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Biomedical subjects

Michael F Roizen

Publications and source records attributed to Michael F Roizen.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

Six sigma methodology can be used to improve adherence for antibiotic prophylaxis in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery.

BACKGROUND: Six Sigma methodology is a data management process that can be used to achieve a goal of near perfection in process performance. An audit of 615 surgeries over 2 mo revealed only 38% of noncardiac patients admitted on the day of surgery at our institution received perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis within the target interval of < or =60 min before incision. METHODS: Six Sigma methodology was used to improve our process of timing of antimicrobial prophylaxis administration. A multidisciplinary team was assembled which identified seven process inputs by which patients receive antimicrobial prophylaxis. Interventions for improvement included reinforcement of use of preoperative antibiotic order forms, eliminating administration of antibiotics in the preoperative admission area, and sending appropriate antibiotics and IV tubing with the patient to the operating room. We concurrently developed a control plan to sustain this improvement using a recently deployed electronic anesthesia record keeping system using real-time measurement and reporting capabilities of antimicrobial prophylaxis administration. After defining the new process and undertaking a system-wide educational effort, implementation was begun with data collection and analysis occurring over the next 7 mo. RESULTS: For the 8-mo postintervention interval, there was a significant improvement with 86% of 1716 surgical patients receiving their antibiotic prophylaxis within the specified time frame (P < 0.01). The time interval for antibiotic administration before surgical incision also decreased from a preintervention mean of 88 (CI 56-119 min) to 38 min (CI 25-51 min) (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: We conclude that Six Sigma methods were used to successfully improve our process for timing of perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis before surgical incision. An electronic anesthesia record keeping system is a useful tool to monitor this process improvement.

Antibiotic Prophylaxis↗

Using sequential e-mail messages to promote health behaviors: evidence of feasibility and reach in a worksite sample.

BACKGROUND: US adults report suboptimal physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake. Innovative strategies to promote healthy behaviors are needed. Employee health promotion programs have been associated with reductions in health risks but are labor-intensive and costly to implement. E-mail and Web-based worksite programs have the potential to reach a broad adult population and to provide a cost-effective approach to employee wellness programming. OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility of using sequential e-mail messages to promote physical activity and increase fruit and vegetable intake among employed adults. METHODS: Employees at one worksite of a large insurance company in New York State were invited to participate. Interested workers provided written consent. After completing a baseline survey, participants received daily e-mails, Monday through Friday, for 26 weeks. The e-mails provided (a) succinct strategies to encourage physical activity or increase fruit and vegetable intake and (b) links to detailed Web-based information and tools. Program reach was assessed by the number of e-mails opened, measures of sustained participation over 6 months, and the number of health-related Web-links clicked. RESULTS: Of 960 employees, 388 (40%) consented to participate; of these, 345 (89%) completed the baseline health survey. After 6 months, 70% of the 345 participants had opened 50% or more of the daily e-mails. In addition, 75% of participants continued to open at least one e-mail a week through week 26 of the study. E-mail opening rates did not vary by gender, age, income, education, ethnicity, or baseline health behavior. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of enrollment and sustained participation document the feasibility, broad reach, employee acceptance, and potential value of using electronic communications for health promotion in the workplace.

Adult↗

The anesthesia preoperative assessment: an opportunity for smoking cessation intervention.

Smoking is the single most cause of preventable disease and premature death in the United States. We discuss potential hazards that the anesthesiologist should be aware of when caring for patients who abuse tobacco. A review of recent preoperative smoking cessation initiatives is also provided in addition to recommendations on how anesthesiologists may use the preoperative visit as an opportunity to play a more active role in reducing the burden of tobacco-related disease.

Anesthesia↗

The surgical burden: how to prevent a crisis in perioperative medicine.

Preoperative patient evaluation can minimize the surgical burden and help prevent a crisis in perioperative medicine. Relieving the surgical burden involves a shift from practicing medicine to practicing preventive care in the preoperative environment, as well as motivating patients to adopt healthier behaviors over the long term.

