Clinical Focus


  • Internal Medicine

Academic Appointments


Administrative Appointments


  • Hospitalist, Division of GIM, Stanford University (1999 - Present)
  • Medical Director, B3/C3 Inpatient Unit, Stanford Healthcare (2006 - Present)
  • Medical Director for Quality, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine (2011 - Present)

Honors & Awards


  • Fellowship, National Science Foundation Fellowship (1989-1992)
  • Fellowship, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Fellowship (1989)
  • Fellowship, DuPont Fellowship in Chemical Engineering (1989)
  • Most Outstanding Senior Women in Engineering, Purdue University (1989)
  • Purdue Alumni Foundation Award, Purdue University (1989)
  • Purdue Outstanding Chemical Engineering Senior, Purdue University (1989)
  • Award for Service and Leadership, Omega Chi Epsilon (1989)

Professional Education


  • Residency: Stanford University Internal Medicine Residency (1999) CA
  • Medical Education: Harvard Medical School (1996) MA
  • Board Certification: American Board of Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine (1999)
  • Residency, Stanford Univ Medical Center, Internal Medicine (1999)
  • MD, Harvard University, Medicine (1996)
  • PhD, MIT, Medical Engineering (1995)
  • BS, Purdue University, Chemical Engineering (1989)

2023-24 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Quality improvement project to reduce medicare 1-day write-offs due to inappropriate admission orders. BMC health services research Oke, O., Sullivan, K. M., Hom, J., Svec, D., Weng, Y., Shieh, L. 2024; 24 (1): 204

    Abstract

    We identified that Stanford Health Care had a significant number of patients who after discharge are found by the utilization review committee not to meet Center for Mediare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2-midnight benchmark for inpatient status. Some of the charges incurred during the care of these patients are written-off and known as Medicare 1-day write-offs. This study which aims to evaluate the use of a Best Practice Alert (BPA) feature on the electronic medical record, EPIC, to ensure appropriate designation of a patient's hospitalization status as either inpatient or outpatient in accordance with Center for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) 2 midnight length of stay benchmark thereby reducing the number of associated write-offs.We incorporated a best practice alert (BPA) into the Epic Electronic Medical Record (EMR) that would prompt the discharging provider and the case manager to review the patients' inpatient designation prior to discharge and change the patient's designation to observation when deemed appropriate. Patients who met the inclusion criteria (Patients must have Medicare fee-for-service insurance, inpatient length of stay (LOS) less than 2 midnights, inpatient designation as hospitalization status at time of discharge, was hospitalized to an acute level of care and belonged to one of 37 listed hospital services at the time of signing of the discharge order) were randomized to have the BPA either silent or active over a three-month period from July 18, 2019, to October 18, 2019.A total of 88 patients were included in this study: 40 in the control arm and 48 in the intervention arm. In the intervention arm, 8 (8/48, 16.7%) had an inpatient status designation despite potentially meeting Medicare guidelines for an observation stay, comparing to 23 patients (23/40, 57.5%) patients in the control group (p = 0.001). The estimated number of write-offs in the control arm was 17 (73.9%, out of 23 inpatient patients) while in the intervention arm was 1 (12.5%, out of 8 inpatient patient) after accounting for patients who may have met inpatient criteria for other reasons based on case manager note review.This is the first time to our knowledge that a BPA has been used in this manner to reduce the number of Medicare 1-day write-offs.

    View details for DOI 10.1186/s12913-024-10594-z

    View details for PubMedID 38355492

    View details for PubMedCentralID 6181108

  • Development and Initial Performance of the Hospital Mental Health Risk Screen. Journal of the American College of Surgeons Carlson, E. B., Palmieri, P. A., Barlow, M. R., Macia, K., Bruns, B. R., Shieh, L., Spain, D. A. 2023

    Abstract

    Patients hospitalized after emergency care are at risk for later mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma standards for verification require Level I and II trauma centers to screen patients at high risk for mental health problems. This study aimed to develop and examine the performance of a novel mental health risk screen for hospitalized patients based on samples that reflect the diversity of the U.S. population.We studied patients admitted after emergency care to three hospitals that serve ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse populations. We assessed risk factors during hospitalization and mental health symptoms at follow-up. We conducted analyses to identify the most predictive risk factors, selected items to assess each risk, and determined the fewest items needed to predict mental health symptoms at follow-up. Analyses were conducted for the entire sample and within five ethnic/racial subgroups.Among 1,320 patients, 10 items accurately identified 75% of patients who later had elevated levels of mental health symptoms and 71% of those who did not. Screen performance was good to excellent within each of the ethnic/racial groups studied.The Hospital Mental Health Risk Screen accurately predicted mental health outcomes overall and within ethnic/racial subgroups. If performance is replicated in a new sample, the screen could be used to screen patients hospitalized after emergency care for mental health risk. Routine screening could increase health and mental health equity and foster preventive care research and implementation.

    View details for DOI 10.1097/XCS.0000000000000904

    View details for PubMedID 38038350

  • A Large Language Model Screening Tool to Target Patients for Best Practice Alerts: Development and Validation. JMIR medical informatics Savage, T., Wang, J., Shieh, L. 2023; 11: e49886

    Abstract

    Best Practice Alerts (BPAs) are alert messages to physicians in the electronic health record that are used to encourage appropriate use of health care resources. While these alerts are helpful in both improving care and reducing costs, BPAs are often broadly applied nonselectively across entire patient populations. The development of large language models (LLMs) provides an opportunity to selectively identify patients for BPAs.In this paper, we present an example case where an LLM screening tool is used to select patients appropriate for a BPA encouraging the prescription of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) anticoagulation prophylaxis. The artificial intelligence (AI) screening tool was developed to identify patients experiencing acute bleeding and exclude them from receiving a DVT prophylaxis BPA.Our AI screening tool used a BioMed-RoBERTa (Robustly Optimized Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers Pretraining Approach; AllenAI) model to perform classification of physician notes, identifying patients without active bleeding and thus appropriate for a thromboembolism prophylaxis BPA. The BioMed-RoBERTa model was fine-tuned using 500 history and physical notes of patients from the MIMIC-III (Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care) database who were not prescribed anticoagulation. A development set of 300 MIMIC patient notes was used to determine the model's hyperparameters, and a separate test set of 300 patient notes was used to evaluate the screening tool.Our MIMIC-III test set population of 300 patients included 72 patients with bleeding (ie, were not appropriate for a DVT prophylaxis BPA) and 228 without bleeding who were appropriate for a DVT prophylaxis BPA. The AI screening tool achieved impressive accuracy with a precision-recall area under the curve of 0.82 (95% CI 0.75-0.89) and a receiver operator curve area under the curve of 0.89 (95% CI 0.84-0.94). The screening tool reduced the number of patients who would trigger an alert by 20% (240 instead of 300 alerts) and increased alert applicability by 14.8% (218 [90.8%] positive alerts from 240 total alerts instead of 228 [76%] positive alerts from 300 total alerts), compared to nonselectively sending alerts for all patients.These results show a proof of concept on how language models can be used as a screening tool for BPAs. We provide an example AI screening tool that uses a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)-compliant BioMed-RoBERTa model deployed with minimal computing power. Larger models (eg, Generative Pre-trained Transformers-3, Generative Pre-trained Transformers-4, and Pathways Language Model) will exhibit superior performance but require data use agreements to be HIPAA compliant. We anticipate LLMs to revolutionize quality improvement in hospital medicine.

    View details for DOI 10.2196/49886

    View details for PubMedID 38010803

  • Lessons Learned from a Multi-Site, Team-Based Serious Illness Care Program Implementation at an Academic Medical Center. Journal of palliative medicine Seevaratnam, B., Wang, S., Fong, R., Hui, F., Callahan, A., Chobot, S., Gensheimer, M. F., Li, R. C., Nguyen, D., Ramchandran, K., Shah, N. H., Shieh, L., Zeng, J. G., Teuteberg, W. 2023

    Abstract

    Background: Patients with serious illness benefit from conversations to share prognosis and explore goals and values. To address this, we implemented Ariadne Labs' Serious Illness Care Program (SICP) at Stanford Health Care. Objective: Improve quantity, timing, and quality of serious illness conversations. Methods: Initial implementation followed Ariadne Labs' SICP framework. We later incorporated a team-based approach that included nonphysician care team members. Outcomes included number of patients with documented conversations according to clinician role and practice location. Machine learning algorithms were used in some settings to identify eligible patients. Results: Ambulatory oncology and hospital medicine were our largest implementation sites, engaging 4707 and 642 unique patients in conversations, respectively. Clinicians across eight disciplines engaged in these conversations. Identified barriers that included leadership engagement, complex workflows, and patient identification. Conclusion: Several factors contributed to successful SICP implementation across clinical sites: innovative clinical workflows, machine learning based predictive algorithms, and nonphysician care team member engagement.

    View details for DOI 10.1089/jpm.2023.0254

    View details for PubMedID 37935036

  • How Many Lives Will You Save? A Mixed Methods Evaluation of a Novel, Online Game for Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Education. American journal of medical quality : the official journal of the American College of Medical Quality Ruiz Colon, G., Evans, K., Kanzawa, M., Phadke, A., Katznelson, L., Shieh, L. 2023

    Abstract

    Medical trainees have limited knowledge of quality improvement and patient safety concepts. The authors developed a free quality improvement/patient safety educational game entitled Safety Quest (SQ). However, 1803 undergraduate medical trainees, graduate medical trainees, and continuing medical education learners globally completed at least 1 level of SQ. Pre- and post-SQ knowledge and satisfaction were assessed among continuing medical education learners. Thematic analysis of feedback given by trainees was conducted. Among graduate medical trainees, SQ outranked other learning modalities. Three content areas emerged from feedback: engagement, ease of use, and effectiveness; 87% of comments addressing engagement were positive. After completing SQ, 98.6% of learners passed the post-test, versus 59.2% for the pretest (P < 0.0001). Ninety-three percent of learners agreed that SQ was engaging and interactive, and 92% believed it contributed to their professional growth. With an increased need for educational curricula to be delivered virtually, gamification emerges as a unique strategy that learners praise as engaging and effective.

    View details for DOI 10.1097/JMQ.0000000000000153

    View details for PubMedID 37882817

  • Mental health symptoms are comparable in patients hospitalized with acute illness and patients hospitalized with injury. PloS one Carlson, E. B., Shieh, L., Barlow, M. R., Palmieri, P. A., Yen, F., Mellman, T. A., Williams, M., Williams, M. Y., Chandran, M., Spain, D. A. 2023; 18 (9): e0286563

    Abstract

    High rates of mental health symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been found in patients hospitalized with traumatic injuries, but little is known about these problems in patients hospitalized with acute illnesses. A similarly high prevalence of mental health problems in patients hospitalized with acute illness would have significant public health implications because acute illness and injury are both common, and mental health problems of depression, anxiety, and PTSD are highly debilitating.In patients admitted after emergency care for Acute Illness (N = 656) or Injury (N = 661) to three hospitals across the United States, symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress were compared acutely (Acute Stress Disorder) and two months post-admission (PTSD). Patients were ethnically/racially diverse and 54% female. No differences were found between the Acute Illness and Injury groups in levels of any symptoms acutely or two months post-admission. At two months post-admission, at least one symptom type was elevated for 37% of the Acute Illness group and 39% of the Injury group. Within racial/ethnic groups, PTSD symptoms were higher in Black patients with injuries than for Black patients with acute illness. A disproportionate number of Black patients had been assaulted.This study found comparable levels of mental health sequelae in patients hospitalized after emergency care for acute illness as in patients hospitalized after emergency care for injury. Findings of significantly higher symptoms and interpersonal violence injuries in Black patients with injury suggest that there may be important and actionable differences in mental health sequelae across ethnic/racial identities and/or mechanisms of injury or illness. Routine screening for mental health risk for all patients admitted after emergency care could foster preventive care and reduce ethnic/racial disparities in mental health responses to acute illness or injury.

    View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0286563

    View details for PubMedID 37729187

  • Healthcare-Associated Clostridioides difficile Infection: Learning the Perspectives of Healthcare Workers to Build Successful Strategies. American journal of infection control Lev, V., Anbarchian, T., Yao, H., Bhat, A., Britt, P., Shieh, L. 2023

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is one of the most common healthcare-associated infections that negatively impacts patient care and healthcare costs. This study takes a unique approach to C. difficile infection (CDI) control by investigating key prevention obstacles through the perspectives of Stanford Health Care (SHC) frontline healthcare personnel.METHODS: An anonymous qualitative survey was distributed at SHC, focusing on knowledge and practice of CDI prevention guidelines, as well as education, communication, and perspectives regarding CDI at SHC.RESULTS: 112 survey responses were analyzed. Our findings unveiled gaps in personnel's knowledge of C. difficile diagnostic guidelines, and revealed a need for targeted communication and guideline-focused education. Healthcare staff shared preferences and recommendations, with the majority recommending enhanced communication of guidelines and information as a strategy for reducing CDI rates. The findings were then used to design and propose internal recommendations for SHC to mitigate the gaps found.DISCUSSION: Many guidelines and improvement strategies are based on strong scientific and medical foundations; however, it is important to ask whether these guidelines are effectively translated into practice. Frontline healthcare workers hold empirical perspectives that could be key in infection control.CONCLUSIONS: Our findings emphasize the importance of including frontline healthcare personnel in infection prevention decision-making processes and the strategies presented here can be applied to mitigating infections in different healthcare settings.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ajic.2023.08.008

    View details for PubMedID 37579972

  • Examining Diversity in Digital Therapeutics Clinical Trials: Descriptive Analysis. Journal of medical Internet research Adu-Brimpong, J., Pugh, J., Darko, D. A., Shieh, L. 2023; 25: e37447

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Digital therapeutics (DTx) are an emerging class of software-based medical therapies helping to improve care access and delivery. As we leverage these digital health therapies broadly in clinical care, it is important to consider sociodemographic representation underlying clinical trials data to ensure broad application to all groups.OBJECTIVE: We review current sociodemographic representation in DTx clinical trials using data from the Digital Therapeutics Alliance Product Library database.METHODS: We conducted a descriptive analysis of DTx products. We analyzed 15 manuscripts associated with 13 DTx products. Sociodemographic information was retrieved and compared with the US population's demographic distribution.RESULTS: The median study size and age of participants were 252 and 43.3 years, respectively. Of the 15 studies applicable to this study, 10 (67%) reported that females made up 65% or greater of the study cohort. A total of 14 studies reported race data with Black or African American and Asian American individuals underrepresented in 9 and 11 studies, respectively. In 7 studies that reported ethnicity, Hispanics were underrepresented in all 7 studies. Furthermore, 8 studies reported education levels, with 5 studies reporting populations in which 70% or greater had at least some college education. Only 3 studies reported health insurance information, each reporting a study cohort in which 100% of members were privately insured.CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate opportunities for improved sociodemographic representation in DTx clinical trials, especially for underserved populations typically underrepresented in clinical trials. This review is a step in examining sociodemographic representation in DTx clinical trials to help inform the path forward for DTx development and testing.

    View details for DOI 10.2196/37447

    View details for PubMedID 37531157

  • Prospective pilot study of the Three Good Things positive psychology intervention in short-term stay hospitalised patients. Postgraduate medical journal Zehner, N., Polding, L., Faraci Sindra, V., Shieh, L. 2023; 99 (1170): 302-307

    Abstract

    The 'Three Good Things' (3GT) positive psychology protocol developed at Duke University has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms and emotional exhaustion in healthcare providers. Whether hospitalised patients may also benefit from the 3GT protocol has not previously been explored.To determine the impact and efficacy of the 3GT protocol with hospitalised patients experiencing serious/chronic illness.Patient-level randomised control trial.Medical units of an academic, tertiary care medical centre.221 adults over the age of 18 years admitted to inpatient wards (intensive care units excluded) at Stanford Hospital between January 2017 and May 2018.Patients were randomised to the 3GT intervention arm or the control arm with no intervention.There was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the primary outcomes of improved positivity scores, decreased negativity scores or increased positive-to-negative emotional ratios.A journal-based application of the 3GT protocol did not result in a statistically significant improvement in patient's emotional health.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2021-141010

    View details for PubMedID 37227974

  • Care to Share? Patients in Private Rooms Are More Likely to Recommend a Hospital to Others. Journal of patient experience Atsavapranee, E., Heidenreich, P., Smith-Bentley, M., Vyas, A., Shieh, L. 2023; 10: 23743735231158250

    Abstract

    A patient's likelihood to recommend a hospital is used to assess the quality of their experience. This study investigated whether room type influences patients' likelihood to recommend Stanford Health Care using Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey data from November 2018 to February 2021 (n = 10,703). The percentage of patients who gave the top response was calculated as a top box score, and the effects of room type, service line, and the COVID-19 pandemic were represented as odds ratios (ORs). Patients in private rooms were more likely to recommend than patients in semi-private rooms (aOR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.16-1.51; 86% vs 79%, p < .001), and service lines with only private rooms had the greatest increases in odds of a top response. The new hospital had significantly higher top box scores than the original hospital (87% vs 84%, p < .001), indicating that room type and hospital environment impact patients' likelihood to recommend.

