Biomedical subjects

Karen Frush

Publications and source records attributed to Karen Frush.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Development and implementation of a pediatric patient safety program.

Patient safety is one of the greatest imperatives in healthcare today; however, there are many obstacles that must be overcome to make the healthcare system truly safe. This article describes one approach to successful implementation of a pediatric patient safety program. Specific strategies for operationalizing a safety program are provided. These strategies include the use of both unit-based and departmental level safety teams to proactively identify and address safety concerns; development of specific tools and resources that teams can use to support an environment of safety; and mechanisms to modify the program in response to patient and staff needs as well as changing priorities. Challenges associated with patient care complexities, the nuances of human behavior, as well as options for overcoming these challenges are discussed. Anecdotal outcomes data are provided and potential next steps for further program growth are outlined.

Child↗

PubMed2006

Evaluation of a Web-based education program on reducing medication dosing error: a multicenter, randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT: The Broselow Pediatric Resuscitation Tape has been shown to be effective in reducing medication dosing error among pediatric emergency providers. However, the tape has often been used inappropriately or incorrectly. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether a Web-based education program on proper use of the tape could reduce medication dosing errors and time to determine dose. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A randomized, controlled trial conducted among 89 pediatric emergency providers from 3 study sites. INTERVENTION: All study subjects participated in a videotaped simulated stabilization scenario and were then randomly assigned to control or education group. After the intervention, all subjects participated in another simulation. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: The primary outcomes included dosing deviation from accepted dose range for each medication prescribed and dosing deviation summary, calculated by averaging dosing deviation for all medications. The secondary outcomes included time to determine a dose for each medication prescribed, and dosing time summary; that is, the average time to determine doses for all medications prescribed. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed in the demographic characteristics of the 2 groups. After the educational intervention, the average (12.6% vs. 24.9%) and median (7.1% vs. 20.1%) dosing deviation summary were much lower in the education group than in the control group. The difference in the median dosing deviation summary between the 2 groups was statistically significant (P = 0.0002). Similar results were observed for the dosing time. The education group demonstrated a lower average (16 vs. 20 seconds) and lower median (15 vs. 18 seconds) dosing time summary than the control group. The difference in the median dosing time summary between the 2 groups was statistically significant (P = 0.02). Analysis of each medication prescribed indicated that the decrease in the dosing deviation and dosing time in the education group was most obvious for several specific medications. CONCLUSIONS: The Web-based education program on the proper use of the Broselow Pediatric Resuscitation Tape could improve dosing accuracy and reduce dosing time.

Child↗

PubMed2003

Effect of an intervention standardization system on pediatric dosing and equipment size determination: a crossover trial involving simulated resuscitation events.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric medication dosing has been recognized as a high-error activity with the potential to cause serious harm. Few studies assess systems approaches to error reduction in pediatrics. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the decrease in deviation from recommended medication doses associated with use of a pediatric intervention standardization system in the acute setting. DESIGN: Two-period, 2-treatment crossover trial with data collected between December 1, 1999, and February 29, 2000. SETTING: Tertiary, academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS: Convenience sample of 28 resident physicians, representing 69% of pediatrics and 50% of medicine-pediatrics residents. INTERVENTION: Each resident participated in 4 simulated pediatric resuscitations. The Broselow Pediatric Emergency Tape and color-coded materials were available in either the first or second 2 scenarios. Traditional dosing references were available in all scenarios. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Median difference between deviation from recommended dose range (DRDR) in scenarios where color coding was used (intervention) and DRDR in scenarios where color coding was not available (control). RESULTS: Median DRDR in intervention scenarios was 25.4% lower than in control scenarios (95% confidence interval [CI], 19.1%-32.5%; P<.001). In 4 medication prescriptions in intervention scenarios and in 54 prescriptions in control scenarios, DRDRs exceeded 100%. Median deviation from recommended equipment sizes in intervention scenarios was 0.12 size lower than in control scenarios (95% CI, 0.03-0.22 size; P<.001). Deviations in equipment size of 2 or more sizes were noted in 1 size determination in intervention scenarios and in 21 size determinations in control scenarios. CONCLUSIONS: Color coding was associated with a significant reduction in deviation from recommended doses in simulated pediatric emergencies. Numerous potentially clinically significant deviations from recommended doses and equipment sizes were avoided. Future studies should measure impact in the real clinical setting.

Academic Medical Centers↗

PubMed2003

Office preparedness for pediatric emergencies: a randomized, controlled trial of an office-based training program.

