Search

Bipolar disorder (BD) during pregnancy is known to be a morbid condition associated with poor outcomes for both the mother and her infant. We aimed to determine if women with BD and their children have higher charges and health service utilization than mother-infant dyads with and without other mental health (MH) diagnoses. The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD9) codes were used to identify mutually exclusive groups of women who gave birth between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2012, coding first for BD, then diagnoses that comprised an “other MH diagnoses group” that included post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. Health service utilization and related charges were obtained for the dyad for delivery and for 2 years post-delivery at a single tertiary care center. Analyses included 4440 dyads. A BD diagnosis occurred in 1.8% of medical record codes, other MH diagnoses in 10%, and no known MH diagnosis in 88%. Compared with women with both other MH and no known MH diagnoses, women with BD had higher delivery charges (p < 0.001), higher cumulative charges in the 2 years postpartum (p < 0.001), higher preterm birth and low birthweight rates (15.5% v. 6.9% and 20.8% v. 6.4%, p < 0.001, BD v. no known MH, respectively), and greater utilization of inpatient and emergency psychiatric care services (p < 0.001). Compared with women with and without other mental health diagnoses, women with BD have the highest care utilization and charges. They also have higher preterm birth and low birthweight infant rates, two clinically relevant predictors of long-term health for the child. Given the low prevalence of BD and severity of the disease versus the magnitude of systems costs, women with BD, and their children, deserve the heightened attention afforded to other high-risk perinatal conditions.

Exploratory study to examine inpatient medication administration patterns.Data from multiple sources were utilized for this study. The outcome was time difference between medication schedule and administration. A 3-level hierarchical linear regression approach, both unadjusted and adjusted, was considered for this study where medication administration events are nested within patients nested within nurses or units. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated and compared.On average, medications were delayed by 12 (SD, 48.8) minutes. From the full model, patient ICCs decreased when "unit" replaced "nurse" as the 3rd level (0.541 vs 0.444). Patients who spoke Spanish had a significant 2.3- to 4.2-minute delay in medication administration. Certified nurses significantly give medications earlier compared with noncertified nurses by 1.6 minutes.Optimal medication administration is a multifactorial concern with nurses playing a role. Nursing leaders should also consider patient demographics and unit conditions, such as culture, for medication administration optimization.

This study tests the feasibility of using a large (big) clinical data set to test the ability to extract time-referenced data related to medication administration to identify late doses and as-needed (PRN) administration patterns by RNs in an inpatient setting.The study is a secondary analysis of a set of data using bar-code medication administration time stamps (n = 3043812) for 50883 patients admitted to a single, urban, 525-bed hospital in 11 inpatient units by 714 nurses between April 1, 2013, and March 31, 2015.The large majority of scheduled medications (43.3%) were administered between 9 to 10 AM and 9 to 10 PM accounting for the most amount of delayed doses. On average, patients received 8.9 medications per day, and nurses administered 19.7 medications per shift. The average full-time nurse administered 3414 medications per year.The findings support use of time-referenced data to identify clinical processes and performance in administering scheduled and PRN medications.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of a postpartum risk-based low-molecular-weight heparin protocol for venous thromboembolism prevention. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of postpartum women at a safety net hospital before (2013), during (2014), and after (2015) implementation of a risk-based enoxaparin thromboembolism prevention protocol. The calculated sample size was based on a primary outcome of enoxaparin administration rate. Secondary outcomes included incidence of postpartum thromboembolism, wound complications, and 30-day readmission rates. The prevalence of thromboembolism risk factors and protocol adherence was evaluated in two groups of women before (May 2013) and after (May 2015) protocol implementation. Exact χ or Cochran-Armitage trend tested differences in rates. RESULTS Over 3 years, 9,766 deliveries were included. Enoxaparin was administered to 0.28% (95% CI 0.14-0.55) of postpartum women in 2013 (before) compared with 33.46% (95% CI 31.89-35.07%) after protocol implementation (P