    View details for DOI 10.1177/23743735231158250

    View details for PubMedID 36865380

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC9972040

  • Implementation and evaluation of an elective quality improvement curriculum for preclinical students: a prospective controlled study. BMC medical education Aredo, J. V., Ding, J. B., Lai, C. H., Trimble, R., Bromley-Dulfano, R. A., Popat, R. A., Shieh, L. 2023; 23 (1): 66

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Quality improvement (QI) is a systematic approach to improving healthcare delivery with applications across all fields of medicine. However, exposure to QI is minimal in early medical education. We evaluated the effectiveness of an elective QI curriculum in teaching preclinical health professional students foundational QI concepts.METHODS: This prospective controlled cohort study was conducted at a single academic institution. The elective QI curriculum consisted of web-based video didactics and exercises, supplemented with in-person classroom discussions. An optional hospital-based QI project was offered. Assessments included pre- and post-intervention surveys evaluating QI skills and beliefs and attitudes, quizzes, and Quality Improvement Knowledge Application Tool-Revised (QIKAT-R) cases. Within-group pre-post and between-group comparisons were performed using descriptive statistics.RESULTS: Overall, 57 preclinical medical or physician assistant students participated under the QI curriculum group (N=27) or control group (N=30). Twenty-three (85%) curriculum students completed a QI project. Mean quiz scores were significantly improved in the curriculum group from pre- to post-assessment (Quiz 1: 2.0, P<0.001; Quiz 2: 1.7, P=0.002), and the mean differences significantly differed from those in the control group (Quiz 1: P<0.001; Quiz 2: P=0.010). QIKAT-R scores also significantly differed among the curriculum group versus controls (P=0.012). In the curriculum group, students had improvements in their confidence with all 10 QI skills assessed, including 8 that were significantly improved from pre- to post-assessment, and 4 with significant between-group differences compared with controls. Students in both groups agreed that their medical education would be incomplete without a QI component and that they are likely to be involved in QI projects throughout their medical training and practice.CONCLUSIONS: The elective QI curriculum was effective in guiding preclinical students to develop their QI knowledge base and skillset. Preclinical students value QI as an integral component of their medical training. Future directions involve evaluating the impact of this curriculum on clinical clerkship performance and across other academic institutions.

    View details for DOI 10.1186/s12909-023-04047-0

    View details for PubMedID 36703204

  • Targeting Repetitive Laboratory Testing with Electronic Health Records-Embedded Predictive Decision Support: A Pre-Implementation Study. Clinical biochemistry Rabbani, N., Ma, S. P., Li, R. C., Winget, M., Weber, S., Boosi, S., Pham, T. D., Svec, D., Shieh, L., Chen, J. H. 2023

    Abstract

    INTRODUCTION: Unnecessary laboratory testing contributes to patient morbidity and healthcare waste. Despite prior attempts at curbing such overutilization, there remains opportunity for improvement using novel data-driven approaches. This study presents the development and early evaluation of a clinical decision support tool that uses a predictive model to help providers reduce low-yield, repetitive laboratory testing in hospitalized patients.METHODS: We developed an EHR-embedded SMART on FHIR application that utilizes a laboratory test result prediction model based on historical laboratory data. A combination of semi-structured physician interviews, usability testing, and quantitative analysis on retrospective laboratory data were used to inform the tool's development and evaluate its acceptability and potential clinical impact.KEY RESULTS: Physicians identified culture and lack of awareness of repeat orders as key drivers for overuse of inpatient blood testing. Users expressed an openness to a lab prediction model and 13/15 physicians believed the tool would alter their ordering practices. The application received a median System Usability Scale score of 75, corresponding to the 75th percentile of software tools. On average, physicians desired a prediction certainty of 85% before discontinuing a routine recurring laboratory order and a higher certainty of 90% before being alerted. Simulation on historical lab data indicates that filtering based on accepted thresholds could have reduced 22% of repeat chemistry panels.CONCLUSIONS: The use of a predictive algorithm as a means to calculate the utility of a diagnostic test is a promising paradigm for curbing laboratory test overutilization. An EHR-embedded clinical decision support tool employing such a model is a novel and acceptable intervention with the potential to reduce low-yield, repetitive laboratory testing.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2023.01.002

    View details for PubMedID 36623759

  • Development and Initial Performance of a Hospital Mental Health Risk Screen Spain, D. A., Palmieri, P. A., Shieh, L., Bruns, B. R., Williams, M., Carlson, E. B. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. 2022: S43
  • Explaining emergency physicians' capacity to recover from interruptions. Applied ergonomics Falkland, E. C., Wiggins, M. W., Douglas, H., Sturman, D., Auton, J. C., Shieh, L., Westbrook, J. I. 2022; 105: 103857

    Abstract

    OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the capacity to utilize cues amongst emergency physicians is associated with differences in the capacity to recover performance following an interruption.BACKGROUND: Interruptions are implicated in errors in emergency medicine due to the cognitive load that they impose on working memory, resulting in a loss of performance on the primary task. The utilization of cues is associated with a reduction in cognitive load during the performance of a task, thereby enabling the allocation of residual resources that mitigates the loss of performance following interruptions.METHOD: Thirty-nine emergency physicians, recruited at a medical conference, completed an assessment of cue utilization (EXPERTise 2.0) and an online simulation (Septris) that involved the management of patients presenting with sepsis. During the simulation, physicians were interrupted and asked to check a medication order. Task performance was assessed using scores on Septris, with points awarded for the accurate management of patients.RESULTS: Emergency physicians with higher cue utilization recorded significantly higher scores on the simulation task following the interruption, compared to physicians with lower cue utilization (p=.028).CONCLUSION: The results confirm a relationship between cue utilization and the recovery of performance following an interruption. This is likely due to the advantages afforded by associated reductions in cognitive load.APPLICATION: Assessments of cue utilization may assist in the development of interventions to support clinicians in interruptive environments.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.apergo.2022.103857

    View details for PubMedID 35933839

  • Racial/ethnic differences in acute and longer-term posttraumatic symptoms following traumatic injury or illness. Psychological medicine Cruz-Gonzalez, M., Alegria, M., Palmieri, P. A., Spain, D. A., Barlow, M. R., Shieh, L., Williams, M., Srirangam, P., Carlson, E. B. 2022: 1-10

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Racial/ethnic differences in mental health outcomes after a traumatic event have been reported. Less is known about factors that explain these differences. We examined whether pre-, peri-, and post-trauma risk factors explained racial/ethnic differences in acute and longer-term posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety symptoms in patients hospitalized following traumatic injury or illness.METHODS: PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms were assessed during hospitalization and 2 and 6 months later among 1310 adult patients (6.95% Asian, 14.96% Latinx, 23.66% Black, 4.58% multiracial, and 49.85% White). Individual growth curve models examined racial/ethnic differences in PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms at each time point and in their rate of change over time, and whether pre-, peri-, and post-trauma risk factors explained these differences.RESULTS: Latinx, Black, and multiracial patients had higher acute PTSD symptoms than White patients, which remained higher 2 and 6 months post-hospitalization for Black and multiracial patients. PTSD symptoms were also found to improve faster among Latinx than White patients. Risk factors accounted for most racial/ethnic differences, although Latinx patients showed lower 6-month PTSD symptoms and Black patients lower acute and 2-month depression and anxiety symptoms after accounting for risk factors. Everyday discrimination, financial stress, past mental health problems, and social constraints were related to these differences.CONCLUSION: Racial/ethnic differences in risk factors explained most differences in acute and longer-term PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms. Understanding how these risk factors relate to posttraumatic symptoms could help reduce disparities by facilitating early identification of patients at risk for mental health problems.

    View details for DOI 10.1017/S0033291722002112

    View details for PubMedID 35903010

  • Prospective pilot study of the Three Good Things positive psychology intervention in short-term stay hospitalised patients. Postgraduate medical journal Zehner, N., Polding, L., Faraci Sindra, V., Shieh, L. 2022

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: The 'Three Good Things' (3GT) positive psychology protocol developed at Duke University has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms and emotional exhaustion in healthcare providers. Whether hospitalised patients may also benefit from the 3GT protocol has not previously been explored.OBJECTIVES: To determine the impact and efficacy of the 3GT protocol with hospitalised patients experiencing serious/chronic illness.DESIGN: Patient-level randomised control trial.SETTING: Medical units of an academic, tertiary care medical centre.PATIENTS: 221 adults over the age of 18 years admitted to inpatient wards (intensive care units excluded) at Stanford Hospital between January 2017 and May 2018.INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomised to the 3GT intervention arm or the control arm with no intervention.MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the primary outcomes of improved positivity scores, decreased negativity scores or increased positive-to-negative emotional ratios.CONCLUSIONS: A journal-based application of the 3GT protocol did not result in a statistically significant improvement in patient's emotional health.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2021-141010

    View details for PubMedID 35302042

  • Prospective pilot study of the Three Good Things positive psychology intervention in short-term stay hospitalised patients. Postgraduate medical journal Zehner, N., Polding, L., Faraci Sindra, V., Shieh, L. 2022

    Abstract

    The 'Three Good Things' (3GT) positive psychology protocol developed at Duke University has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms and emotional exhaustion in healthcare providers. Whether hospitalised patients may also benefit from the 3GT protocol has not previously been explored.To determine the impact and efficacy of the 3GT protocol with hospitalised patients experiencing serious/chronic illness.Patient-level randomised control trial.Medical units of an academic, tertiary care medical centre.221 adults over the age of 18 years admitted to inpatient wards (intensive care units excluded) at Stanford Hospital between January 2017 and May 2018.Patients were randomised to the 3GT intervention arm or the control arm with no intervention.There was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the primary outcomes of improved positivity scores, decreased negativity scores or increased positive-to-negative emotional ratios.A journal-based application of the 3GT protocol did not result in a statistically significant improvement in patient's emotional health.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postmj/postgradmedj-2021-141010

    View details for PubMedID 37076919

  • Patient Perspectives of Inpatient Telemedicine During COVID-19: A Qualitative Assessment. JMIR formative research Vilendrer, S., Sackeyfio, S., Akinbami, E., Ghosh, R., Luu, J. H., Pathak, D., Shimada, M., Williamson, E. E., Shieh, L. 2022

    Abstract

    Telemedicine has been adopted in the inpatient setting to facilitate clinical interactions between on-site clinicians and isolated hospitalized patients. Such remote interactions have the potential to reduce pathogen exposure and use of personal protective equipment but may also pose new safety concerns given prior evidence that isolated patients can receive suboptimal care. Formal evaluations into the use and practical acceptance of inpatient telemedicine amongst hospitalized patients are lacking.We aimed to evaluate the experience of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 with inpatient telemedicine introduced as an infection control measure during the pandemic.We conducted a qualitative evaluation in a COVID-19 designated non-intensive care hospital unit at a large academic health center (Stanford Health Care) October 2020 through January 2021. Semi-structured qualitative interviews focused on patient experience, impact on quality of care, communication, and mental health. Purposive sampling were used to recruit participants represent-ing diversity across varying demographics until thematic saturation was reached. Interview transcripts were qualitatively analyzed using an inductive-deductive approach.Interviews with 20 hospitalized patients suggested non-emergency clinical care and bridging to in-person care comprised the majority of inpatient telemedicine use. Nurses were reported to enter the room and call on the tablet far more frequently than physicians, who typically entered the room at least daily. Patients reported broad acceptance of the technology, citing improved convenience and reduced anxiety but preferred in-person care where possible. Quality of care was believed to be similar to in-person care with the exception of a few patients who wanted more frequent in-person examinations. Ongoing challenges included low volume, shifting tablet location, and inconsistent verbal introductions from the clinical team.Patient experiences with in-patient telemedicine were largely favorable. Although most patients ex-pressed a preference for in-person care, telemedicine was acceptable given the circumstances asso-ciated with COVID-19. Technical and care team use improvements may enhance acceptability. Fur-ther evaluation is needed to understand the impact of inpatient telemedicine and the optimal balance between in-person and virtual care in the hospital setting.

    View details for DOI 10.2196/32933

    View details for PubMedID 35147510

  • Considerations in the reliability and fairness audits of predictive models for advance care planning Frontiers in Digital Health Lu, J., Sattler, A., Wang, S., Khaki, A. R., Callahan, A., Fleming, S., Fong, R., Ehlert, B., Li, R., Shieh, L., Ramchandran, K., Gensheimer, M., Chobot, S., Pfohl, S., Li, S., Shum, K., Parikh, N., Desai, P., Seevaratnam, B., Hanson, M., Smith, M., Xu, Y., Gokhale, A., Lin, S., Shah, N. 2022: 943768
  • Assessment of level of care recommendations and nursing acuity scores following an appropriateness of care intervention BMJ Open Quality Ruiz Colon, G., Sullivan, K., Albaniel, M., Britt, P., Shieh, L. 2022
  • Learning by Doing: Practical Strategies to Integrate Resident Education and Quality Improvement Initiatives. Journal of graduate medical education Clemo, R., Parsons, A. S., Boggan, J. C., Shieh, L., Miller, B. P. 2021; 13 (5): 631-634

    View details for DOI 10.4300/JGME-D-21-00381.1

    View details for PubMedID 34721789

  • How is mobile health technology transforming physician-nurse collaboration? Internal medicine journal Dongmo Fotsing, L. N., Pang, E. M., Shieh, L. 2021; 51 (9): 1522-1525

    Abstract

    The integration of mobile health technologies in medical practice has the potential to promote in-person, high-quality care. We examine the impact of Voalte, a healthcare-specific mobile application, on bedside rounding and care coordination. A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 71 medical ward-based nurses from a quaternary-care academic centre, capturing 183 rounding events. The frequency of physician-nurse overlap at the bedside was 50.3%, representing a >20% increase when compared with the 2018 baseline before Voalte's introduction. Our results show that mobile health technologies can strengthen inpatient medicine workflows and interdisciplinary collaboration when implemented successfully.

    View details for DOI 10.1111/imj.15484

    View details for PubMedID 34541771

  • Predicting and Responding to Clinical Deterioration in Hospitalized Patients by Using Artificial Intelligence: Protocol for a Mixed Methods, Stepped Wedge Study. JMIR research protocols Holdsworth, L. M., Kling, S. M., Smith, M., Safaeinili, N., Shieh, L., Vilendrer, S., Garvert, D. W., Winget, M., Asch, S. M., Li, R. C. 2021; 10 (7): e27532

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: The early identification of clinical deterioration in patients in hospital units can decrease mortality rates and improve other patient outcomes; yet, this remains a challenge in busy hospital settings. Artificial intelligence (AI), in the form of predictive models, is increasingly being explored for its potential to assist clinicians in predicting clinical deterioration.OBJECTIVE: Using the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) 2.0 model, this study aims to assess whether an AI-enabled work system improves clinical outcomes, describe how the clinical deterioration index (CDI) predictive model and associated work processes are implemented, and define the emergent properties of the AI-enabled work system that mediate the observed clinical outcomes.METHODS: This study will use a mixed methods approach that is informed by the SEIPS 2.0 model to assess both processes and outcomes and focus on how physician-nurse clinical teams are affected by the presence of AI. The intervention will be implemented in hospital medicine units based on a modified stepped wedge design featuring three stages over 11 months-stage 0 represents a baseline period 10 months before the implementation of the intervention; stage 1 introduces the CDI predictions to physicians only and triggers a physician-driven workflow; and stage 2 introduces the CDI predictions to the multidisciplinary team, which includes physicians and nurses, and triggers a nurse-driven workflow. Quantitative data will be collected from the electronic health record for the clinical processes and outcomes. Interviews will be conducted with members of the multidisciplinary team to understand how the intervention changes the existing work system and processes. The SEIPS 2.0 model will provide an analytic framework for a mixed methods analysis.RESULTS: A pilot period for the study began in December 2020, and the results are expected in mid-2022.CONCLUSIONS: This protocol paper proposes an approach to evaluation that recognizes the importance of assessing both processes and outcomes to understand how a multifaceted AI-enabled intervention affects the complex team-based work of identifying and managing clinical deterioration.INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/27532.

