Clinical trial NCT05876429: Optimizing the Safety of Inter-Hospital Transfer
Official title: Optimizing the Safety of Inter-Hospital Transfer
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Inpatient Facililty Diagnoses
Lead sponsor: Brigham and Women's Hospital
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Crico
First posted: 2023-05-25
Enrollment: 1188
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: SEQUENTIAL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: This proposal aims to design, implement and rigorously evaluate a standardized accept note in a population of patients that have high frequency of IHT, including patients transferred to the general medical (GMS), cardiology and oncology services at a large tertiary care hospital. This study will improve scientific knowledge by quantifying the patient safety impact of an intervention to improve communication of essential clinical information during IHT. If shown effective, the results of this study can be used to improve clinical practice by establishing evidence-based communication guidelines for broad dissemination. We will also establish technical feasibility by successfully implementing this tool within our EHR (Epic, Verona, WI), allowing for feasible adoption and dissemination to other institutions with similar EHR capabilities. Lastly, we will address malpractice risk by investigating a strategic intervention aimed at reducing known contributors to patient harm during IHT, a high-risk transition in care that involves transfer of high-acuity patients between providers, settings and systems of care.

Detailed description: Inter-hospital transfer (IHT), commonly performed to provide patients with more specialized care, involves transfer of patients between providers, settings and systems of care, leaving these patients vulnerable to the risks of discontinuity of care. Standardized communication tools, which have been successful at reducing patient harm among other similar hospital-based care transitions (i.e., intra-hospital patient handoffs), have been under-utilized during IHT to-date, leaving the process largely non-standardized and variable.

The overall goal of this proposal is to optimize patient safety during IHT to GMS, cardiology and oncology services, collectively comprising nearly 50% of all IHT to Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), by leveraging our pilot work to design, implement and rigorously evaluate a standardized communication tool to be used during IHT. We propose the following Specific Aims to accomplish this goal:

Aim 1. Utilize pilot data and stakeholder input to revise the standardized accept note.

Aim 2a. Implement the revised standardized accept note for all patients transferred from another acute care hospital to the GMS, cardiology, and oncology inpatient services at BWH.

Aim 2b. Shift the responsibility of documentation of the accept note from a diffuse group of individual clinicians to a small group of dedicated nurses within the Access Center.

Aim 3. Prospectively evaluate the impact of the intervention on patient safety outcomes, including: clinician-reported medical errors and adverse events, length of stay after transfer, rapid-response or code within 6-hours of transfer, ICU-transfer within 24-hours of transfer, and 3-day and in-hospital mortality.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* source of admission is inpatient transfer from another acute care hospital
* admitted to general medical service
* admitted to cardiology service
* admitted to oncology service
* admitted to ICU service
* age \>= 18

Exclusion Criteria:

* source of admission is other than inpatient transfer
* admitted to service other than listed above
* age \< 18

Primary outcomes:
measure: clinician-reported medical errors and adverse events
timeFrame: Up to 2 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Presence of any adverse event after transfer
timeFrame: up to 2 weeks
measure: Preventable adverse event after transfer
timeFrame: up to 2 weeks
measure: Ameliorable adverse event after transfer
timeFrame: up to 2 weeks
measure: Length of stay of hospitalization after transfer
timeFrame: up to 2 weeks
measure: ICU-transfer within 24 hours of transfer
timeFrame: Up to 24 hours
measure: In-hospital mortality
timeFrame: up to 30 weeks
measure: presence of accept note
timeFrame: Up to 24 hours
measure: timeliness of accept note
timeFrame: Up to 24 hours
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Boston
country: United States
facility: Brigham & Women's Hospital
state: Massachusetts
Study officials:
affiliation: Brigham and Women's Hospital
name: Stephanie Mueller, M.D., M.P.H.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: