137 research outputs found
Comparative quality measures of emergency care: an outcome cockpit proposal to survey clinical processes in real life
No full textSusanne Burgemeister,1 Alexander Kutz,1 Antoinette Conca,2 Thomas Holler,3 Sebastian Haubitz,1 Andreas Huber,4 Ulrich Buergi,5 Beat Mueller,1 Philipp Schuetz1 1University Department of Internal Medicine, Medical Faculty of the University of Basel, Kantonsspital Aarau, Basel, 2Department of Clinical Nursing Science, 3Department of Controlling and Quality Management, 4Department of Laboratory Medicine, 5Emergency Department, Kantonsspital Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland Background: Benchmarking of real-life quality of care may improve evaluation and comparability of emergency department (ED) care. We investigated process management variables for important medical diagnoses in a large, well-defined cohort of ED patients and studied predictors for low quality of care. Methods: We prospectively included consecutive medical patients with main diagnoses of community-acquired pneumonia, urinary tract infection (UTI), myocardial infarction (MI), acute heart failure, deep vein thrombosis, and COPD exacerbation and followed them for 30 days. We studied predictors for alteration in ED care (treatment times, satisfaction with care, readmission rates, and mortality) by using multivariate regression analyses.Results: Overall, 2986 patients (median age 72 years, 57% males) were included. The median time to start treatment was 72 minutes (95% CI: 23 to 150), with a median length of ED stay (ED LOS) of 256 minutes (95% CI: 166 to 351). We found delayed treatment times and longer ED LOS to be independently associated with main medical admission diagnosis and time of day on admission (shortest times for MI and longest times for UTI). Time to first physician contact (–0.01 hours, 95% CI: –0.03 to –0.02) and ED LOS (–0.01 hours, 95% CI: –0.02 to –0.04) were main predictors for patient satisfaction. Conclusion: Within this large cohort of consecutive patients seeking ED care, we found time of day on admission to be an important predictor for ED timeliness, which again predicted satisfaction with hospital care. Older patients were waiting longer for specific treatment, whereas polymorbidity predicted an increased ED LOS. Keywords: quality measures, quality of care, emergency department, length of stay, patient satisfaction, benchmarking, health care servic
Targeting Telomere Biology in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
No full textIncreased cell proliferation is a hallmark of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and genetic alterations driving clonal proliferation have been identified as prognostic factors. To evaluate replicative history and its potential prognostic value, we determined telomere length (TL) in lymphoblasts, B-, and T-lymphocytes, and measured telomerase activity (TA) in leukocytes of patients with ALL. In addition, we evaluated the potential to suppress the in vitro growth of B-ALL cells by the telomerase inhibitor imetelstat. We found a significantly lower TL in lymphoblasts (4.3 kb in pediatric and 2.3 kb in adult patients with ALL) compared to B- and T-lymphocytes (8.0 kb and 8.2 kb in pediatric, and 6.4 kb and 5.5 kb in adult patients with ALL). TA in leukocytes was 3.2 TA/C for pediatric and 0.7 TA/C for adult patients. Notably, patients with high-risk pediatric ALL had a significantly higher TA of 6.6 TA/C compared to non-high-risk patients with 2.2 TA/C. The inhibition of telomerase with imetelstat ex vivo led to significant dose-dependent apoptosis of B-ALL cells. These results suggest that TL reflects clonal expansion and indicate that elevated TA correlates with high-risk pediatric ALL. In addition, telomerase inhibition induces apoptosis of B-ALL cells cultured in vitro. TL and TA might complement established markers for the identification of patients with high-risk ALL. Moreover, TA seems to be an effective therapeutic target; hence, telomerase inhibitors, such as imetelstat, may augment standard ALL treatment
How to Change a Running System—Controlling the Transition to Optimized Spare Parts Inventory Policies
No full textInventory optimization approaches typically optimize steady-state performance, but do not consider the transition of an initial state to the optimized state. In this study, we address this transition. Our research is motivated by a company that implemented an improved inventory policy for its spare parts division. The improved policy suggested new base stock levels for the majority of the parts. For parts with increased base stock levels, inventory increases were realized after the part lead times, but for low-demand parts with decreased base stock levels, inventory reductions were slow. As a result, inventory cost increased over the first months after the new inventory policy had been introduced and exceeded the inventory budget substantially. To avoid such undesirable effects, base stock level changes must be phased in. We consider a multi-item spare parts inventory system, initially operating under an item approach inventory policy that achieves identical fill rates for all parts. Our approach addresses the transition to a superior system approach inventory policy that maximizes the system fill rate. We model the inventory transition as a finite-horizon optimization problem and apply column generation and a marginal analysis heuristic to determine transient base stock levels for all parts. Using data from the company that motivated our research, we illustrate how the transition can be controlled to quickly improve fill rates without exceeding the initial inventory budget
Die Bedeutung der digitalen Subtraktionsangiographie bei der Primärdiagnostik Polytraumatisierter
No full textDo sepsis biomarkers in the emergency room allow transition from bundled sepsis care to personalized patient care?