    View details for DOI 10.2196/27532

    View details for PubMedID 34255728

  • A randomized study of a best practice alert for platelet transfusions. Vox sanguinis Murphy, C., Mou, E., Pang, E., Shieh, L., Hom, J., Shah, N. 2021

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Inappropriate platelet transfusions represent an opportunity for improvements in patient care. Use of a best practice alert (BPA) as clinical decision support (CDS) for red cell transfusions has successfully reduced unnecessary red blood cell (RBC) transfusions in prior studies. We studied the impact of a platelet transfusion BPA with visibility randomized by patient chart.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A BPA was built to introduce CDS at the time of platelet ordering in the electronic health record. Alert visibility was randomized at the patient encounter level. BPA eligible platelet transfusions for patients with both visible and non-visible alerts were recorded along with reasons given for override of the BPA. Focused interviews were performed with providers who interacted with the BPA to assess its impact on their decision making.RESULTS: Over a 9-month study period, 446 patient charts were randomized. The visible alert group used 25.3% fewer BPA eligible platelets. Mean monthly usage of platelets eligible for BPA display was 65.7 for the control group and 49.1 for the visible alert group (p=0.07). BPA-eligible platelets used per inpatient day at risk per month were not significantly different between groups (2.4 vs. 2.1, p=0.53).CONCLUSION: It is feasible to study CDS via chart-based randomization. A platelet BPA reduced total platelets used over the study period and may have resulted in $151,069 in yearly savings, although there were no differences when adjusted for inpatient days at risk. During interviews, providers offered additional workflow insights allowing further improvement of CDS for platelet transfusions.

    View details for DOI 10.1111/vox.13132

    View details for PubMedID 34081800

  • Inpatient telemedicine implementation as an infection control response to COVID-19: A qualitative process evaluation. JMIR formative research Safaeinili, N., Vilendrer, S., Williamson, E., Zhao, Z., Brown-Johnson, C., Asch, S. M., Shieh, L. 2021

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic created new challenges to delivering safe and effective healthcare while minimizing staff and non-COVID-19 patient exposure to the virus. Health systems worldwide have moved quickly to implement telemedicine in diverse settings to reduce infection, but little is understood about how best to connect acutely ill patients with nearby clinical team members, even in the next room.OBJECTIVE: To inform these efforts, this paper provides an early example of inpatient telemedicine implementation and its perceived acceptability and effectiveness.METHODS: Using purposive sampling, this study conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with nurses (n=5) and attending (n=5) and resident (n=15) physicians on a single COVID-19 unit within Stanford Health Care to evaluate implementation outcomes and perceived effectiveness of inpatient telemedicine. Semi-structured interview protocols and qualitative analysis were framed around the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework and identified key themes using a rapid analytic process and consensus approach.RESULTS: All clinical team members reported wide reach of inpatient telemedicine, with some use for almost all COVID-19 patients. Inpatient telemedicine was perceived to be effective in reducing COVID-19 exposure and personal protective equipment (PPE) use without significantly compromising quality of care. Physician workflows remained relatively stable as most standard clinical activities were conducted via telemedicine following the initial intake examination, though resident physicians reported reduced educational opportunities given limited opportunities to conduct physical exams. Nurse workflows required significant adaptations to cover non-nursing duties such as food delivery and facilitating technology connections for patients and physicians alike. Perceived patient impact included consistent care quality, with some considerations around privacy. Reported challenges included: patient-clinical team communication and personal connection with the patient, perceptions of patient isolation, ongoing technical challenges, and certain aspects of the physical exam.CONCLUSIONS: Clinical team members reported inpatient telemedicine encounters as acceptable and effective in reducing COVID-19 exposure and PPE use. Nurses adapted their workflows more than physicians to implement the new technology and bore a higher burden of in-person care and technical support. Recommendations for improved inpatient telemedicine use include information technology (IT) support and training, increased technical functionality, and remote access for the clinical team.CLINICALTRIAL:

    View details for DOI 10.2196/26452

    View details for PubMedID 34033576

  • Physicians Leading Physicians: A Physician Engagement Intervention Decreases Inappropriate Use of IICU Level of Care Accommodations. American journal of medical quality : the official journal of the American College of Medical Quality Ruiz Colón, G. n., Yang, J. n., Svec, D. n., Heidenreich, P. n., Britt, P. n., Smith, M. n., Sharp, C. n., Shieh, L. n. 2021

    Abstract

    Following the adoption of an acuity-adaptable unit model in an academic medical center, a $13M increase in cost of intermediate intensive care unit (IICU) accommodations was observed. The authors followed A3 methodology to determine the root cause of this increase and developed a 3-prong intervention centered on physician engagement, given that physicians have the ability to order a patient's level of care. This intervention consisted of: (1) identifying physician champions to promote appropriate IICU use, (2) visual changes to essential electronic medical record tools, and (3) data-driven feedback to physician champions. In the year following intervention deployment, average IICU length of stay decreased from 1.08 to 0.62 days and average IICU use decreased from 21.4% to 12.3%, corresponding to ~$5.7M cost savings with no significant change in balancing measures observed. Together, these results demonstrate that a multicomponent intervention aimed at engaging physicians reduced inappropriate IICU use with no increase in adverse events.

    View details for DOI 10.1097/01.JMQ.0000735480.43566.f9

    View details for PubMedID 33883423

  • OrderRex clinical user testing: a randomized trial of recommender system decision support on simulated cases. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA Kumar, A., Aikens, R. C., Hom, J., Shieh, L., Chiang, J., Morales, D., Saini, D., Musen, M., Baiocchi, M., Altman, R., Goldstein, M. K., Asch, S., Chen, J. H. 2020

    Abstract

    OBJECTIVE: To assess usability and usefulness of a machine learning-based order recommender system applied to simulated clinical cases.MATERIALS AND METHODS: 43 physicians entered orders for 5 simulated clinical cases using a clinical order entry interface with or without access to a previously developed automated order recommender system. Cases were randomly allocated to the recommender system in a 3:2 ratio. A panel of clinicians scored whether the orders placed were clinically appropriate. Our primary outcome included the difference in clinical appropriateness scores. Secondary outcomes included total number of orders, case time, and survey responses.RESULTS: Clinical appropriateness scores per order were comparable for cases randomized to the order recommender system (mean difference -0.11 order per score, 95% CI: [-0.41, 0.20]). Physicians using the recommender placed more orders (median 16 vs 15 orders, incidence rate ratio 1.09, 95%CI: [1.01-1.17]). Case times were comparable with the recommender system. Order suggestions generated from the recommender system were more likely to match physician needs than standard manual search options. Physicians used recommender suggestions in 98% of available cases. Approximately 95% of participants agreed the system would be useful for their workflows.DISCUSSION: User testing with a simulated electronic medical record interface can assess the value of machine learning and clinical decision support tools for clinician usability and acceptance before live deployments.CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians can use and accept machine learned clinical order recommendations integrated into an electronic order entry interface in a simulated setting. The clinical appropriateness of orders entered was comparable even when supported by automated recommendations.

    View details for DOI 10.1093/jamia/ocaa190

    View details for PubMedID 33106874

  • Reducing Phlebotomy in Hemodialysis Patients: AQuality Improvement Study. Kidney medicine McCoy, I. E., Shieh, L., Fatehi, P. 2020; 2 (4): 432–36

    Abstract

    Rationale & Objective: Hospitalized patients receiving hemodialysis frequently have routine, daily laboratory studies drawn by peripheral venipuncture-a painful process that damages peripheral veins that may be needed for future dialysis access. Some of these peripheral venipunctures are likely preventable by drawing blood samples off the hemodialysis machine circuit. We describe an initiative to allow and encourage blood to be drawn "with dialysis."Study Design: Quality improvement study.Setting & Participants: Non-critically ill adult patients treated with hemodialysis at Stanford Health Care between September 2018 and September2019.Quality Improvement Activities: We modified the electronic health record to allow providers to order laboratory studies with the frequency "with dialysis." Use of the "with dialysis" frequency was promoted through educational efforts aimed at primary medical teams, nephrology consult staff, and nephrology advanced practice providers.Outcomes: We tracked the number of "with dialysis" blood draws and the number of eligible patients per week during the first year of implementation.Analytical Approach: The number of "with dialysis" blood draws and eligible patients per week were measured over time. Cost savings were estimated by multiplying the difference in cost between peripheral venipuncture and "with dialysis" blood draw by the number of "with dialysis" blood draws performed.Results: Uptake during the first year of implementation was an average of 6.3 "with dialysis" draws per 100 eligible patients per week. Estimated savings exceeded $7,000 in the first year of the program.Limitations: Our single-center study may not be generalizable to other institutions, especially those without dialysis ordering and laboratory ordering housed within the same electronic system. We were unable to track additional outcomes, including the number of peripheral venipunctures and delays in laboratory results.Conclusions: The prevention of unnecessary peripheral venipuncture in hospitalized patients receiving hemodialysis is a promising and valuable quality improvement target, which may be aided by the electronic health record. Future work is needed to increase recognition and use of "with dialysis"blood work options.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.xkme.2020.05.006

    View details for PubMedID 32775983

  • A minimalist electronic health record-based intervention to reduce standing lab utilisation. Postgraduate medical journal Chin, K., Krishnamurthy, A., Zubair, T., Ramaswamy, T., Hom, J., Maggio, P., Shieh, L. 2020

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Repetitive laboratory testing in stable patients is low-value care. Electronic health record (EHR)-based interventions are easy to disseminate but can be restrictive.OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of a minimally restrictive EHR-based intervention on utilisation.SETTING: One year before and after intervention at a 600-bed tertiary care hospital. 18000 patients admitted to General Medicine, General Surgery and the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).INTERVENTION: Providers were required to specify the number of times each test should occur instead of being able to order them indefinitely.MEASUREMENTS: For eight tests, utilisation (number of labs performed per patient day) and number of associated orders were measured.RESULTS: Utilisation decreased for some tests on all services. Notably, complete blood count with differential decreased 9% (p<0.001) on General Medicine and 21% (p<0.001) in the ICU.CONCLUSIONS: Requiring providers to specify the number of occurrences of labs changes significantly reduces utilisation in some cases.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2019-136992

    View details for PubMedID 32051280

  • Assessment of a Real-Time Locator System to Identify Physician and Nurse Work Locations. JAMA network open Li, R. C., Marafino, B. J., Nielsen, D., Baiocchi, M., Shieh, L. 2020; 3 (2): e1920352

    View details for DOI 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.20352

    View details for PubMedID 32022876

  • CHRONICLING CALORIES: THE CASE OF IMPROVING THE MISSED-DOCUMENTATION OF MALNUTRITION Vengalasetti, Y., Horn, J., Joseph, M., Shieh, L. BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP. 2020: 501
  • E-HeaRT BPA: electronic health record telemetry BPA. Postgraduate medical journal Chin, K. K., Svec, D. n., Leung, B. n., Sharp, C. n., Shieh, L. n. 2020

    Abstract

    Ccontinuous cardiac monitoring in non-critical care settings is expensive and overutilised. As such, it is an important target of hospital interventions to establish cost-effective, high-quality care. Since inappropriate telemetry use was persistently elevated at our institution, we devised an electronic best practice alert (BPA) and tested it in a randomised controlled fashion.Between 4 March 2018 and 5 July 2018 at our 600-bed academic hospital, all non-critical care patients who had at least one telemetry order were randomised to the control or intervention group. The intervention group received daily BPAs if telemetry was active.275 and 283 patients were randomised to the intervention and control groups, respectively. The intervention group triggered 1042 alerts and trended toward fewer telemetry days (3.8 vs 5.0, p=0.017). The intervention group stopped telemetry 31.7% of the alerted patient-days compared with 23.3% for the control group (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.24 to 1.88, p<0.001). There were no significant differences in length of stay, rapid responses, code blues, or mortality between the two groups.Using a randomised controlled design, we show that BPAs significantly reduce telemetry without negatively affecting patient outcomes. They should have a role in promoting high-value telemetry use.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2019-137421

    View details for PubMedID 32467108

  • Physician Usage and Acceptance of a Machine Learning Recommender System for Simulated Clinical Order Entry. AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science proceedings. AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science Chiang, J., Kumar, A., Morales, D., Saini, D., Hom, J., Shieh, L., Musen, M., Goldstein, M. K., Chen, J. H. 2020; 2020: 89–97

    Abstract

    Clinical decision support tools that automatically disseminate patterns of clinical orders have the potential to improve patient care by reducing errors of omission and streamlining physician workflows. However, it is unknown if physicians will accept such tools or how their behavior will be affected. In this randomized controlled study, we exposed 34 licensed physicians to a clinical order entry interface and five simulated emergency cases, with randomized availability of a previously developed clinical order recommender system. With the recommender available, physicians spent similar time per case (6.7 minutes), but placed more total orders (17.1 vs. 15.8). The recommender demonstrated superior recall (59% vs 41%) and precision (25% vs 17%) compared to manual search results, and was positively received by physicians recognizing workflow benefits. Further studies must assess the potential clinical impact towards a future where electronic health records automatically anticipate clinical needs.

    View details for PubMedID 32477627

  • Multicenter validation of a machine-learning algorithm for 48-h all-cause mortality prediction. Health informatics journal Mohamadlou, H., Panchavati, S., Calvert, J., Lynn-Palevsky, A., Le, S., Allen, A., Pellegrini, E., Green-Saxena, A., Barton, C., Fletcher, G., Shieh, L., Stark, P. B., Chettipally, U., Shimabukuro, D., Feldman, M., Das, R. 2019: 1460458219894494

    Abstract

    In order to evaluate mortality predictions based on boosted trees, this retrospective study uses electronic medical record data from three academic health centers for inpatients 18 years or older with at least one observation of each vital sign. Predictions were made 12, 24, and 48 hours before death. Models fit to training data from each institution were evaluated using hold-out test data from the same institution, and from the other institutions. Gradient-boosted trees (GBT) were compared to regularized logistic regression (LR) predictions, support vector machine (SVM) predictions, quick Sepsis-Related Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA), and Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). For training and testing GBT on data from the same institution, the average AUROCs were 0.96, 0.95, and 0.94 across institutional test sets for 12-, 24-, and 48-hour predictions, respectively. When trained and tested on data from different hospitals, GBT AUROCs achieved up to 0.98, 0.96, and 0.96, for 12-, 24-, and 48-hour predictions, respectively. Average AUROC for 48-hour predictions for LR, SVM, MEWS, and qSOFA were 0.85, 0.79, 0.86 and 0.82, respectively. GBT predictions may help identify patients who would benefit from increased clinical care.