OBJECTIVE: Many children enter the emergency medical system through primary care offices, yet these offices may not be adequately prepared to stabilize severely ill children. We conducted this study to evaluate the effectiveness of an office-based educational program designed to improve the preparation of primary care practices for pediatric emergencies. METHODS: A prospective, randomized, controlled trial was conducted of primary care practices (pediatric, family practice, and health departments) that were recruited from an existing database of North Carolina practices. Practices that agreed to participate were randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group. Unannounced mock codes were conducted in the intervention practices by 2 emergency medicine clinicians (medical doctor and/or registered nurse). Practices were expected to respond to the mock code using their own staff, equipment, and local emergency medical system. After the exercise, the emergency medicine clinicians and the local emergency medical system team led a structured debriefing session providing constructive feedback to the staff on their performance, a review of the office's equipment, and a resource manual designed for the project. The primary outcome measures were obtained by survey 3 to 6 months postintervention and included 1) purchase of new pediatric emergency equipment and medications, 2) receipt or updating of basic life support/pediatric advanced life support/advanced life support training by staff members, and 3) development of written emergency pediatric protocols. The control practices received no interventions during the trial and completed a similar outcome survey. RESULTS: Thirty-nine practices (20 intervention, 19 control) completed the trial. There were no significant differences in practice characteristics between the 2 groups. Intervention practices were more likely to develop written office protocols (60% vs 21%); more staff in the intervention practices received additional basic life support/pediatric advanced life support/advanced life support training 3 to 6 months after the intervention (118 vs 54). There were no significant differences in the purchase of new equipment or medications. Ninety percent of the intervention practices rated the intervention as useful for their practice, and 95% believed that the program should be continued. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the intervention was well received and motivated practices to take concrete actions to prepare for pediatric emergencies.

Child↗

PubMed2003

Children's health insurance status and emergency department utilization in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: Emergency department (ED) overcrowding has become a national problem. Children account for nearly 25% of overall ED visits. It has been reported that uninsured and publicly insured children are likely to visit the ED for urgent and nonurgent problems, yet it remains unclear to what extent health insurance status would influence children's overall ED utilization or ED utilization for nonurgent problems at the national level after controlling for other confounding factors. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of health insurance status on children's overall ED utilization and children's ED utilization for nonurgent problems among the general pediatric population in the United States. METHODS: Secondary analysis of the household component of the 1997 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey on 10 193 children younger than 18 years. The main outcome measures were annual overall ED utilization and ED utilization for nonurgent problems. RESULTS: During 1997, 10.8% of children were uninsured for the entire year. A total of 17.5% of children were publicly insured the entire year, whereas 55.3% of children held private insurance the entire year. There were also 16.5% of children who were insured only part of the year. Without adjusting for covariates, publicly insured children were more likely to have an ED visit during the year than both privately insured children (unadjusted odds ratio [OR]: 1.26; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-1.55) and uninsured children (unadjusted OR: 1.46; 95% CI: 1.1-1.95). The difference between publicly insured and privately insured children (adjusted OR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.70-1.16) and between publicly insured and uninsured children (adjusted OR: 1.12; 95% CI: 0.84-1.49) became insignificant after controlling for covariates. With or without adjustments for covariates, there was no significant difference in the likelihood of having an ED visit between privately insured and uninsured children. Similar to the utilization pattern of overall ED visits, publicly insured children were more likely to have a nonurgent ED visit than both privately insured (unadjusted OR: 1.86; 95% CI: 1.36-2.53) and uninsured children (unadjusted OR: 1.81; 95% CI: 1.15-2.84). Both differences disappeared after controlling for covariates. There was no significant difference in the likelihood of nonurgent ED visits between privately insured and uninsured children with or without adjustments for covariates. CONCLUSIONS: Health insurance status was not associated with children's overall ED use or children's ED use for nonurgent problems at the national level. Our findings suggest that policy efforts in an attempt to relieve ED overcrowding conditions should look for measures beyond solely making changes in health insurance coverage for children.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Managing the unique size-related issues of pediatric resuscitation: reducing cognitive load with resuscitation aids.

A resuscitation is a complicated event that requires for its optimal outcome the effective completion of a distinct series of actions, some simple, some complex, most occurring simultaneously or in close proximity. In children, these actions are determined not only by the clinical situation, but also by a series of age and size factors particular to each child. Different tasks require different levels of cognitive load, or mental effort. Cognitive load describes the mental burden experienced by the decision maker and will be higher when the task is less familiar or more demanding. In the setting of resuscitation, it refers to the cumulative demands of patient assessment, the ongoing decisions for each of the various steps, and decisions around procedural intervention (e.g., intubation). In children, the level of task complexity and, hence, cognitive load is increased by the unique component of variability of pediatric age and size, introducing logistical factors, many of which involve computations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of age/size-related variables on the pediatric resuscitative process and to explore how these effects can be mitigated using resuscitation aids. The concept of cognitive load and its relation to performance in resuscitation is introduced and is used to demonstrate the effect of the various aids in the pediatric resuscitative process.

Age Factors↗