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In 2015, the major critical care societies issued guidelines outlining a procedural approach to resolving intractable conflict between healthcare professionals and surrogates over life-sustaining treatments (LST). We report our experience with a resolving conflict procedure. This was a retrospective, single-centre cohort study of ethics consultations involving intractable conflict over LST. The resolving conflict process was initiated eleven times for ten patients over 2,015 ethics consultations from 2000 to 2020. In all cases, the ethics committee recommended withdrawal of the contested LST. In seven cases, the patient died or was transferred or a legal injunction was obtained before completion of the process. In the four cases in which LST was withdrawn, the time from ethics consultation to withdrawal of LST was 24.8 ± 12.2 days. Healthcare provider and surrogate were often distressed during the process, sometimes resulting in escalation of conflict and legal action. In some cases, however, surrogates appeared relieved that they did not have to make the final decision regarding LST. Challenges regarding implementation included the time needed for process completion and limited usefulness in emergent situations. Although it is feasible to implement a due process approach to conflict over LST, there are factors that limit the procedure's usefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Growing numbers of acute critical illness survivors experience chronic critical illness (CCI) marked by prolonged dependence on life support, delirium, and/or disability. There is minimal recent data on treatment limitations in CCI. Objectives: To evaluate the natural history of changes in orders for life-sustaining treatment (OLST) in patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation. Design: Retrospective cohort study of 410 patients who received tracheostomy in an intensive care unit for prolonged respiratory failure. Results: Three hundred twenty-four patients had one OLST throughout the admission, with no limitations on prearrest life-sustaining treatment or cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The 86 patients who underwent at least one change in OLST were older, had longer admissions, were more likely to be deceased at hospital discharge, and were more likely to have received specialty palliative care. Thirty percent of OLST changes occurred in the last week of admission. Conclusions: OLST occur infrequently and late in patients with CCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate four definitions of a Frailty Risk Score (FRS) derived from EHR data that includes combinations of biopsychosocial risk factors using nursing flowsheet data or International Classification of Disease, 10th revision (ICD-10) codes and blood biomarkers and its predictive properties for in-hospital mortality in adults ≥50 years admitted to medical-surgical units. Methods In this retrospective observational study and secondary analysis of an EHR dataset, survival analysis and Cox regression models were performed with sociodemographic and clinical covariates. Integrated area under the ROC curve (iAUC) across follow-up time based on Cox modeling was estimated. Results The 46,645 patients averaged 1.5 hospitalizations (SD = 1.1) over the study period and 63.3% were emergent admissions. The average age was 70.4 years (SD = 11.4), 55.3% were female, 73.0% were non-Hispanic White (73.0%), mean comorbidity score was 3.9 (SD = 2.9), 80.5% were taking 1.5 high risk medications, and 42% recorded polypharmacy. The best performing FRS-NF-26-LABS included nursing flowsheet data and blood biomarkers (Adj. HR = 1.30, 95% CI [1.28, 1.33]), with good accuracy (iAUC =.794); the reduced model with age, sex, and FRS only demonstrated similar accuracy. The poorest performance was the ICD-10 code-based FRS. Conclusion The FRS captures information about the patient that increases risk for in-hospital mortality not accounted for by other factors. Identification of frailty enables providers to enhance various aspects of care, including increased monitoring, applying more intensive, individualized resources, and initiating more informed discussions about treatments and discharge planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a critical procedure in psychiatric treatment, but as typically delivered involves the use of bag-mask ventilation (BMV), which during the COVID-19 pandemic exposes patients and treatment staff to potentially infectious aerosols.Objective: To demonstrate the utility of a modified anesthesia protocol for ECT utilizing preoxygenation by facemask and withholding the use of BMV for only those patients who desaturate during the apneic period.Methods: This chart review study analyzes patients who were treated with ECT using both the traditional and modified anesthesia protocols.Results: A total of 106 patients were analyzed, of whom 51 (48.1%) required BMV using the new protocol. Of clinical factors, only patient BMI was significantly associated with the requirement for BMV. Mean seizure duration reduced from 52.0 ± 22.4 to 46.6 ± 17.1 s, but seizure duration was adequate in all cases. No acute physical, respiratory, or psychiatric complications occurred during treatment.Conclusions: A modified anesthesia protocol reduces the use of BMV by more than 50%, while retaining adequate seizure duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is the most effective acute treatment for depression, but relapse is common following discontinuation. One strategy for prolonging remission is the use of maintenance ECT, but the clinical evidence supporting its efficacy and safety are limited. We examined the effects of maintenance ECT on depression and cognition.Methods: Participants were from a retrospective cohort of 100 patients receiving ECT at a freestanding psychiatric hospital and who received at least 50 treatments during a single treatment series. QIDS, BASIS-24, and MoCA were assessed