    View details for DOI 10.1177/1460458219894494

    View details for PubMedID 31884847

  • Characteristics and Financial Impact of Potentially Inappropriate Platelet Transfusion in the Inpatient Hospital Setting Mou, E., Murphy, C., Hom, J., Shieh, L., Shah, N. AMER SOC HEMATOLOGY. 2019
  • Characteristics of Academic Physicians Associated With Patient Satisfaction AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL QUALITY Heidenreich, P., Shieh, L., Fassiotto, M., Kahn, J., Weinacker, A., Smith, R., Trockel, M., Shanafelt, T., Palaniappan, L. 2019: 1062860619876344

    View details for DOI 10.1177/1062860619876344

    View details for Web of Science ID 000488727200001

    View details for PubMedID 31529975

  • Electronic health record-based clinical decision support alert for severe sepsis: a randomised evaluation BMJ QUALITY & SAFETY Downing, N., Rolnick, J., Poole, S. F., Hall, E., Wessels, A. J., Heidenreich, P., Shieh, L. 2019; 28 (9): 762–68
  • Reducing Telemetry Use Is Safe: A Retrospective Analysis of Rapid Response Team and Code Events After a Successful Intervention to Reduce Telemetry Use AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL QUALITY Xie, L., Garg, T., Svec, D., Hom, J., Kaimal, R., Ahuja, N., Barnes, J., Shieh, L. 2019; 34 (4): 398–401
  • How Much Time are Physicians and Nurses Spending Together at the Patient Bedside? Journal of hospital medicine Sang, A. X., Tisdale, R. L., Nielsen, D., Loica-Mersa, S., Miller, T., Chong, I., Shieh, L. 2019; 14: E1–E6

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Bedside rounding involving both nurses and physicians has numerous benefits for patients and staff. However, precise quantitative data on the current extent of physician-nurse (MD-RN) overlap at the patient bedside are lacking.OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the frequency of nurse and physician overlap at the patient beside and what factors affect this frequency.DESIGN: This is a prospective, observational study of time-motion data generated from wearable radio frequency identification (RFID)-based locator technology.SETTING: Single-institution academic hospital.MEASUREMENTS: The length of physician rounds, frequency of rounds that include nurses simultaneously at the bedside, and length of MD-RN overlap were measured and analyzed by ward, day of week, and distance between patient room and nursing station.RESULTS: A total of 739 MD rounding events were captured over 90 consecutive days. Of these events, 267 took place in single-bed patient rooms. The frequency of MD-RN overlap was 30.0%, and there was no statistical difference between the three wards studied. Overall, the average length of all MD rounds was 7.31 ± 0.58 minutes, but rounding involving a bedside nurse lasted longer than rounds with MDs alone (9.56 vs 5.68 minutes, P < .05). There was no difference in either the length of rounds or the frequency of MD-RN overlap between weekdays and weekends. Finally, patient rooms located farther away from the nursing station had a lower likelihood of MD-RN overlap (Pearson's r = -0.67, P < .05).CONCLUSION: RFID-based technology provides precise, automated, and high-throughput time-motion data to capture nurse and physician activity. At our institution, 30.0% of rounds involve a bedside nurse, highlighting a potential barrier to bedside interdisciplinary rounding.

    View details for DOI 10.12788/jhm.3204

    View details for PubMedID 31112496

  • Electronic health record-based clinical decision support alert for severe sepsis: a randomised evaluation. BMJ quality & safety Downing, N. L., Rolnick, J., Poole, S. F., Hall, E., Wessels, A. J., Heidenreich, P., Shieh, L. 2019

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Sepsis remains the top cause of morbidity and mortality of hospitalised patients despite concerted efforts. Clinical decision support for sepsis has shown mixed results reflecting heterogeneous populations, methodologies and interventions.OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the addition of a real-time electronic health record (EHR)-based clinical decision support alert improves adherence to treatment guidelines and clinical outcomes in hospitalised patients with suspected severe sepsis.DESIGN: Patient-level randomisation, single blinded.SETTING: Medical and surgical inpatient units of an academic, tertiary care medical centre.PATIENTS: 1123 adults over the age of 18 admitted to inpatient wards (intensive care units (ICU) excluded) at an academic teaching hospital between November 2014 and March 2015.INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomised to either usual care or the addition of an EHR-generated alert in response to a set of modified severe sepsis criteria that included vital signs, laboratory values and physician orders.MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in primary outcome of the percentage of patients with new antibiotic orders at 3hours after the alert (35% vs 37%, p=0.53). There was no difference in secondary outcomes of in-hospital mortality at 30 days, length of stay greater than 72hours, rate of transfer to ICU within 48hours of alert, or proportion of patients receiving at least 30mL/kg of intravenous fluids.CONCLUSIONS: An EHR-based severe sepsis alert did not result in a statistically significant improvement in several sepsis treatment performance measures.

    View details for PubMedID 30872387

  • An Evaluation of Barriers to Inpatient Medication Allergy Documentation Chollet, M. B., Shieh, L., Liu, A. Y. MOSBY-ELSEVIER. 2019: AB280
  • Waiting it out: consultation delays prolong in-patient length of stay. Postgraduate medical journal Rahman, A. S., Shi, S., Meza, P. K., Jia, J. L., Svec, D., Shieh, L. 2019

    Abstract

    Decreasing delays for hospitalised patients results in improved hospital efficiency, increased quality of care and decreased healthcare expenditures. Delays in subspecialty consultations and procedures can cause increased length of stay due to reasons outside of necessary medical care.To quantify, describe and record reasons for delays in consultations and procedures for patients on the general medicine wards.We conducted weekly audits of all admitted patients on five Internal Medicine teams over 8 weeks. A survey was reviewed with attending physicians and residents on five internal medicine teams to identify patients with a delay due to consultation or procedure, quantify length of delay and record reason for delay.During the study period, 316 patients were reviewed and 48 were identified as experiencing a total of 53 delays due to consultations or procedures. The average delay was 1.8 days for a combined total of 83 days. Top reasons for delays included scheduling, late response to page and a busy service. The frequency in length of consult delays vary among different specialties. The highest frequency of delays was clustered in procedure-heavy specialties.This report highlights the importance of reviewing system barriers that lead to delayed service in hospitals. Addressing these delays could lead to reductions in length of stay for inpatients.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2018-136269

    View details for PubMedID 30674619

  • Waiting it out: Consultation delays prolong in-patient length of stay Postgraduate Medical Journal Rahman, A. S., Shi, S., Meza, P. K., Jia, J. L., Svec, D., Shieh, L. 2019
  • Patient vs provider perspectives of 30-day hospital readmissions BMJ OPEN QUALITY Smeraglio, A., Heidenreich, P. A., Krishnan, G., Hopkins, J., Chen, J., Shieh, L. 2019; 8 (1)
  • An Electronic Best Practice Alert Based on Choosing Wisely Guidelines Reduces Thrombophilia Testing in the Outpatient Setting JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE Jun, T., Kwang, H., Mou, E., Berube, C., Bentley, J., Shieh, L., Hom, J. 2019; 34 (1): 29-30
  • Analysis of a Potential Automated Sepsis Alert Based on Quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) Among Hospitalized Floor Patients Swenson, K., Rogers, A., Krishnan, G., Shieh, L. AMER THORACIC SOC. 2019
  • Patient vs provider perspectives of 30-day hospital readmissions. BMJ open quality Smeraglio, A., Heidenreich, P. A., Krishnan, G., Hopkins, J., Chen, J., Shieh, L. 2019; 8 (1): e000264

    Abstract

    Objective: To compare patients' and providers' views on contributors to 30-day hospital readmissions.Design: Analysis of a qualitative interview survey between 18 May-30 June 2015.Setting: Interviews were conducted during the 30-day readmission hospitalisation at a single tertiary care academic hospital.Participants: We conducted 178 interviews of readmitted patients.Measures: We queried opinions of what factors patients believed contributed to their rehospitalisation and compared this with the perspective of the index admission provider. The primary outcome was the view that the readmission was preventable. A review by a RN (nurse) case manager also provided an assessment based on patient report, provider report and chart review.Results: Patients were more likely to view a readmission as preventable compared with physicians (p<0.0001). Patients identified system issues (defined as factors controlled by the hospital discharge process) as contributors to their readmission in 58% (103/178) of cases while providers identified system issues as the contributor to a patients' readmission in 2% (2/101) of cases. Patients with poor functional status were more likely to feel the cause of their readmission was due to system issues than patients with better functional status (p=0.03). A RN case manager review determined that in 48% (86/178) of cases the system had some amount of contribution to a patient's readmission. There was no significant difference in belief that the readmission was preventable between the RN case manager and the patient (p=0.47).Conclusions: Readmitted patients often feel that the hospital system contributed to their readmission. Providers did not recognise patient and RN case manager identified issues as contributors to hospital readmissions.

    View details for PubMedID 30687798

  • Thrombophilia testing in the inpatient setting: impact of an educational intervention. BMC medical informatics and decision making Kwang, H. n., Mou, E. n., Richman, I. n., Kumar, A. n., Berube, C. n., Kaimal, R. n., Ahuja, N. n., Harman, S. n., Johnson, T. n., Shah, N. n., Witteles, R. n., Harrington, R. n., Shieh, L. n., Hom, J. n. 2019; 19 (1): 167

    Abstract

    Thrombophilia testing is frequently ordered in the inpatient setting despite its limited impact on clinical decision-making and unreliable results in the setting of acute thrombosis or ongoing anticoagulation. We sought to determine the effect of an educational intervention in reducing inappropriate thrombophilia testing for hospitalized patients.During the 2014 academic year, we implemented an educational intervention with a phase implementation design for Internal Medicine interns at Stanford University Hospital. The educational session covering epidemiology, appropriate thrombophilia evaluation and clinical rationale behind these recommendations. Their ordering behavior was compared with a contemporaneous control (non-medicine and private services) and a historical control (interns from prior academic year). From the analyzed data, we determined the proportion of inappropriate thrombophilia testing of each group. Logistic generalized estimating equations were used to estimate odds ratios for inappropriate thrombophilia testing associated with the intervention.Of 2151 orders included, 934 were deemed inappropriate (43.4%). The two intervention groups placed 147 orders. A pooled analysis of ordering practices by intervention groups revealed a trend toward reduction of inappropriate ordering (p = 0.053). By the end of the study, the intervention groups had significantly lower rates of inappropriate testing compared to historical or contemporaneous controls.A brief educational intervention was associated with a trend toward reduction in inappropriate thrombophilia testing. These findings suggest that focused education on thrombophilia testing can positively impact inpatient ordering practices.

    View details for DOI 10.1186/s12911-019-0889-6

    View details for PubMedID 31429747

  • A long wait: barriers to discharge for long length of stay patients. Postgraduate medical journal Zhao, E. J., Yeluru, A., Manjunath, L., Zhong, L. R., Hsu, H., Lee, C. K., Wong, A. C., Abramian, M., Manella, H., Svec, D., Shieh, L. 2018

    Abstract

    INTRODUCTION: Reducing long length of stay (LLOS, or inpatient stays lasting over 30 days) is an important way for hospitals to improve cost efficiency, bed availability and health outcomes. Discharge delays can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars per patient, and LLOS represents a burden on bed availability for other potential patients. However, most research studies investigating discharge barriers are not LLOS-specific. Of those that do, nearly all are limited by further patient subpopulation focus or small sample size. To our knowledge, our study is the first to describe LLOS discharge barriers in an entire Department of Medicine.METHODS: We conducted a chart review of 172 LLOS patients in the Department of Medicine at an academic tertiary care hospital and quantified the most frequent causes of delay as well as factors causing the greatest amount of delay time. We also interviewed healthcare staff for their perceptions on barriers to discharge.RESULTS: Discharge site coordination was the most frequent cause of delay, affecting 56% of patients and accounting for 80% of total non-medical postponement days. Goals of care issues and establishment of follow-up care were the next most frequent contributors to delay.CONCLUSION: Together with perspectives from interviewed staff, these results highlight multiple different areas of opportunity for reducing LLOS and maximising the care capacity of inpatient hospitals.

    View details for PubMedID 30301835

  • Reducing Telemetry Use Is Safe: A Retrospective Analysis of Rapid Response Team and Code Events After a Successful Intervention to Reduce Telemetry Use. American journal of medical quality : the official journal of the American College of Medical Quality Xie, L., Garg, T., Svec, D., Hom, J., Kaimal, R., Ahuja, N., Barnes, J., Shieh, L. 2018: 1062860618805189

    Abstract

    Interventions guiding appropriate telemetry utilization have successfully reduced use at many hospitals, but few studies have examined their possible adverse outcomes. The authors conducted a successful intervention to reduce telemetry use in 2013 on a hospitalist service using educational modules, routine review, and financial incentives. The association of reduced telemetry use with the incidence of rapid response team (RRT) and code activations was assessed in a retrospective cohort study of 210 patients who experienced a total of 233 RRT and code events on the inpatient internal medicine services from January 2012 through March 2015 at a tertiary care center. The incidence of adverse events for the hospitalist service was not significantly different during the intervention and postintervention period as compared to the preintervention period. Reducing inappropriate telemetry use was not associated with an increase in the incidence rates of RRT and code events.

    View details for PubMedID 30293436

  • A long wait: barriers to discharge for long length of stay patients POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL JOURNAL Zhao, E., Yeluru, A., Manjunath, L., Zhong, L., Hsu, H., Lee, C. K., Wong, A. C., Abramian, M., Manella, H., Svec, D., Shieh, L. 2018; 94 (1116): 546–50
  • An Electronic Best Practice Alert Based on Choosing Wisely Guidelines Reduces Thrombophilia Testing in the Outpatient Setting. Journal of general internal medicine Jun, T., Kwang, H., Mou, E., Berube, C., Bentley, J., Shieh, L., Hom, J. 2018

    View details for PubMedID 30215176

  • Lean-Based Redesign of Multidisciplinary Rounds on General Medicine Service JOURNAL OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE Kane, M., Rohatgi, N., Heidenreich, P. A., Thakur, A., Winget, M., Shum, K., Hereford, J., Shieh, L., Lew, T., Hom, J., Chi, J., Weinacker, A., Seay-Morrison, T., Ahuja, N. 2018; 13 (7): 482–85

    View details for DOI 10.12788/jhm.2908

    View details for Web of Science ID 000437294500006

  • Shared Decision-Making During Inpatient Rounds: Opportunities for Improvement in Patient Engagement and Communication JOURNAL OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE Blankenburg, R., Hilton, J. F., Yuan, P., Rennke, S., Monash, B., Harman, S. M., Sakai, D. S., Hosamani, P., Khan, A., Chua, I., Huynh, E., Shieh, L., Xie, L., Satterfield, J. M. 2018; 13 (7): 453–61

    View details for DOI 10.12788/jhm.2909

    View details for Web of Science ID 000437294500002

  • Prediction of Acute Kidney Injury With a Machine Learning Algorithm Using Electronic Health Record Data. Canadian journal of kidney health and disease Mohamadlou, H., Lynn-Palevsky, A., Barton, C., Chettipally, U., Shieh, L., Calvert, J., Saber, N. R., Das, R. 2018; 5: 2054358118776326

    Abstract

    A major problem in treating acute kidney injury (AKI) is that clinical criteria for recognition are markers of established kidney damage or impaired function; treatment before such damage manifests is desirable. Clinicians could intervene during what may be a crucial stage for preventing permanent kidney injury if patients with incipient AKI and those at high risk of developing AKI could be identified.In this study, we evaluate a machine learning algorithm for early detection and prediction of AKI.We used a machine learning technique, boosted ensembles of decision trees, to train an AKI prediction tool on retrospective data taken from more than 300 000 inpatient encounters.Data were collected from inpatient wards at Stanford Medical Center and intensive care unit patients at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.Patients older than the age of 18 whose hospital stays lasted between 5 and 1000 hours and who had at least one documented measurement of heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, serum creatinine (SCr), and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS).We tested the algorithm's ability to detect AKI at onset and to predict AKI 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours before onset.We tested AKI detection and prediction using the National Health Service (NHS) England AKI Algorithm as a gold standard. We additionally tested the algorithm's ability to detect AKI as defined by the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) guidelines. We compared the algorithm's 3-fold cross-validation performance to the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score for AKI identification in terms of area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC).The algorithm demonstrated high AUROC for detecting and predicting NHS-defined AKI at all tested time points. The algorithm achieves AUROC of 0.872 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.867-0.878) for AKI detection at time of onset. For prediction 12 hours before onset, the algorithm achieves an AUROC of 0.800 (95% CI, 0.792-0.809). For 24-hour predictions, the algorithm achieves AUROC of 0.795 (95% CI, 0.785-0.804). For 48-hour and 72-hour predictions, the algorithm achieves AUROC values of 0.761 (95% CI, 0.753-0.768) and 0.728 (95% CI, 0.719-0.737), respectively.Because of the retrospective nature of this study, we cannot draw any conclusions about the impact the algorithm's predictions will have on patient outcomes in a clinical setting.The results of these experiments suggest that a machine learning-based AKI prediction tool may offer important prognostic capabilities for determining which patients are likely to suffer AKI, potentially allowing clinicians to intervene before kidney damage manifests.