Humans↗

Usefulness of routine preoperative testing: a prospective single-observer study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to determine whether routine preoperative testing has a usefulness not previously recognized in a small preliminary study to decide if such a hypothesis might be worthy of testing in a larger study. DESIGN: Single-observer, prospective, observational study. SETTING: Tertiary-care referral center in South India that performs 11 preoperative tests on each patient. PATIENTS: One hundred twenty-seven adult patients scheduled for elective neurosurgery. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were studied to determine whether outcome was influenced by laboratory tests, which were either indicated by health history elicited by a computerized rule-based questionnaire or unindicated by patient history. MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS: Of the 1395 tests performed preoperatively, 513 (36.8%) were indicated and 882 (63.3%) were unindicated. Of 513 indicated tests, 17 (3.3%) prompted changes in patient care; 8 (0.91%) of 882 unindicated tests (P < .001) prompted changes in care. All patients with anemia, significant electrocardiographic abnormalities, or HIV infection were detected by the computerized questionnaire. Among the changes in care prompted by unindicated tests, 4 patients received diabetic therapy or counseling, and 4 patients with abnormal silhouettes on chest radiograph had nonbeneficial echocardiography. Only screening for diabetes seemed to have usefulness as a routine preoperative test in this patient population. CONCLUSION: Although the incidence of unindicated preoperative screening tests is still more than 50%, no previously unidentified benefit was found to support this persistence of unwarranted testing. The limited number of patients in this study necessitates a larger study to ensure greater certainty before such a recommendation is made to the public. If similar results in another but larger study involving similar design, simple changes in the system of preoperative care may save the health care system the considerable expense of unwarranted testing.

Adult↗

Use of the BIS monitor to detect onset of naturally occurring sleep.

OBJECTIVES: Inadvertent sleep episodes are a recognized complication of sleep deprivation. Although such events can be life threatening, no system currently exists to detect and prevent sleep onset. Because sleep shares electroencephalographic similarities with the anesthetized state, we hypothesized that the BIS monitor, a currently available EEG-based monitor of anesthetic depth, would detect the onset of physiologic sleep. To test our hypothesis, we monitored volunteers during the transition from waking to sleep. METHODS: Non-medicated volunteers were asked to lie down in a dark room for 30-minutes and fall asleep while attached to a BIS monitor located outside the room. A laptop computer was used to generate an audio tone inside the room. Speaker volume was adjusted to the lowest level detectable by the awake subject. Testing was begun by activating a computer to play a tone at random intervals. The subject was instructed to click a mouse connected to the computer upon hearing the tone to verify wakefulness. The session was terminated upon loss of response to three consecutive tones or after 30 minutes. Subjects were questioned afterwards regarding their perceptions of sleep during testing. RESULTS: 11 out of 28 self-described good sleepers could not sleep under testing conditions. BIS values for the remaining 17 fell from 96.4 +/- 2.1 to 86.5 +/- 0.79 (p < 0.01) upon sleep onset. All subjects responded to audio stimuli at BIS values >90, and were asleep either by subjective or objective report at BIS values <80. Three subjects retained the mouse-click response despite low BIS scores and subjective descriptions of sleep. CONCLUSION: Although variability in the BIS value marking sleep onset was noted, the BIS monitor detected all episodes of sleep onset in our testing regimen. We conclude that a threshold BIS value can be defined to allow the BIS monitor to detect sleep onset.

Adult↗

Eliminating intensive postoperative care in same-day surgery patients using short-acting anesthetics.

BACKGROUND: A multidisciplinary effort was undertaken to determine whether patients could safely bypass the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) after same-day surgery by moving to an earlier time point evaluation of recovery criteria. METHODS: A prospective, outcomes research study with a baseline month, an intervention month, and a follow-up month was designed. Five surgical centers (three community-based hospitals and two freestanding ambulatory surgical centers) were utilized. Two thousand five hundred eight patients were involved in the baseline period, and 2,354 were involved in the follow-up period. Outcome measures included PACU bypass rates and adverse events. Intervention consisted of a multidisciplinary educational program and routine feedback reports. RESULTS: The overall PACU bypass rate (58%) was significantly different from baseline (15.9%, P < 0.001), for patients to whom a general anesthetic was administered (0.4-31.8%, P < 0.001), and for those given other anesthetic techniques (monitored anesthesia care, regional or local anesthetics; 29.1-84.2%, P < 0.001). During the follow-up period, the average (SD) recovery duration for patients who bypassed the PACU was significantly shorter compared to that for patients who did not bypass, 84.6 (61.5) versus 175.1 (98.8) min, P < 0.001, with no change in patient outcome. Patients receiving only short-acting anesthetics were 78% more likely (P < 0.002) to bypass the PACU after adjusting for various surgical procedures. CONCLUSIONS: This study represents a substantial change in clinical practice in the perioperative setting. Same-day surgical patients given short-acting anesthetic agents and who are awake, alert, and mobile requiring no parenteral pain medications and with no bleeding or nausea at the end of an operative procedure can safely bypass the PACU.

Adult↗