at baseline and every 10 treatments thereafter during the clinical course.Results: ECT was associated with a rapid decrease in depression symptoms and overall self-reported mental health status within the first 10 treatments, which was sustained throughout a median of 22.1 months of follow-up. There was no change in cognitive functioning as measured by the MoCA. Bilateral and brief pulse treatment parameters were more common by treatment 50 than at the first treatment. Most participants either continued in ECT at the end of the study period or discontinued due to sustained remission.Limitations: retrospective observational study without control group who did not receive ECT.Conclusions: In this ECT cohort with at least 50 treatments, improvement in depression was sustained on QIDS and BASIS-24 and adverse cognitive effects were not detected by serial MoCAs, supporting the utility of maintenance ECT in this cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the current retrospective study was to determine whether frailty is predictive of 30-day readmission in adults aged ≥50 years who were admitted with a psychiatric diagnosis to a behavioral health hospital from 2013 to 2017. A total of 1,063 patients were included. A 26-item frailty risk score (FRS-26-ICD) was constructed from electronic health record (EHR) data. There were 114 readmissions. Cox regression modeling for demographic characteristics, emergent admission, comorbidity, and FRS-26-ICD determined prediction of time to readmission was modest (incremental area under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.671). The FRS-26-ICD was a significant predictor of readmission alone and in models with demographics and emergent admission; however, only the Elixhauser Comorbidity Index was significantly related to hazard of readmission adjusting for other factors (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.26, 95% confidence interval [1.17, 1.37]; p < 0.001), whereas FRS-26-ICD became non-significant. Frailty is a relevant syndrome in behavioral health that should be further studied in risk prediction and incorporated into care planning to prevent hospital readmissions. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 59(10), 27–39.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic study of the intersection of ethics consultation services and solid organ transplants and recipients can identify and illustrate ethical issues that arise in the clinical care of these patients, including challenges beyond resource allocation. This was a single-centre, retrospective cohort study of all adult ethics consultations between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2017, at a large academic medical centre in the north-eastern United States. Of the 880 ethics consultations, sixty (6.8 per cent) involved solid organ transplant, thirty-nine (65.0 per cent) for candidates and twenty-one (35.0 per cent) for recipients. Ethics consultations were requested for 4.3 per cent of heart, 4.9 per cent of lung, 0.3 per cent of liver, and 0.3 per cent of kidney transplant recipients over the study period. Nurses were more likely to request ethics consultations for recipients than physicians (80.0 per cent vs 20.0 per cent , p = 0.006). The most common reason for consultation among transplant candidates was discussion about intensity of treatment or goals of care after the patient was not or was no longer a transplant candidate. The most common reason for ethics consultation among transplant recipients was disagreement between transplant providers and patients/families/non-transplant healthcare professionals over the appropriate intensity of treatment for recipients. Very few consultations involved questions about appropriate resource allocation. Ethics consultants involved in these cases most often navigated communication challenges between transplant and non-transplant healthcare professionals and patients and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the predictive properties of five definitions of a frailty risk score (FRS) and three comorbidity indices using data from electronic health records (EHRs) of hospitalized adults aged =50 years for 3-day, 7-day, and 30-day readmission, and to identify an optimal model for a FRS and comorbidity combination. Retrospective analysis of the EHR dataset was performed, and multivariable logistic regression and area under the curve (AUC) were used to examine readmission for frailty and comorbidity. The sample (N = 55,778) was mostly female (53%), non-Hispanic White (73%), married (53%), and on Medicare (55%). Mean FRSs ranged from 1.3 (SD = 1.5) to 4.3 (SD = 2.1). FRS and comorbidity were independently associated with readmission. Predictive accuracy for FRS and comorbidity combinations ranged from AUC of 0.75 to 0.77 (30-day readmission) to 0.84 to 0.85 (3-day readmission). FRS and comorbidity combinations performed similarly well, whereas comorbidity was always independently associated with readmission. FRS measures were more associated with 30-day readmission than 7-day and 3-day readmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research indicates that diabetes mellitus (DM) may be a risk factor for frailty and individuals with DM are more likely to be frail than individuals without DM; however, there is limited research in hospitalised older adults. Objectives: To determine the extent of frailty in hospitalised older adults with and without DM using a 16‐item Frailty Risk Score (FRS) and assess the role of frailty in predicting 30‐day rehospitalisation, discharge to an institution and in‐hospital mortality. Methods: The study was a retrospective, cohort, correlational design and secondary analysis of a data set consisting of electronic health record data. The sample was older adults hospitalised on medicine units. Logistic regression was performed for 30‐day rehospitalisation and discharge location. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to analyse time to in‐hospital death and weighted using propensity scores. Results: Of 278 hospitalised older adults, 49% had DM, and the mean FRS was not significantly different by DM status (9.6 vs. 9.1, p = 0.07). For 30‐day rehospitalisation, increased FRS was associated with significantly increased odds of rehospitalisation (AOR = 1.24, 95% CI [1.01, 1.51], p = 0.04). Although 81% were admitted from home, 57% were discharged home and 43% to an institution. An increased FRS was associated with increased odds of discharge to an institution (AOR = 1.48, 95% CI [1.26, 1.74], p < 0.001). The FRS was not significantly associated with increased risk of in‐hospital death (p = 0.17), but DM was associated with a 484% increase in the instantaneous risk of death (AHR = 5.84, 95% CI [1.71, 19.9], p = 0.005). Conclusion: Diabetes mellitus and frailty were highly prevalent; the mean FRS was not significantly different by DM status. Although increased frailty was significantly associated with rehospitalisation and discharge to an institution, only DM was significantly associated with in‐hospital mortality. Relevance to clinical practice: Frailty assessment may augment clinical assessment and facilitate tailoring care and determining optimal outcomes in patients with and without DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Severe maternal morbidity and mortality remain public health priorities in the United States, given their high rates relative to other high-income countries and the notable racial and ethnic disparities that exist. In general, accurate risk stratification methods are needed to help patients, providers, hospitals, and health systems plan for and potentially avert adverse outcomes.Objective: Our objective was to understand if machine learning methods with natural language processing of history and physical notes could identify a group of patients at high risk of maternal morbidity on admission for delivery without relying on any additional patient information (eg, demographics and diagnosis codes).Study Design: This was a retrospective study of people admitted for delivery at 2 hospitals (hospitals A and B) in a single healthcare system between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2020. The primary outcome was severe maternal morbidity, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; furthermore, we examined nontransfusion severe maternal morbidity. Clinician documents designated as history and physical notes were extracted from the electronic health record for processing and analysis. A bag-of-words approach was used for this natural language processing analysis (ie, each history or physical note was converted into a matrix of counts of individual words (or phrases) that occurred within the document). The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator models were used to generate prediction probabilities for severe maternal morbidity and nontransfusion severe maternal morbidity for each note. Model discrimination was assessed via the area under the receiver operating curve. Discrimination was compared between models using the DeLong test. Calibration plots were generated to assess model calibration. Moreover, the natural language processing models with history and physical note texts were compared with validated obstetrical comorbidity risk scores based on diagnosis codes.Results: There were 13,572 delivery encounters with history and physical notes from hospital A, split between training (Atrain, n=10,250) and testing (Atest, n=3,322) datasets for model derivation and internal validation. There were 23,397 delivery encounters with history and physical notes from hospital B (Bvalid) used for external validation. For the outcome of severe maternal morbidity, the natural language processing model had an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.67 (95% confidence interval, 0.63-0.72) and 0.72 (95% confidence interval, 0.70-0.74) in the Atest and Bvalid datasets, respectively. For the outcome of nontransfusion severe maternal morbidity, the area under the receiver operating curve was 0.72 (95% confidence interval, 0.65-0.80) and 0.76 (95% confidence interval, 0.73-0.79) in the Atest and Bvalid datasets, respectively. The calibration plots demonstrated the bag-of-words model's ability to distinguish a group of individuals at a substantially higher risk of severe maternal morbidity and nontransfusion severe maternal morbidity, notably those in the top deciles of predicted risk. Areas under the receiver operating curve in the natural language processing-based models were similar to those generated using a validated, retrospectively derived, diagnosis code-based comorbidity score.Conclusion: In this practical application of machine learning, we demonstrated the capabilities of natural language processing for the prediction of severe maternal morbidity based on provider documentation inherently generated at the time of admission. This work should serve as a catalyst for providers, hospitals, and electronic health record systems to explore ways that artificial intelligence can be incorporated into clinical practice and evaluated rigorously for their ability to improve health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While clinicians commonly learn heuristics to guide antidepressant treatment selection, surveys suggest real-world prescribing practices vary widely. We aimed to determine the extent to which antidepressant prescriptions were consistent with commonly-advocated heuristics for treatment selection.Methods: This retrospective longitudinal cohort study examined electronic health records from psychiatry and non-psychiatry practice networks affiliated with two large academic medical centers between March 2008 and December 2017. Patients included 45,955 individuals with a major depressive disorder or depressive disorder not otherwise specified diagnosis who were prescribed at least one of 11 common antidepressant medications. Specific clinical features that may impact prescribing choices were extracted from coded data, and analyzed for