    View details for DOI 10.1177/2054358118776326

    View details for PubMedID 30094049

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC6080076

  • Impact of problem-based charting on the utilization and accuracy of the electronic problem list JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL INFORMATICS ASSOCIATION Li, R. C., Garg, T., Cun, T., Shieh, L., Krishnan, G., Fang, D., Chen, J. H. 2018; 25 (5): 548–54
  • Shared Decision-Making During Inpatient Rounds: Opportunities for Improvement in Patient Engagement and Communication. Journal of hospital medicine Blankenburg, R., Hilton, J. F., Yuan, P., Rennke, S., Monash, B., Harman, S. M., Sakai, D. S., Hosamani, P., Khan, A., Chua, I., Huynh, E., Shieh, L., Xie, L. 2018

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Shared decision-making (SDM) improves patient engagement and may improve outpatient health outcomes. Little is known about inpatient SDM.OBJECTIVE: To assess overall quality, provider behaviors, and contextual predictors of SDM during inpatient rounds on medicine and pediatrics hospitalist services.DESIGN: A 12-week, cross-sectional, single-blinded observational study of team SDM behaviors during rounds, followed by semistructured patient interviews.SETTING: Two large quaternary care academic medical centers.PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-five inpatient teams (18 medicine, 17 pediatrics) and 254 unique patient encounters (117 medicine, 137 pediatrics).INTERVENTION: Observational study.MEASUREMENTS: We used a 9-item Rochester Participatory Decision-Making Scale (RPAD) measured team-level SDM behaviors. Same-day interviews using a modified RPAD assessed patient perceptions of SDM.RESULTS: Characteristics associated with increased SDM in the multivariate analysis included the following: service, patient gender, timing of rounds during patient's hospital stay, and amount of time rounding per patient (P < .05). The most frequently observed behaviors across all services included explaining the clinical issue and matching medical language to the patient's level of understanding. The least frequently observed behaviors included checking understanding of the patient's point of view, examining barriers to follow-through, and asking if the patient has any questions. Patients and guardians had substantially higher ratings for SDM quality compared to peer observers (7.2 vs 4.4 out of 9).CONCLUSIONS: Important opportunities exist to improve inpatient SDM. Team size, number of learners, patient census, and type of decision being made did not affect SDM, suggesting that even large, busy services can perform SDM if properly trained.

    View details for PubMedID 29401211

  • Night-time communication at Stanford University Hospital: perceptions, reality and solutions BMJ QUALITY & SAFETY Sun, A., Wang, L., Go, M., Eggers, Z., Deng, R., Maggio, P., Shieh, L. 2018; 27 (2): 156–62

    Abstract

    Resident work hour restrictions have led to the creation of the 'night float' to care for the patients of multiple primary teams after hours. These residents are often inundated with acute issues in the numerous patients they cover and are less able to address non-urgent issues that arise at night. Further, non-urgent pages may contribute to physician alarm fatigue and negatively impact patient outcomes.To delineate the burden of non-urgent paging at night and propose solutions.We performed a resident review and categorisation of 1820 pages to night floats between September 2014 and December 2014. Both attending and nursing review of 10% of pages was done and compared.Of reviewed pages, 62.1% were urgent and 27.7% were non-urgent. Attending review of random page samples correlated well with resident review. Common reasons for non-urgent pages were non-urgent patient status updates, low-priority order requests and non-critical lab values.A significant number of non-urgent pages are sent at night. These pages likely distract from acute issues that arise at night and place an unnecessary burden on night floats. Both behavioural and systemic adjustments are needed to address this issue. Possible interventions include integrating low-priority messaging into the electronic health record system and use of charge nurses to help determine urgency of issues and batch non-urgent pages.

    View details for PubMedID 29055898

  • Lean-Based Redesign of Multidisciplinary Rounds on General Medicine Service. Journal of hospital medicine Kane, M. n., Rohatgi, N. n., Heidenreich, P. n., Thakur, A. n., Winget, M. n., Shum, K. n., Hereford, J. n., Shieh, L. n., Lew, T. n., Horn, J. n., Chi, J. n., Weinacker, A. n., Seay-Morrison, T. n., Ahuja, N. n. 2018

    Abstract

    Multidisciplinary rounds (MDR) facilitate timely communication amongst the care team and with patients. We used Lean techniques to redesign MDR on the teaching general medicine service.To examine if our Lean-based new model of MDR was associated with change in the primary outcome of length of stay (LOS) and secondary outcomes of discharges before noon, documentation of estimated discharge date (EDD), and patient satisfaction.This is a pre-post study. The preperiod (in which the old model of MDR was followed) comprised 4000 patients discharged between September 1, 2013, and October 22, 2014. The postperiod (in which the new model of MDR was followed) comprised 2085 patients between October 23, 2014, and April 30, 2015.Lean-based redesign of MDR.LOS, discharges before noon, EDD, and patient satisfaction.There was no change in the mean LOS. Discharges before noon increased from 6.9% to 10.7% (P < .001). Recording of EDD increased from 31.4% to 41.3% (P < .001). There was no change in patient satisfaction.Lean-based redesign of MDR was associated with an increase in discharges before noon and in recording of EDD.

    View details for PubMedID 29394300

  • Attitudes and Perceptions of Medical Trainees Towards an Electronic Medical Alert System for Sepsis Swenson, K., Ferguson, J., Shieh, L., Rogers, A. AMER THORACIC SOC. 2018
  • Impact of problem-based charting on the utilization and accuracy of the electronic problem list. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA Li, R. C., Garg, T. n., Cun, T. n., Shieh, L. n., Krishnan, G. n., Fang, D. n., Chen, J. H. 2018

    Abstract

    Problem-based charting (PBC) is a method for clinician documentation in commercially available electronic medical record systems that integrates note writing and problem list management. We report the effect of PBC on problem list utilization and accuracy at an academic intensive care unit (ICU).An interrupted time series design was used to assess the effect of PBC on problem list utilization, which is defined as the number of new problems added to the problem list by clinicians per patient encounter, and of problem list accuracy, which was determined by calculating the recall and precision of the problem list in capturing 5 common ICU diagnoses.In total, 3650 and 4344 patient records were identified before and after PBC implementation at Stanford Hospital. An increase of 2.18 problems (>50% increase) in the mean number of new problems added to the problem list per patient encounter can be attributed to the initiation of PBC. There was a significant increase in recall attributed to the initiation of PBC for sepsis (β = 0.45, P < .001) and acute renal failure (β = 0.2, P = .007), but not for acute respiratory failure, pneumonia, or venous thromboembolism.The problem list is an underutilized component of the electronic medical record that can be a source of clinician-structured data representing the patient's clinical condition in real time. PBC is a readily available tool that can integrate problem list management into physician workflow.PBC improved problem list utilization and accuracy at an academic ICU.

    View details for PubMedID 29360995

  • Multicentre validation of a sepsis prediction algorithm using only vital sign data in the emergency department, general ward and ICU BMJ OPEN Mao, Q., Jay, M., Hoffman, J. L., Calvert, J., Barton, C., Shimabukuro, D., Shieh, L., Chettipally, U., Fletcher, G., Kerem, Y., Zhou, Y., Das, R. 2018; 8 (1): e017833

    Abstract

    We validate a machine learning-based sepsis-prediction algorithm (InSight) for the detection and prediction of three sepsis-related gold standards, using only six vital signs. We evaluate robustness to missing data, customisation to site-specific data using transfer learning and generalisability to new settings.A machine-learning algorithm with gradient tree boosting. Features for prediction were created from combinations of six vital sign measurements and their changes over time.A mixed-ward retrospective dataset from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center (San Francisco, California, USA) as the primary source, an intensive care unit dataset from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) as a transfer-learning source and four additional institutions' datasets to evaluate generalisability.684 443 total encounters, with 90 353 encounters from June 2011 to March 2016 at UCSF.None.Area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve for detection and prediction of sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock.For detection of sepsis and severe sepsis, InSight achieves an AUROC curve of 0.92 (95% CI 0.90 to 0.93) and 0.87 (95% CI 0.86 to 0.88), respectively. Four hours before onset, InSight predicts septic shock with an AUROC of 0.96 (95% CI 0.94 to 0.98) and severe sepsis with an AUROC of 0.85 (95% CI 0.79 to 0.91).InSight outperforms existing sepsis scoring systems in identifying and predicting sepsis, severe sepsis and septic shock. This is the first sepsis screening system to exceed an AUROC of 0.90 using only vital sign inputs. InSight is robust to missing data, can be customised to novel hospital data using a small fraction of site data and retains strong discrimination across all institutions.

    View details for PubMedID 29374661

  • EMR-based handoff tool improves completeness of internal medicine residents' handoffs. BMJ open quality Tisdale, R. L., Eggers, Z., Shieh, L. 2018; 7 (3): e000188

    Abstract

    Background: The majority of adverse events in healthcare involve communication breakdown. Physician-to-physician handoffs are particularly prone to communication errors, yet have been shown to be more complete when systematised according to a standardised bundle. Interventions that improve thoroughness of handoffs have not been widely studied.Aim: To measure the effect of an electronic medical record (EMR)-based handoff tool on handoff completeness.Intervention: This EMR-based handoff tool included a radio button prompting users to classify patients as stable, a 'watcher' or unstable. It automatically pulled in EMR data on the patient's 24-hour vitals, common lab tests and code status. Finally, it provided text boxes labelled 'Active Issues', 'Action List (To-Dos)' and 'If/Then' to fill in.Implementation and evaluation: Written handoffs from general and specialty (haematology, oncology, cardiology) Internal Medicine resident-run inpatient wards were evaluated on a randomly chosen representative sample of days in April and May 2015 at Stanford University Medical Center, focusing on a predefined set of content elements. The intervention was then implemented in June 2015 with postintervention data collected in an identical fashion in August to September 2016.Results: Handoff completeness improved significantly (p<0.0001). Improvement in inclusion of illness severity was notable for its magnitude and its importance in establishing a consistent mental model of a patient. Elements that automatically pulled in data and those prompting users to actively fill in data both improved.Conclusion: A simple EMR-based handoff tool providing a mix of frameworks for completion and automatic pull-in of objective data improved handoff completeness. This suggests that EMR-based interventions may be effective at improving handoffs, possibly leading to fewer medical errors and better patient care.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/bmjoq-2017-000188

    View details for PubMedID 30019013

  • A high value care curriculum for interns: a description of curricular design, implementation and housestaff feedback POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL JOURNAL Hom, J., Kumar, A., Evans, K. H., Svec, D., Richman, I., Fang, D., Smeraglio, A., Holubar, M., Johnson, T., Shah, N., Renault, C., Ahuja, N., Witteles, R., Harman, S., Shieh, L. 2017; 93 (1106): 725–29
  • Real-Time Clinical Decision Support Decreases Inappropriate Plasma Transfusion AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PATHOLOGY Shah, N., Baker, S. A., Spain, D., Shieh, L., Shepard, J., Hadhazy, E., Maggio, P., Goodnough, L. T. 2017; 148 (2): 154–60

    Abstract

    To curtail inappropriate plasma transfusions, we instituted clinical decision support as an alert upon order entry if the patient's recent international normalized ratio (INR) was 1.7 or less.The alert was suppressed for massive transfusion and within operative or apheresis settings. The plasma order was automatically removed upon alert acceptance while clinical exception reasons allowed for continued transfusion. Alert impact was studied comparing a 7-month control period with a 4-month intervention period.Monthly plasma utilization decreased 17.4%, from a mean ± SD of 3.40 ± 0.48 to 2.82 ± 0.6 plasma units per hundred patient days (95% confidence interval [CI] of difference, -0.1 to 1.3). Plasma transfused below an INR of 1.7 or less decreased from 47.6% to 41.6% (P = .0002; odds ratio, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.69-0.89). The alert recommendation was accepted 33% of the time while clinical exceptions were chosen in the remaining cases (active bleeding, 31%; other clinical indication, 33%; and apheresis, 2%). Alert acceptance rate varied significantly among different provider specialties.Clinical decision support can help curtail inappropriate plasma use but needs to be part of a comprehensive strategy including audit and feedback for comprehensive, long-term changes.

    View details for PubMedID 28898990

  • Patient Ratings of Veterans Affairs and Affiliated Hospitals AMERICAN JOURNAL OF MANAGED CARE Heidenreich, P. A., Zapata, A., Shieh, L., Oliva, N., Sahay, A. 2017; 23 (6): 382-+

    Abstract

    Hospital Compare, a website maintained by CMS, allows comparisons of outcomes and processes of care but not of patient satisfaction for hospitals within the Veteran Affairs (VA) Healthcare System. Therefore, we sought to compare online hospital ratings between VA hospitals and their local affiliated hospitals.Observational analysis.We identified 39 VA hospitals and a non-VA affiliated hospital with at least 2 online Yelp ratings. We determined the difference in the mean rating (VA-affiliate rating) with weighting by the number of ratings for each hospital. We used multivariate regression to compare mean Yelp ratings between VA and non-VA affiliate hospitals, adjusting for hospital characteristics (bed size, teaching status, and accreditation).The mean patient rating for VA hospitals (± standard deviation) was higher (3.64 ± 1.0) than the rating for affiliated hospitals (3.09 ± 0.8; P = .0036). There was no significant correlation in rating between a VA hospital and its affiliate (r = 0.07; P = .59). After adjustment for hospital characteristics, the adjusted rating difference (VA-affiliate hospitals) was 0.65 (95% confidence interval, 0.18-1.12).VA hospitals had higher patient ratings than their non-VA affiliated hospitals, a finding not explained by bed size or teaching status.

    View details for Web of Science ID 000405277900010

    View details for PubMedID 28817300

  • Barriers to timely discharge from the general medicine service at an academic teaching hospital. Postgraduate medical journal Ragavan, M. V., Svec, D., Shieh, L. 2017

    Abstract

    Reducing delays for patients who are safe to be discharged is important for minimising complications, managing costs and improving quality. Barriers to discharge include placement, multispecialty coordination of care and ineffective communication. There are a few recent studies that describe barriers from the perspective of all members of the multidisciplinary team.To identify the barriers to discharge for patients from our medicine service who had a discharge delay of over 24 hours.We developed and implemented a biweekly survey that was reviewed with attending physicians on each of the five medicine services to identify patients with an unnecessary delay. Separately, we conducted interviews with staff members involved in the discharge process to identify common barriers they observed on the wards.Over the study period from 28 October to 22 November 2013, out of 259 total discharges, 87 patients had a delay of over 24 hours (33.6%) and experienced a total of 181 barriers. The top barriers from the survey included patient readiness, prolonged wait times for procedures or results, consult recommendations and facility placement. A total of 20 interviews were conducted, from which the top barriers included communication both between staff members and with the patient, timely notification of discharge and lack of discharge standardisation.There are a number of frequent barriers to discharge encountered in our hospital that may be avoidable with planning, effective communication methods, more timely preparation and tools to standardise the discharge process.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2016-134529

    View details for PubMedID 28450581

  • Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock: 2016. Critical care medicine Rhodes, A., Evans, L. E., Alhazzani, W., Levy, M. M., Antonelli, M., Ferrer, R., Kumar, A., Sevransky, J. E., Sprung, C. L., Nunnally, M. E., Rochwerg, B., Rubenfeld, G. D., Angus, D. C., Annane, D., Beale, R. J., Bellinghan, G. J., Bernard, G. R., Chiche, J., Coopersmith, C., De Backer, D. P., French, C. J., Fujishima, S., Gerlach, H., Hidalgo, J. L., Hollenberg, S. M., Jones, A. E., Karnad, D. R., Kleinpell, R. M., Koh, Y., Lisboa, T. C., Machado, F. R., Marini, J. J., Marshall, J. C., Mazuski, J. E., McIntyre, L. A., McLean, A. S., Mehta, S., Moreno, R. P., Myburgh, J., Navalesi, P., Nishida, O., Osborn, T. M., Perner, A., Plunkett, C. M., Ranieri, M., Schorr, C. A., Seckel, M. A., Seymour, C. W., Shieh, L., Shukri, K. A., Simpson, S. Q., Singer, M., Thompson, B. T., Townsend, S. R., van der Poll, T., Vincent, J., Wiersinga, W. J., Zimmerman, J. L., Dellinger, R. P. 2017; 45 (3): 486-552

    Abstract

    To provide an update to "Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock: 2012."A consensus committee of 55 international experts representing 25 international organizations was convened. Nominal groups were assembled at key international meetings (for those committee members attending the conference). A formal conflict-of-interest (COI) policy was developed at the onset of the process and enforced throughout. A stand-alone meeting was held for all panel members in December 2015. Teleconferences and electronic-based discussion among subgroups and among the entire committee served as an integral part of the development.The panel consisted of five sections: hemodynamics, infection, adjunctive therapies, metabolic, and ventilation. Population, intervention, comparison, and outcomes (PICO) questions were reviewed and updated as needed, and evidence profiles were generated. Each subgroup generated a list of questions, searched for best available evidence, and then followed the principles of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system to assess the quality of evidence from high to very low, and to formulate recommendations as strong or weak, or best practice statement when applicable.The Surviving Sepsis Guideline panel provided 93 statements on early management and resuscitation of patients with sepsis or septic shock. Overall, 32 were strong recommendations, 39 were weak recommendations, and 18 were best-practice statements. No recommendation was provided for four questions.Substantial agreement exists among a large cohort of international experts regarding many strong recommendations for the best care of patients with sepsis. Although a significant number of aspects of care have relatively weak support, evidence-based recommendations regarding the acute management of sepsis and septic shock are the foundation of improved outcomes for these critically ill patients with high mortality.