No full textPURPOSE OF REVIEW: There is convincing evidence linking early start of fluid resuscitation and initiation of appropriate antimicrobial therapy to improved outcomes in patients with sepsis in the emergency department. Blood biomarkers measured on admission and during follow-up have the ability to guide early sepsis recognition, severity assessment and therapeutic decisions in individual patients and may allow transition from bundled sepsis care to more individualized management in single patients. RECENT FINDINGS: Although a large number of promising diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers have been put forward in observational studies, only few have been evaluated in prospective randomized-controlled intervention trials. Markers such as lactate for risk stratification and guidance of fluid resuscitation, procalcitonin for assessing risk of bacterial infections and guiding therapeutic decisions about initiation and duration of antimicrobial therapy, and recently proadrenomedullin for early mortality prediction and site-of-care decisions in respiratory infections, have shown to improve patient management. SUMMARY: For few biomarkers, recent study results demonstrate that well defined clinical protocols have the potential to guide decisions about the individual risk stratification and treatment of patients with suspicion of sepsis ultimately leading to improved patient care and outcomes. For other biomarkers, promising observation data have been put forward, but their potential needs to be evaluated in large-scale, well designed prospective intervention studies before clinical use can be recommended
Streamlining antibiotic therapy with procalcitonin protocols: consensus and controversies
No full textAccumulating evidence supports procalcitonin (PCT) as an accurate surrogate biomarker for likelihood and severity of bacterial infections. In community-acquired pneumonia and other respiratory infections, PCT-guided antibiotic therapy algorithms resulted in reduced antibiotic exposure while maintaining a similar or even better level of safety compared with standard care. Reductions in antibiotic use translate into lower treatment costs, decreased risk of side effects and decreased bacterial multiresistance. This is especially important, as acute respiratory infections represent the most frequent reason for antibiotic prescriptions worldwide. Still, there is some controversy about the benefits of PCT measurement in sepsis patients in the intensive care unit and for nonrespiratory infections. Highly sensitive PCT assays are readily available in many hospitals today, and point-of-care assays with high enough sensitivity for antibiotic guidance are expected to be available soon. Herein, the authors provide an overview of recent studies evaluating PCT in different clinical situations and an outlook of currently enrolling or upcoming interventional trials
Die Einfluss der arteriellen Input Funktion (AIF) auf die zerebrovaskuläre Reservekapazität und die Perfusionsparameter bei hochgradiger Stenose der A. carotis interna in der CT-Perfusio
No full textCirculating endothelial cells as potential diagnostic biomarkers in primary central nervous system vasculitis
No full textObjective Histological evidence is considered the only proof of primary central nervous system vasculitis (PCNSV). However, brain biopsy is often omitted or delayed because of the invasiveness and possible complications of the procedure. Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) were shown to be elevated in patients with active antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis. We hypothesise that CEC are also elevated in patients with active PCNSV and may contribute to the diagnosis. Methods CEC were assessed in 18 patients, 3 of whom had biopsy-proven PCNSV and 15 clinical, cerebrospinal fluid and imaging data, highly suggestive of PCNSV. In 3 of these 15 patients CEC assessment was performed after initiation of successful immunosuppressive therapy. CEC numbers of all patients were compared to those of 16 healthy volunteers and 123 subjects with cerebrovascular risk factors and/or ischaemic stroke, who had been studied in our group before. CEC were assessed by immunomagnetic isolation from peripheral blood. Results In patients with proven and suspected active PCNSV, CEC were extremely elevated (>400 cells/ml in most of the patients) and significantly higher than in healthy and disease controls (p <= 0.01 for each group). CEC significantly decreased with immunosuppressive treatment. Conclusions For the first time it is shown that CEC are significantly elevated in patients with active PCNSV in contrast to other pathologies associated with brain infarction and correlate with disease activity. Sensitivity and specificity of the method for diagnosing PCNSV and the use of the method for treatment monitoring should be addressed in future prospective studies with a larger patient group
- …
