evidence supporting earlier discharge of well-appearing febrile infants at low risk of serious bacterial infection (SBI), admissions for ≥48 hours remain common. Prospective safety monitoring may support broader guideline implementation.

METHODS

A sequential Bayesian safety monitoring framework was used to evaluate a new hospital guideline recommending early discharge of low-risk infants. Hospital readmissions within 7 days of discharge were regularly assessed against safety thresholds, derived from historic rates and expert opinion, and specified a priori (8 per 100 infants). Infants aged under 3 months admitted to 2 Western Australian metropolitan hospitals for management of fever without source were enrolled (August 2019-December 2021), to a prespecified maximum 500 enrolments.

RESULTS

Readmission rates remained below the prespecified threshold at all scheduled analyses. Median corrected age was 34 days, and 14% met low-risk criteria (n = 71). SBI was diagnosed in 159 infants (32%), including urinary tract infection (n = 140) and bacteraemia (n = 18). Discharge occurred before 48 hours for 192 infants (38%), including 52% deemed low-risk. At study completion, 1 of 37 low-risk infants discharged before 48 hours had been readmitted (3%), for issues unrelated to SBI diagnosis. In total, 20 readmissions were identified (4 per 100 infants; 95% credible interval 3, 6), with >0.99 posterior probability of being below the prespecified noninferiority threshold, indicating acceptable safety.

CONCLUSIONS

A Bayesian monitoring approach supported safe early discharge for many infants, without increased risk of readmission. This framework may be used to embed safety evaluations within future guideline implementation programs to further reduce low-value care.

Facilitators and barriers to reducing chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer: a qualitative analysis of interviews with patients and patient advocates

Background

As the combination of systemic and targeted chemotherapies is associated with severe adverse side effects and long-term health complications, there is interest in reducing treatment intensity for patients with early-stage breast cancer (EBC). Clinical trials are needed to determine the feasibility of reducing treatment intensity while maintaining 3-year recurrence-free survival of greater than 92%. To recruit participants for these trials, it is important to understand patient perspectives on reducing chemotherapy.

Methods

We collected qualitative interview data from twenty-four patients with Stage II-III breast cancer and sixteen patient advocates. Interviews explored potential barriers and facilitators to participation in trials testing reduced amounts of chemotherapy. As the COVID-19 pandemic struck during data collection, seventeen participants were asked about the potential impact of COVID-19 on their interest in these trials. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, and researchers used qualitative content analysis to code for dominant themes.

Results

Seventeen participants (42.5%) expressed interest in participating in a trial of reduced chemotherapy. Barriers to reducing chemotherapy included (1) fear of recurrence and inefficacy, (2) preference for aggressive treatment, (3) disinterest in clinical trials, (4) lack of information about expected outcomes, (5) fear of regret, and (6) having young children. Facilitators included (1) avoiding physical toxicity, (2) understanding the scientific rationale of reducing chemotherapy, (3) confidence in providers, (4) consistent monitoring and the option to increase dosage, (5) fewer financial and logistical challenges, and (6) contributing to scientific knowledge. Of those asked, nearly all participants said they would be more motivated to reduce treatment intensity in the context of COVID-19, primarily to avoid exposure to the virus while receiving treatment.

Conclusions

Among individuals with EBC, there is significant interest in alleviating treatment-related toxicity by reducing chemotherapeutic intensity. Patients will be more apt to participate in trials testing reduced amounts of chemotherapy if these are framed in terms of customizing treatment to the individual patient and added benefit—reduced toxicities, higher quality of life during treatment and lower risk of long-term complications—rather than in terms of taking treatments away or doing less than the standard of care. Doctor-patient rapport and provider support will be crucial in this process.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-022-09189-w.

Repeated cross-sectional analysis of hydroxychloroquine deimplementation in the AHA COVID-19 CVD Registry

There is little data describing trends in the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 following publication of randomized trials that failed to demonstrate a benefit of this therapy. We identified 13,957 patients admitted for active COVID-19 at 85 U.S. hospitals participating in a national registry between March 1 and August 31, 2020. The overall proportion of patients receiving hydroxychloroquine peaked at 55.2% in March and April and decreased to 4.8% in May and June and 0.8% in July and August. At the hospital-level, median use was 59.4% in March and April (IQR 48.5–71.5%, range 0–100%) and decreased to 0.3% (IQR 0–5.4%, range 0–100%) by May and June and 0% (IQR 0–1.3%, range 0–36.4%) by July and August. The rate and hospital-level uniformity in deimplementation of this ineffective therapy for COVID-19 reflects a rapid response to evolving clinical information and further study may offer strategies to inform deimplementation of ineffective clinical care.