    View details for DOI 10.1097/CCM.0000000000002255

    View details for PubMedID 28098591

  • Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock: 2016. Intensive care medicine Rhodes, A., Evans, L. E., Alhazzani, W., Levy, M. M., Antonelli, M., Ferrer, R., Kumar, A., Sevransky, J. E., Sprung, C. L., Nunnally, M. E., Rochwerg, B., Rubenfeld, G. D., Angus, D. C., Annane, D., Beale, R. J., Bellinghan, G. J., Bernard, G. R., Chiche, J., Coopersmith, C., De Backer, D. P., French, C. J., Fujishima, S., Gerlach, H., Hidalgo, J. L., Hollenberg, S. M., Jones, A. E., Karnad, D. R., Kleinpell, R. M., Koh, Y., Lisboa, T. C., Machado, F. R., Marini, J. J., Marshall, J. C., Mazuski, J. E., McIntyre, L. A., McLean, A. S., Mehta, S., Moreno, R. P., Myburgh, J., Navalesi, P., Nishida, O., Osborn, T. M., Perner, A., Plunkett, C. M., Ranieri, M., Schorr, C. A., Seckel, M. A., Seymour, C. W., Shieh, L., Shukri, K. A., Simpson, S. Q., Singer, M., Thompson, B. T., Townsend, S. R., van der Poll, T., Vincent, J., Wiersinga, W. J., Zimmerman, J. L., Dellinger, R. P. 2017; 43 (3): 304-377

    Abstract

    To provide an update to "Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock: 2012".A consensus committee of 55 international experts representing 25 international organizations was convened. Nominal groups were assembled at key international meetings (for those committee members attending the conference). A formal conflict-of-interest (COI) policy was developed at the onset of the process and enforced throughout. A stand-alone meeting was held for all panel members in December 2015. Teleconferences and electronic-based discussion among subgroups and among the entire committee served as an integral part of the development.The panel consisted of five sections: hemodynamics, infection, adjunctive therapies, metabolic, and ventilation. Population, intervention, comparison, and outcomes (PICO) questions were reviewed and updated as needed, and evidence profiles were generated. Each subgroup generated a list of questions, searched for best available evidence, and then followed the principles of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system to assess the quality of evidence from high to very low, and to formulate recommendations as strong or weak, or best practice statement when applicable.The Surviving Sepsis Guideline panel provided 93 statements on early management and resuscitation of patients with sepsis or septic shock. Overall, 32 were strong recommendations, 39 were weak recommendations, and 18 were best-practice statements. No recommendation was provided for four questions.Substantial agreement exists among a large cohort of international experts regarding many strong recommendations for the best care of patients with sepsis. Although a significant number of aspects of care have relatively weak support, evidence-based recommendations regarding the acute management of sepsis and septic shock are the foundation of improved outcomes for these critically ill patients with high mortality.

    View details for DOI 10.1007/s00134-017-4683-6

    View details for PubMedID 28101605

  • A high value care curriculum for interns: a description of curricular design, implementation and housestaff feedback. Postgraduate medical journal Hom, J. n., Kumar, A. n., Evans, K. H., Svec, D. n., Richman, I. n., Fang, D. n., Smeraglio, A. n., Holubar, M. n., Johnson, T. n., Shah, N. n., Renault, C. n., Ahuja, N. n., Witteles, R. n., Harman, S. n., Shieh, L. n. 2017

    Abstract

    Most residency programmes do not have a formal high value care curriculum. Our goal was to design and implement a multidisciplinary high value care curriculum specifically targeted at interns.Our curriculum was designed with multidisciplinary input from attendings, fellows and residents at Stanford. Curricular topics were inspired by the American Board of Internal Medicine's Choosing Wisely campaign, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians and Society of Hospital Medicine. Our topics were as follows: introduction to value-based care; telemetry utilisation; lab ordering; optimal approach to thrombophilia work-ups and fresh frozen plasma use; optimal approach to palliative care referrals; antibiotic stewardship; and optimal approach to imaging for low back pain. Our curriculum was implemented at the Stanford Internal Medicine residency programme over the course of two academic years (2014 and 2015), during which 100 interns participated in our high value care curriculum. After each high value care session, interns were offered the opportunity to complete surveys regarding feedback on the curriculum, self-reported improvements in knowledge, skills and attitudinal module objectives, and quiz-based knowledge assessments.The overall survey response rate was 67.1%. Overall, the material was rated as highly useful on a 5-point Likert scale (mean 4.4, SD 0.6). On average, interns reported a significant improvement in their self-rated knowledge, skills and attitudes after the six seminars (mean improvement 1.6 points, SD 0.4 (95% CI 1.5 to 1.7), p<0.001).We successfully implemented a novel high value care curriculum that specifically targets intern physicians.

    View details for PubMedID 28663352

  • Magnitude of Potentially Inappropriate Thrombophilia Testing in the Inpatient Hospital Setting. Journal of hospital medicine Mou, E. n., Kwang, H. n., Hom, J. n., Shieh, L. n., Kumar, A. n., Richman, I. n., Berube, C. n. 2017; 12 (9): 735–38

    Abstract

    Laboratory costs of thrombophilia testing exceed an estimated $650 million (in US dollars) annually. Quantifying the prevalence and financial impact of potentially inappropriate testing in the inpatient hospital setting represents an integral component of the effort to reduce healthcare expenditures. We conducted a retrospective analysis of our electronic medical record to evaluate 2 years' worth of inpatient thrombophilia testing measured against preformulated appropriateness criteria. Cost data were obtained from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 2016 Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule. Of the 1817 orders analyzed, 777 (42.7%) were potentially inappropriate, with an associated cost of $40,422. The tests most frequently inappropriately ordered were Factor V Leiden, prothrombin gene mutation, protein C and S activity levels, antithrombin activity levels, and the lupus anticoagulant. Potentially inappropriate thrombophilia testing is common and costly. These data demonstrate a need for institution-wide changes in order to reduce unnecessary expenditures and improve patient care.

    View details for PubMedID 28914278

  • The SDM 3 Circle Model: A Literature Synthesis and Adaptation for Shared Decision Making in the Hospital. Journal of hospital medicine Rennke, S. n., Yuan, P. n., Monash, B. n., Blankenburg, R. n., Chua, I. n., Harman, S. n., Sakai, D. S., Khan, A. n., Hilton, J. F., Shieh, L. n., Satterfield, J. n. 2017; 12 (12): 1001–8

    Abstract

    Patient engagement through shared decision-making (SDM) is increasingly seen as a key component for patient safety, patient satisfaction, and quality of care. Current SDM models do not adequately account for medical and environmental contexts, which may influence medical decisions in the hospital. We identified leading SDM models and reviews to inductively construct a novel SDM model appropriate for the inpatient setting. A team of medicine and pediatric hospitalists reviewed the literature to integrate core SDM concepts and processes and iteratively constructed a synthesized draft model. We then solicited broad SDM expert feedback on the draft model for validation and further refinement. The SDM 3 Circle Model identifies 3 core categories of variables that dynamically interact within an "environmental frame." The resulting Venn diagram includes overlapping circles for (1) patient/family, (2) provider/team, and (3) medical context. The environmental frame includes all external, contextual factors that may influence any of the 3 circles. Existing multistep SDM process models were then rearticulated and contextualized to illustrate how a shared decision might be made. The SDM 3 Circle Model accounts for important environmental and contextual characteristics that vary across settings. The visual emphasis generated by each "circle" and by the environmental frame direct attention to often overlooked interactive forces and has the potential to more precisely define, promote, and improve SDM. This model provides a framework to develop interventions to improve quality and patient safety through SDM and patient engagement for hospitalists.

    View details for PubMedID 29073314

  • Prevalence and Financial Impact of Inappropriate Thrombophilia Testing in the Inpatient Hospital Setting: A Retrospective Analysis Mou, E., Kwang, H., Hom, J., Shieh, L., Ahuja, N., Harman, S., Johnson, T., Kumar, A., Shah, N., Witteles, R., Berube, C. AMER SOC HEMATOLOGY. 2016
  • Prediction of Sepsis in the Intensive Care Unit With Minimal Electronic Health Record Data: A Machine Learning Approach. JMIR medical informatics Desautels, T., Calvert, J., Hoffman, J., Jay, M., Kerem, Y., Shieh, L., Shimabukuro, D., Chettipally, U., Feldman, M. D., Barton, C., Wales, D. J., Das, R. 2016; 4 (3)

    Abstract

    Sepsis is one of the leading causes of mortality in hospitalized patients. Despite this fact, a reliable means of predicting sepsis onset remains elusive. Early and accurate sepsis onset predictions could allow more aggressive and targeted therapy while maintaining antimicrobial stewardship. Existing detection methods suffer from low performance and often require time-consuming laboratory test results.To study and validate a sepsis prediction method, InSight, for the new Sepsis-3 definitions in retrospective data, make predictions using a minimal set of variables from within the electronic health record data, compare the performance of this approach with existing scoring systems, and investigate the effects of data sparsity on InSight performance.We apply InSight, a machine learning classification system that uses multivariable combinations of easily obtained patient data (vitals, peripheral capillary oxygen saturation, Glasgow Coma Score, and age), to predict sepsis using the retrospective Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care (MIMIC)-III dataset, restricted to intensive care unit (ICU) patients aged 15 years or more. Following the Sepsis-3 definitions of the sepsis syndrome, we compare the classification performance of InSight versus quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA), modified early warning score (MEWS), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), simplified acute physiology score (SAPS) II, and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) to determine whether or not patients will become septic at a fixed period of time before onset. We also test the robustness of the InSight system to random deletion of individual input observations.In a test dataset with 11.3% sepsis prevalence, InSight produced superior classification performance compared with the alternative scores as measured by area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC) and area under precision-recall curves (APR). In detection of sepsis onset, InSight attains AUROC = 0.880 (SD 0.006) at onset time and APR = 0.595 (SD 0.016), both of which are superior to the performance attained by SIRS (AUROC: 0.609; APR: 0.160), qSOFA (AUROC: 0.772; APR: 0.277), and MEWS (AUROC: 0.803; APR: 0.327) computed concurrently, as well as SAPS II (AUROC: 0.700; APR: 0.225) and SOFA (AUROC: 0.725; APR: 0.284) computed at admission (P<.001 for all comparisons). Similar results are observed for 1-4 hours preceding sepsis onset. In experiments where approximately 60% of input data are deleted at random, InSight attains an AUROC of 0.781 (SD 0.013) and APR of 0.401 (SD 0.015) at sepsis onset time. Even with 60% of data missing, InSight remains superior to the corresponding SIRS scores (AUROC and APR, P<.001), qSOFA scores (P=.0095; P<.001) and superior to SOFA and SAPS II computed at admission (AUROC and APR, P<.001), where all of these comparison scores (except InSight) are computed without data deletion.Despite using little more than vitals, InSight is an effective tool for predicting sepsis onset and performs well even with randomly missing data.

    View details for PubMedID 27694098

  • Hand hygiene of medical students and resident physicians: predictors of attitudes and behaviour. Postgraduate medical journal Barroso, V., Caceres, W., Loftus, P., Evans, K. H., Shieh, L. 2016; 92 (1091): 497-500

    Abstract

    We measured medical students' and resident trainees' hand hygiene behaviour, knowledge and attitudes in order to identify important predictors of hand hygiene behaviour in this population.An anonymous, web-based questionnaire was distributed to medical students and residents at Stanford University School of Medicine in August of 2012. The questionnaire included questions regarding participants' behaviour, knowledge, attitude and experiences about hand hygiene. Behaviour, knowledge and attitude indices were scaled from 0 to 1, with 1 representing superior responses. Using multivariate regression, we identified positive and negative predictors of superior hand hygiene behaviour. We investigated effectiveness of interventions, barriers and comfort reminding others.280 participants (111 students and 169 residents) completed the questionnaire (response rate 27.8%). Residents and medical students reported hand hygiene behaviour compliance of 0.45 and 0.55, respectively (p=0.02). Resident and medical student knowledge was 0.80 and 0.73, respectively (p=0.001). The attitude index for residents was 0.56 and 0.55 for medical students. Regression analysis identified experiences as predictors of hand hygiene behaviour (both positive and negative influence). Knowledge was not a significant predictor of behaviour, but a working gel dispenser and observing attending physicians with good hand hygiene practices were reported by both groups as the most effective strategy in influencing trainees.Medical students and residents have similar attitudes about hand hygiene, but differ in their level of knowledge and compliance. Concerns about hierarchy may have a significant negative impact on hand hygiene advocacy.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2015-133509

    View details for PubMedID 26912501

  • Hand hygiene of medical students and resident physicians: predictors of attitudes and behaviour BMJ Postgraduate Medical Journal Barroso, V., Caceres, W., Loftus, P., Evans, K., Shieh, L. 2016: 497-500

    Abstract

    We measured medical students' and resident trainees' hand hygiene behaviour, knowledge and attitudes in order to identify important predictors of hand hygiene behaviour in this population.An anonymous, web-based questionnaire was distributed to medical students and residents at Stanford University School of Medicine in August of 2012. The questionnaire included questions regarding participants' behaviour, knowledge, attitude and experiences about hand hygiene. Behaviour, knowledge and attitude indices were scaled from 0 to 1, with 1 representing superior responses. Using multivariate regression, we identified positive and negative predictors of superior hand hygiene behaviour. We investigated effectiveness of interventions, barriers and comfort reminding others.280 participants (111 students and 169 residents) completed the questionnaire (response rate 27.8%). Residents and medical students reported hand hygiene behaviour compliance of 0.45 and 0.55, respectively (p=0.02). Resident and medical student knowledge was 0.80 and 0.73, respectively (p=0.001). The attitude index for residents was 0.56 and 0.55 for medical students. Regression analysis identified experiences as predictors of hand hygiene behaviour (both positive and negative influence). Knowledge was not a significant predictor of behaviour, but a working gel dispenser and observing attending physicians with good hand hygiene practices were reported by both groups as the most effective strategy in influencing trainees.Medical students and residents have similar attitudes about hand hygiene, but differ in their level of knowledge and compliance. Concerns about hierarchy may have a significant negative impact on hand hygiene advocacy.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2015-133509

  • GOT SDM?: A MULTIMODAL INTERVENTION TO IMPROVE SHARED DECISION-MAKING DURING INPATIENT ROUNDS ON MEDICINE AND PEDIATRIC SERVICES Blankenburg, R., Rennke, S., Sakai, D. S., Harman, S. M., Yuan, P., Hosamani, P., Xie, L., Shieh, L., Chua, I., Khan, A., Huynh, E., Satterfield, J., Monash, B. SPRINGER. 2016: S233–S234
  • LOS OUTLIERS: A CHALLENGING PROBLEM FOR BOTH THE TEACHING AND PRIVATE NON-TEACHING GENERAL MEDICINE SERVICES AT STANFORD HOSPITAL Ketchersid, J., Shieh, L., Ahuja, N. K., Chi, J., Hom, J. SPRINGER. 2016: S294
  • SHARED DECISION MAKING DURING INPATIENT ROUNDS: OPPORTUNITIES FOR BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION Satterfield, J., Blankenburg, R., Monash, B., Yuan, P., Harman, S., Hilton, J. F., Sakai, D. S., Chua, I., Huynh, E., Hosamani, P., Khan, A., Shieh, L., Xie, L., Reinke, S. OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC. 2016: S298
  • Validation of Test Performance and Clinical Time Zero for an Electronic Health Record Embedded Severe Sepsis Alert. Applied clinical informatics Rolnick, J., Downing, N. L., Shepard, J., Chu, W., Tam, J., Wessels, A., Li, R., Dietrich, B., Rudy, M., Castaneda, L., Shieh, L. 2016; 7 (2): 560-572

    Abstract

    Increasing use of EHRs has generated interest in the potential of computerized clinical decision support to improve treatment of sepsis. Electronic sepsis alerts have had mixed results due to poor test characteristics, the inability to detect sepsis in a timely fashion and the use of outside software limiting widespread adoption. We describe the development, evaluation and validation of an accurate and timely severe sepsis alert with the potential to impact sepsis management.To develop, evaluate, and validate an accurate and timely severe sepsis alert embedded in a commercial EHR.The sepsis alert was developed by identifying the most common severe sepsis criteria among a cohort of patients with ICD 9 codes indicating a diagnosis of sepsis. This alert requires criteria in three categories: indicators of a systemic inflammatory response, evidence of suspected infection from physician orders, and markers of organ dysfunction. Chart review was used to evaluate test performance and the ability to detect clinical time zero, the point in time when a patient develops severe sepsis.Two physicians reviewed 100 positive cases and 75 negative cases. Based on this review, sensitivity was 74.5%, specificity was 86.0%, the positive predictive value was 50.3%, and the negative predictive value was 94.7%. The most common source of end-organ dysfunction was MAP less than 70 mm/Hg (59%). The alert was triggered at clinical time zero in 41% of cases and within three hours in 53.6% of cases. 96% of alerts triggered before a manual nurse screen.We are the first to report the time between a sepsis alert and physician chart-review clinical time zero. Incorporating physician orders in the alert criteria improves specificity while maintaining sensitivity, which is important to reduce alert fatigue. By leveraging standard EHR functionality, this alert could be implemented by other healthcare systems.

    View details for DOI 10.4338/ACI-2015-11-RA-0159

    View details for PubMedID 27437061

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4941860

  • Hospitalist intervention for appropriate use of telemetry reduces length of stay and cost JOURNAL OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE Svec, D., Ahuja, N., Evans, K. H., Hom, J., Garg, T., Loftus, P., Shieh, L. 2015; 10 (9): 627-632

    View details for DOI 10.1002/jhm.2411

    View details for Web of Science ID 000360836000012

  • Decreasing Inappropriate Plasma (FFP) Transfusion with Real-time Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Shah, N., Shepard, J., Hadhazy, E., Spain, D., Shieh, L., Maggio, P., Goodnough, L. T. WILEY-BLACKWELL. 2015: 107A-108A
  • Improving and sustaining a reduction in iatrogenic pneumothorax through a multifaceted quality-improvement approach JOURNAL OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE Shieh, L., Go, M., Gessner, D., Chen, J. H., Hopkins, J., Maggio, P. 2015; 10 (9): 599-607

    Abstract

    The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has adopted iatrogenic pneumothorax (IAP) as a Patient Safety Indicator. In 2006, in response to a low performance ranking for IAP rate from the University Healthsystem Consortium (UHC), the authors established a multidisciplinary team to reduce our institution's IAP rate. Root-cause analysis found that subclavian insertion of central venous catheterization (CVC) was the most common procedure associated with IAP OBJECTIVE: Our short-term goal was a 50% reduction of both CVC-associated and all-cause IAP rates within 18 months, with long-term goals of sustained reduction.Observational study.Academic tertiary care hospital.Consecutive inpatients from 2006 to 2014.Our multifaceted intervention included: (1) clinical and documentation standards based on evidence, (2) cognitive aids, (3) simulation training, (4) purchase and deployment of ultrasound equipment, and (5) feedback to clinical services.CVC-associated IAP, all-cause IAP rate.We achieved both a short-term (years 2006 to 2008) and long-term (years 2006 to 2008-2014) reduction in our CVC-associated and all-cause IAP rates. Our short-term reduction in our CVC-associated IAP was 53% (P = 0.088), and our long-term reduction was 85% (P < 0.0001). Our short-term reduction in the all-cause IAP rate was 26% (P < 0.0001), and our long-term reduction was 61% (P < 0.0001).A multidisciplinary team, focused on evidence, patient safety, and standardization, can use a set of multifaceted interventions to sustainably improve patient outcomes for several years after implementation. Our hospital was in the highest performance UHC quartile for all-cause IAP in 2012 to 2014. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2015. © 2015 Society of Hospital Medicine.

    View details for DOI 10.1002/jhm.2388

    View details for Web of Science ID 000360836000007

  • SHARED DECISION-MAKING DURING INPATIENT ROUNDS: DISSIMILAR YET CORRELATED PERSPECTIVES OF PATIENTS/GUARDIANS AND PHYSICIAN OBSERVERS Rennke, S., Monash, B., Blankenburg, R., Yuan, P., Harman, S. M., Hilton, J. F., Sakai, D. S., Chua, I., Huynh, E., Hosamani, P., Khan, A., Shieh, L., Xie, L., Satterfield, J. SPRINGER. 2015: S252
  • SHARED DECISION MAKING DURING INPATIENT ROUNDS: OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT IN PATIENT ENGAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION Harman, S. M., Hosamani, P., Shieh, L., Huynh, E., Rennke, S., Monash, B., Yuan, P., Hilton, J. F., Blankenburg, R., Sakai, D. S., Chua, I., Khan, A., Xie, L., Satterfield, J. SPRINGER. 2015: S251
  • Development and Evaluation of an Electronic Health Record-Based Best-Practice Discharge Checklist for Hospital Patients JOINT COMMISSION JOURNAL ON QUALITY AND PATIENT SAFETY Garg, T., Lee, J. Y., Evans, K. H., Chen, J., Shieh, L. 2015; 41 (3): 126-+
  • Pending Studies at Hospital Discharge: A Pre-post Analysis of an Electronic Medical Record Tool to Improve Communication at Hospital Discharge. Journal of general internal medicine Kantor, M. A., Evans, K. H., Shieh, L. 2015; 30 (3): 312-318

    Abstract

    Achieving safe transitions of care at hospital discharge requires accurate and timely communication. Both the presence of and follow-up plan for diagnostic studies that are pending at hospital discharge are expected to be accurately conveyed during these transitions, but this remains a challenge.To determine the prevalence, characteristics, and communication of studies pending at hospital discharge before and after the implementation of an electronic medical record (EMR) tool that automatically generates a list of pending studies.Pre-post analysis.260 consecutive patients discharged from inpatient general medicine services from July to August 2013.Development of an EMR-based tool that automatically generates a list of studies pending at discharge.The main outcomes were prevalence and characteristics of pending studies and communication of studies pending at hospital discharge. We also surveyed internal medicine house staff on their attitudes about communication of pending studies.Pre-intervention, 70 % of patients had at least one pending study at discharge, but only 18 % of these were communicated in the discharge summary. Most studies were microbiology cultures (68 %), laboratory studies (16 %), or microbiology serologies (10 %). The majority of study results were ultimately normal (83 %), but 9 % were newly abnormal. Post-intervention, communication of studies pending increased to 43 % (p < 0.001).Most patients are discharged from the hospital with pending studies, but in usual practice, the presence of these studies has rarely been communicated to outpatient providers in the discharge summary. Communication significantly increased with the implementation of an EMR-based tool that automatically generated a list of pending studies from the EMR and allowed users to import this list into the discharge summary. This is the first study to our knowledge to introduce an automated EMR-based tool to communicate pending studies.

    View details for DOI 10.1007/s11606-014-3064-x

    View details for PubMedID 25416599

  • Septris: a novel, mobile, online, simulation game that improves sepsis recognition and management. Academic medicine Evans, K. H., Daines, W., Tsui, J., Strehlow, M., Maggio, P., Shieh, L. 2015; 90 (2): 180-184

    Abstract

    Annually affecting over 18 million people worldwide, sepsis is common, deadly, and costly. Despite significant effort by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign and other initiatives, sepsis remains underrecognized and undertreated.Research indicates that educating providers may improve sepsis diagnosis and treatment; thus, the Stanford School of Medicine has developed a mobile-accessible, case-based, online game entitled Septris (http://med.stanford.edu/septris/). Septris, launched online worldwide in December 2011, takes an innovative approach to teaching early sepsis identification and evidence-based management. The free gaming platform leverages the massive expansion over the past decade of smartphones and the popularity of noneducational gaming.The authors sought to assess the game's dissemination and its impact on learners' sepsis-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes. In 2012, the authors trained Stanford pregraduate (clerkship) and postgraduate (resident) medical learners (n = 156) in sepsis diagnosis and evidence-based practices via 20 minutes of self-directed game play with Septris. The authors administered pre- and posttests.By October 2014, Septris garnered over 61,000 visits worldwide. After playing Septris, both pre- and postgraduate groups improved their knowledge on written testing in recognizing and managing sepsis (P < .001). Retrospective self-reporting on their ability to identify and manage sepsis also improved (P < .001). Over 85% of learners reported that they would or would maybe recommend Septris.Future evaluation of Septris should assess its effectiveness among different providers, resource settings, and cultures; generate information about how different learners make clinical decisions; and evaluate the correlation of game scores with sepsis knowledge.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License, where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.

    View details for DOI 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000611

    View details for PubMedID 25517703

  • A nurse-driven screening tool for the early identification of sepsis in an intermediate care unit setting. Journal of hospital medicine Gyang, E., Shieh, L., Forsey, L., Maggio, P. 2015; 10 (2): 97-103

    Abstract

    Use of a screening tool as a decision support mechanism for early detection of sepsis has been widely advocated, yet studies validating tool performance are scarce, especially in non-intensive care unit settings.For this pilot study we prospectively screened consecutive patients admitted to a medical/surgical intermediate care unit at an academic medical center over a 1-month period and retrospectively analyzed their clinical data. Patients were screened with a 3-tiered, paper-based, nurse-driven sepsis assessment tool every 8 hours. For patients screening positive for sepsis or severe sepsis, the primary treatment team was notified and the team's clinical actions were recorded. Results of the screening test were then compared to patient International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes for sepsis, severe sepsis, and septic shock identified during the study time period, and performance of the screening test was assessed.A total of 2143 screening tests were completed in 245 patients (169 surgical, 76 medical). ICD-9 codes confirmed sepsis incidence was 9%. Of the 39 patients who screened positive, 51% were positive for sepsis, and 49% screened positive for severe sepsis. Screening tool sensitivity and specificity were 95% and 92%, respectively. Negative predictive value was 99% and positive predictive value was 54%. Overall test accuracy was 92%. There was no statistically significant difference in tool performance between medical and surgical patients.A simple screening tool for sepsis utilized as part of nursing assessment may be a useful way of identifying early sepsis in both medical and surgical patients in an intermediate care unit setting. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2014. © 2014 Society of Hospital Medicine.

    View details for DOI 10.1002/jhm.2291

    View details for PubMedID 25425449

  • Why Providers Transfuse Blood Products Outside Recommended Guidelines in Spite of Integrated Electronic Best Practice Alerts JOURNAL OF HOSPITAL MEDICINE Chen, J. H., Fang, D. Z., Goodnough, L. T., Evans, K. H., Porter, M. L., Shieh, L. 2015; 10 (1): 1-7

    Abstract

    Best practice alerts (BPAs) provide clinical decision support (CDS) at the point of care to reduce unnecessary blood product transfusions, yet substantial transfusions continue outside of recommended guidelines.To understand why providers order blood transfusions outside of recommended guidelines despite interruptive alerts.Retrospective review.Tertiary care hospital.Inpatient healthcare providers.Provider-BPA interaction data were collected from January 2011 to August 2012 from the hospital electronic medical record.Provider (free-text) responses to blood transfusion BPA prompts were independently reviewed and categorized by 2 licensed physicians, with agreement assessed by χ(2) analysis and kappa scoring.Rationale for overriding blood transfusion BPAs was highly diverse, acute bleeding being the most common (>34%), followed by protocolized behaviors on specialty services (up to 26%), to "symptomatic" anemia (11%-12%). Many providers transfused in anticipation of surgical or procedural intervention (10%-15%) or imminent hospital discharge (2%-5%). Resident physicians represented the majority (55%) of providers interacting with BPAs.Providers interacting with BPAs (primarily residents and midlevel providers) often do not have the negotiating power to change ordering behavior. Protocolized behaviors, unlikely to be influenced by BPAs, are among the most commonly cited reasons for transfusing outside of guidelines. Symptomatic anemia is a common, albeit subjective, indication cited for blood transfusion. With a wide swath of individually uncommon rationales for transfusion behavior, secondary use of electronic medical record databases and integrated CDS tools are important to efficiently analyze common practice behaviors. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2014. © 2014 The Authors Journal of Hospital Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Hospital Medicine.

    View details for DOI 10.1002/jhm.2236

    View details for Web of Science ID 000347516300001

  • Septris: A Novel, Mobile, Online, Simulation Game That Improves Sepsis Recognition and Management Academic Medicine Evans, K. H., Daines, W. P., Tsui, J., Strehlow, M., Maggio, P., Shieh, L. 2015; Vol. 90, No. 2 (February 2015)

    Abstract

    Annually affecting over 18 million people worldwide, sepsis is common, deadly, and costly. Despite significant effort by the Surviving Sepsis Campaign and other initiatives, sepsis remains underrecognized and undertreated.Research indicates that educating providers may improve sepsis diagnosis and treatment; thus, the Stanford School of Medicine has developed a mobile-accessible, case-based, online game entitled Septris (http://med.stanford.edu/septris/). Septris, launched online worldwide in December 2011, takes an innovative approach to teaching early sepsis identification and evidence-based management. The free gaming platform leverages the massive expansion over the past decade of smartphones and the popularity of noneducational gaming.The authors sought to assess the game's dissemination and its impact on learners' sepsis-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes. In 2012, the authors trained Stanford pregraduate (clerkship) and postgraduate (resident) medical learners (n = 156) in sepsis diagnosis and evidence-based practices via 20 minutes of self-directed game play with Septris. The authors administered pre- and posttests.By October 2014, Septris garnered over 61,000 visits worldwide. After playing Septris, both pre- and postgraduate groups improved their knowledge on written testing in recognizing and managing sepsis (P < .001). Retrospective self-reporting on their ability to identify and manage sepsis also improved (P < .001). Over 85% of learners reported that they would or would maybe recommend Septris.Future evaluation of Septris should assess its effectiveness among different providers, resource settings, and cultures; generate information about how different learners make clinical decisions; and evaluate the correlation of game scores with sepsis knowledge.This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License, where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.

    View details for DOI 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000611

  • Development and evaluation of an electronic health record-based best-practice discharge checklist for hospital patients. Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety / Joint Commission Resources Garg, T., Lee, J. Y., Evans, K. H., Chen, J., Shieh, L. 2015; 41 (3): 126-121

    Abstract

    Checklists may help reduce discharge errors; however, current paper checklists have limited functionality. In 2013 a best-practice discharge checklist using the electronic health record (EHR) was developed and evaluated at Stanford University Medical Center (Stanford, California) in a cluster randomized trial to evaluate its usage, user satisfaction, and impact on physicians' work flow.The study was divided into four phases.In Phase I, on the survey (N = 76), most of the participants (54.0%) reported using memory to remember discharge tasks. On a 0-100 scale, perception of checklists as being useful was strong (mean, 66.4; standard deviation [SD], 21.2), as was interest in EHR checklists (64.5, 26.6). In Phase II, the checklist consisted of 15 tasks categorized by admission, hospitalization, and discharge-planning. In Phase III, the checklist was implemented as an EHR "smart-phrase" allowing for automatic insertion. In Phase IV, in a trial with 60 participating physicians, 23 EHR checklist users reported higher usage than 12 paper users (28.5 versus 7.67, p = .019), as well as higher checklist integration with work flow (22.6 versus 1.67, p = .014), usefulness of checklist (33.7 versus. 8.92, p = .041), discharge confidence (30.8 versus 5.00, p = .029), and discharge efficiency (25.5 versus 6.67, p = .056). Increasing EHR checklist use was correlated with usefulness ( r = .85, p < .001), confidence (r = .81, p < .001), and efficiency (r = .87, p < .001).The EHR checklist reminded physicians to complete discharge tasks, improved confidence, and increased process efficiency. This is the first study to show that medicine residents use "memory" as the most common method for remembering discharge tasks. These data reinforce the need for a formalized tool, such as a checklist, that residents can rely on to complete important discharge tasks.

    View details for PubMedID 25977128

  • Cost and turn-around time display decreases inpatient ordering of reference laboratory tests: a time series BMJ QUALITY & SAFETY Fang, D. Z., Sran, G., Gessner, D., Loftus, P. D., Folkins, A., Christopher, J. Y., Shieh, L. 2014; 23 (12): 994-1000

    Abstract

    Reference tests, also known as send-out tests, are commonly ordered laboratory tests with variable costs and turn-around times. We aim to examine the effects of displaying reference laboratory costs and turn-around times during computerised physician order entry (CPOE) on inpatient physician ordering behaviour.We conducted a prospective observational study at a tertiary care hospital involving inpatient attending physicians and residents. Physician ordering behaviour was prospectively observed between September 2010 and December 2012. An intervention was implemented to display cost and turn-around time for reference tests within our CPOE. We examined changes in the mean number of monthly physician orders per inpatient day at risk, the mean cost per order, and the average turn-around time per order.After our intervention, the mean number of monthly physician orders per inpatient day at risk decreased by 26% (51 vs 38, p<0.0001) with a decrease in mean cost per order (US$146.50 vs US$134.20, p=0.0004). There were no significant differences in mean turn-around time per order (5.6 vs 5.7 days, p=0.057). A stratified analysis of both cost and turn-around time showed significant decreases in physician ordering. The intervention projected a mean annual savings of US$330 439. Reference test cost and turn-around time variables were poorly correlated (r=0.2). These findings occurred in the setting of non-significant change to physician ordering in a control cohort of non-reference laboratory tests.Display of reference laboratory cost and turn-around time data during real-time ordering may result in significant decreases in ordering of reference laboratory tests with subsequent cost savings.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/bmjqs-2014-003053

    View details for Web of Science ID 000345318300009

  • Cost and turn-around time display decreases inpatient ordering of reference laboratory tests: a time series. BMJ quality & safety Fang, D. Z., Sran, G., Gessner, D., Loftus, P. D., Folkins, A., Christopher, J. Y., Shieh, L. 2014; 23 (12): 994-1000

    Abstract

    Reference tests, also known as send-out tests, are commonly ordered laboratory tests with variable costs and turn-around times. We aim to examine the effects of displaying reference laboratory costs and turn-around times during computerised physician order entry (CPOE) on inpatient physician ordering behaviour.We conducted a prospective observational study at a tertiary care hospital involving inpatient attending physicians and residents. Physician ordering behaviour was prospectively observed between September 2010 and December 2012. An intervention was implemented to display cost and turn-around time for reference tests within our CPOE. We examined changes in the mean number of monthly physician orders per inpatient day at risk, the mean cost per order, and the average turn-around time per order.After our intervention, the mean number of monthly physician orders per inpatient day at risk decreased by 26% (51 vs 38, p<0.0001) with a decrease in mean cost per order (US$146.50 vs US$134.20, p=0.0004). There were no significant differences in mean turn-around time per order (5.6 vs 5.7 days, p=0.057). A stratified analysis of both cost and turn-around time showed significant decreases in physician ordering. The intervention projected a mean annual savings of US$330 439. Reference test cost and turn-around time variables were poorly correlated (r=0.2). These findings occurred in the setting of non-significant change to physician ordering in a control cohort of non-reference laboratory tests.Display of reference laboratory cost and turn-around time data during real-time ordering may result in significant decreases in ordering of reference laboratory tests with subsequent cost savings.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/bmjqs-2014-003053

    View details for PubMedID 25165402

  • Restrictive blood transfusion practices are associated with improved patient outcomes TRANSFUSION Goodnough, L. T., Maggio, P., Hadhazy, E., Shieh, L., Hernandez-Boussard, T., Khari, P., Shah, N. 2014; 54 (10): 2753-2759

    Abstract

    Blood transfusion has been cited as one of the five most overutilized therapeutic procedures in the United States. We assessed the impact of clinical decision support at computerized physician order entry and education on red blood cell (RBC) transfusions and clinical patient outcomes at our institution.Clinical patient outcomes and RBC transfusions were assessed before and after implementation of a best practice alert triggered for transfusions when the hemoglobin level was higher than 7 g/dL for all inpatient discharges from January 2008 through December 2013. Retrospective clinical and laboratory data related to RBC transfusions were extracted: case-mix complexity, patient discharges and selected surgical volumes, and patient outcomes (mortality, 30-day readmissions, length of stay).There was a significant improvement in RBC utilization as assessed by RBC units transfused per 100 patient-days-at-risk. Concurrently, hospital-wide clinical patient outcomes showed improvement (mortality, p = 0.034; length of stay, p = 0.003) or remained stable (30-day readmission rates, p = 0.909). Outcome improvements were even more pronounced in patients who received blood transfusions, with decreased mortality rate (55.2 to 33.0, p < 0.001), length of stay (mean, 10.1 to 6.2 days, p < 0.001), and 30-day readmission rate (136.9 to 85.0, p < 0.001). The mean number of units transfused per patient also declined (3.6 to 2.7, p < 0.001). Acquisition costs of RBC units per 1000 patient discharges decreased from $283,130 in 2009 to $205,050 in 2013 with total estimated savings of $6.4 million and likely far greater impact on total transfusion-related costs.Improved blood utilization is associated with improved clinical patient outcomes.

    View details for DOI 10.1111/trf.12723

    View details for Web of Science ID 000343821100023

  • Smarter hospital communication: Secure smartphone text messaging improves provider satisfaction and perception of efficacy, workflow. Journal of hospital medicine Przybylo, J. A., Wang, A., Loftus, P., Evans, K. H., Chu, I., Shieh, L. 2014; 9 (9): 573-578

    Abstract

    Though current hospital paging systems are neither efficient (callbacks disrupt workflow), nor secure (pagers are not Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA]-compliant), they are routinely used to communicate patient information. Smartphone-based text messaging is a potentially more convenient and efficient mobile alternative; however, commercial cellular networks are also not secure.To determine if augmenting one-way pagers with Medigram, a secure, HIPAA-compliant group messaging (HCGM) application for smartphones, could improve hospital team communication.Eight-week prospective, cluster-randomized, controlled trialStanford HospitalThree inpatient medicine teams used the HCGM application in addition to paging, while two inpatient medicine teams used paging only for intra-team communication.Baseline and post-study surveys were collected from 22 control and 41 HCGM team members.When compared with paging, HCGM was rated significantly (P < 0.05) more effective in: (1) allowing users to communicate thoughts clearly (P = 0.010) and efficiently (P = 0.009) and (2) integrating into workflow during rounds (P = 0.018) and patient discharge (P = 0.012). Overall satisfaction with HCGM was significantly higher (P = 0.003). 85% of HCGM team respondents said they would recommend using an HCGM system on the wards.Smartphone-based, HIPAA-compliant group messaging applications improve provider perception of in-hospital communication, while providing the information security that paging and commercial cellular networks do not. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2014;9:573-578. © 2014 The Authors Journal of Hospital Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Hospital Medicine.

    View details for DOI 10.1002/jhm.2228

    View details for PubMedID 25110991

  • Diagnosis and Management of Acid-Base Disorders HOSPITAL MEDICINE CLINICS Woo, S., Desai, S., Shieh, L. 2014; 3 (3): E334–E349
  • Improved blood utilization using real-time clinical decision support. Transfusion Goodnough, L. T., Shieh, L., Hadhazy, E., Cheng, N., Khari, P., Maggio, P. 2014; 54 (5): 1358-1365

    Abstract

    We analyzed blood utilization at Stanford Hospital and Clinics after implementing real-time clinical decision support (CDS) and best practice alerts (BPAs) into physician order entry (POE) for blood transfusions.A clinical effectiveness (CE) team developed consensus with a suggested transfusion threshold of a hemoglobin (Hb) level of 7 g/dL, or 8 g/dL for patients with acute coronary syndromes. The CDS was implemented in July 2010 and consisted of an interruptive BPA at POE, a link to relevant literature, and an "acknowledgment reason" for the blood order.The percentage of blood ordered for patients whose most recent Hb level exceeded 8 g/dL ranged at baseline from 57% to 66%; from the education intervention by the CE team August 2009 to July 2010, the percentage decreased to a range of 52% to 56% (p = 0.01); and after implementation of CDS and BPA, by end of December 2010 the percentage of patients transfused outside the guidelines decreased to 35% (p = 0.02) and has subsequently remained below 30%. For the most recent interval, only 27% (767 of 2890) of transfusions occurred in patients outside guidelines. Comparing 2009 to 2012, despite an increase in annual case mix index from 1.952 to 2.026, total red blood cell (RBC) transfusions decreased by 7186 units, or 24%. The estimated net savings for RBC units (at $225/unit) in purchase costs for 2012 compared to 2009 was $1,616,750.Real-time CDS has significantly improved blood utilization. This system of concurrent review can be used by health care institutions, quality departments, and transfusion services to reduce blood transfusions.

    View details for DOI 10.1111/trf.12445

    View details for PubMedID 24117533

  • Assigning a team-based pager for on-call physicians reduces paging errors in a large academic hospital. Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety / Joint Commission Resources Shieh, L., Chi, J., Kulik, C., Momeni, A., Shelton, A., DePorte, C., Hopkins, J. 2014; 40 (2): 77-82

    Abstract

    As complexity of care of hospitalized patients has increased, the need for communication and collaboration among members of the team caring for the patient has become increasingly important. This often takes the form of a nurse's need to contact a patient's physician to discuss some aspect of care and modify treatment plans. Errors in communication delay care and can pose risk to patients. This report describes the successful implementation of a standardized team-based paging system at an academic center. Results showed a substantial improvement in nurses' perceptions of knowing how to contact the correct physician when discussion of the patient's care is needed. This improvement was found across multiple medical and surgical specialties and was particularly effective for services with the greatest communication problems.

    View details for PubMedID 24716330

  • Patient whiteboards to improve patient-centred care in the hospital. Postgraduate medical journal Tan, M., Hooper Evans, K., Braddock, C. H., Shieh, L. 2013; 89 (1056): 604-609

    Abstract

    Patient whiteboards facilitate communication between patients and hospital providers, but little is known about their impact on patient satisfaction and awareness. Our objectives were to: measure the impact in improving patients' understanding of and satisfaction with care; understand barriers for their use by physicians and how these could be overcome; and explore their impact on staff and patients' families.In 2012, we conducted a 3-week pilot of multidisciplinary whiteboard use with 104 inpatients on the general medicine service at Stanford University Medical Center. A brief, inperson survey was conducted with two groups: (1) 56 patients on two inpatient units with whiteboards and (2) 48 patients on two inpatient units without whiteboards. Questions included understanding of: physician name, goals of care, discharge date and satisfaction with care. We surveyed 25 internal medicine residents regarding challenges of whiteboard use, along with physical therapists, occupational therapists, case managers, consulting physicians and patients' family members (n=40).The use of whiteboards significantly increased the proportion of patients who knew: their physician (p≤=0.0001), goals for admission (p≤=0.0016), their estimated discharge date (p≤=0.049) and improved satisfaction with the hospital stay overall (p≤=0.0242). Physicians, ancillary staff and patient families all found the whiteboards to be helpful. In response, residents were also more likely to integrate whiteboard use into their daily work flow.Inpatient whiteboards help physicians and ancillary staff with communication, improve patients' awareness of their care team, admission plans and duration of admission, and significantly improve patient overall satisfaction.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2012-131296

    View details for PubMedID 23922397

  • PAGING EFFECTIVENESS: A MODEL FOR PAGER COMMUNICATION AT A LARGE ACADEMIC MEDICAL CENTER Chi, J., Shieh, L., Hopkins, J. SPRINGER. 2011: S552
  • HAND HYGIENE-FOLLOW THE LEADER? Shieh, L., Carr, S. SPRINGER. 2011: S208-S209
  • THE SECRET TO THE ABDOMINAL PAIN IS IN THE SMEAR! Lam, M., Mojtahed, K., Oh, D., Shieh, L. SPRINGER. 2011: S529
  • Teaching evidence-based medicine on a busy hospitalist service: Residents rate a pilot curriculum ACADEMIC MEDICINE Nicholson, L. J., Shieh, L. Y. 2005; 80 (6): 607-609

    Abstract

    To increase evidence-based medicine (EBM) instruction within the confines of reduced resident work hours.In 2001-02, the authors designed and implemented an EBM curriculum for residents on an inpatient medicine service at Stanford University Medical Center. Thirty-six residents were assigned the hospitalist rotation in its pilot year. Attendings introduced EBM concepts and Internet resources. During daily rounds, housestaff presented patient-based EBM literature search results. After the rotation, residents were given a questionnaire on which they were asked to rate the impact of the curriculum on their understanding of 20 EBM terms or practice skills (1 = no effect to 5 = strong effect).Twenty-three residents (64%) completed the questionnaire. The results were very positive with average effect of more than 4 (somewhat strong effect/impact) for 16 of the 20 questions. High-speed Internet access and EBM Web resources were critical to efficient delivery of the curriculum during inpatient care.The pilot curriculum successfully introduced the practice of EBM during active inpatient care without requiring additional hours from housestaff schedules. To further evaluate and expand this project, EBM skills will be tested before and after the rotation, and faculty development will allow consistent delivery in additional clinical settings.

    View details for Web of Science ID 000229386300016

    View details for PubMedID 15917368

  • EROSION OF A NEW FAMILY OF BIODEGRADABLE POLYANHYDRIDES JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL MATERIALS RESEARCH Shieh, L., Tamada, J., Chen, I., Pang, J., Domb, A., Langer, R. 1994; 28 (12): 1465-1475

    Abstract

    Studies investigating the erosion mechanism of the newly developed poly (fatty acid dimer: sebacic acid) polyanhydride (p:[FAD:SA]) are described. The overall erosion of different monomer compositions of p(FAD:SA) copolymers was examined to determine whether and to what extent copolymer properties affected polymer erosion. Increasing the hydrophobic monomer (FAD) content up to 50 wt% in the copolymer resulted in longer erosion, whereas further increases up to 70 wt% decreased the erosion period. Polymer crystallinity depended on copolymer FAD content. Copolymer degradation was studied by examining anhydride bond hydrolysis using infrared spectroscopy. Much faster hydrolysis was found in p(FAD:SA) 70:30 compared with more crystalline copolymers of higher SA content. Light microscopy indicates the presence of an erosion zone, a distinct area where mass loss occurs. This erosion zone moves from the outside toward the interior of the polymer matrix. It plays an important role in erosion because any water or monomer must diffuse through this eroded layer.

    View details for Web of Science ID A1994PU33100011

    View details for PubMedID 7876286