association with index prescription in logistic regression models adjusted for sociodemographic variables and provider type.Results: Multiple clinical features yielded 10% or greater change in odds of prescribing, including overweight and underweight status and sexual dysfunction. These heuristics were generally applied similarly across hospital systems and psychiatrist and non-psychiatrist providers.Limitations: These analyses rely on coded clinical data, which is likely to substantially underestimate prevalence of particular clinical features. Additionally, numerous other features that may impact prescribing choices are not able to be modeled.Conclusion: Our results confirm the hypothesis that clinicians apply heuristics on the basis of clinical features to guide antidepressant prescribing, although the magnitude of these effects is modest, suggesting other patient- or clinician-level factors have larger effects.Funding: This work was funded by NSF GRFP (grant no. DGE1745303), Harvard SEAS, the Center for Research on Computation and Society at Harvard, the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (grant no. 1R01MH106577). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Frailty, a clinical syndrome of decreased physiologic reserve and dysregulation in multiple physiologic systems, is associated with increased risk for adverse outcomes. Purpose: The aim of this retrospective, cross-sectional, correlational study was to characterize frailty in older adults admitted to a tertiary-care hospital using a biopsychosocial frailty assessment and to determine associations between frailty and time to in-hospital mortality and 30-day rehospitalization. Methods: The sample included 278 patients ≥55 years old admitted to medicine units. Frailty was determined using clinical data from the electronic health record (EHR) for symptoms, syndromes, and conditions and laboratory data for four serum biomarkers. A frailty risk score (FRS) was created from 16 risk factors, and relationships between the FRS and outcomes were examined. Results: The mean age of the sample was 70.2 years and mean FRS was 9.4 (SD, 2.2). Increased FRS was significantly associated with increased risk of death (hazard ratio = 1.77−2.27 for 3 days ≤ length of stay (LOS) ≤7 days), but depended upon LOS (p < .001). Frailty was marginally associated with rehospitalization for those who did not die in hospital (adjusted odds ratio = 1.18, p = .086, area under the curve [AUC] = 0.66, 95% confidence interval for AUC = [0.57, 0.76]). Discussion: Clinical data in the EHR can be used for frailty assessment. Informatics may facilitate data aggregation and decision support. Because frailty is potentially preventable and treatable, early detection is crucial to delivery of tailored interventions and optimal patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance: Suicide represents the 10th leading cause of death across age groups in the United States (12.6 cases per 100 000) and remains challenging to predict. While many individuals who die by suicide are seen by physicians before their attempt, they may not seek psychiatric care.Objective: To determine the extent to which incorporating natural language processing of narrative discharge notes improves stratification of risk for death by suicide after medical or surgical hospital discharge.Design, Setting, and Participants: In this retrospective health care use study, clinical data were analyzed from individuals with discharges from 2 large academic medical centers between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2013.Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was suicide as a reported cause of death based on Massachusetts Department of Public Health records. Regression models for prediction of death by suicide or accidental death were compared relying solely on coded clinical data and those using natural language processing of hospital discharge notes.Results: There were 845 417 hospital discharges represented in the cohort, including 458 053 unique individuals. Overall, all-cause mortality was 18% during 9 years, and the median follow-up was 5.2 years. The cohort included 235 (0.1%) who died by suicide during 2.4 million patient-years of follow-up. Positive valence reflected in narrative notes was associated with a 30% reduction in risk for suicide in models adjusted for coded sociodemographic and clinical features (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.58-0.85; P < .001) and improved model fit (χ22 = 14.843, P < .001 by log-likelihood test). The C statistic was 0.741 (95% CI, 0.738-0.744) for models of suicide with or without inclusion of accidental death.Conclusions and Relevance: Multiple clinical features available at hospital discharge identified a cohort of individuals at substantially increased risk for suicide. Greater positive valence expressed in narrative discharge summaries was associated with substantially diminished risk. Automated tools to aid clinicians in evaluating these risks may assist in identifying high-risk individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Commonly cited data promoting laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication (LNF) as safe and efficacious are typically published by single centers, affiliated with teaching institutions with a high volume of cases, but LNF is not universally performed at these hospitals. The purpose of this study is to assess where these procedures are being done and to compare pre-operative comorbidities and post-operative outcomes between high-and low-volume centers using a state-wide inpatient database.Methods: This is a retrospective study using data from the North Carolina Hospital Association Patient Data System. Selected patients include adults (>17 years old) that have undergone laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease as an inpatient from 2005 to 2008. Patients that underwent operative management for emergent purposes or had associated diagnoses of esophageal cancer or achalasia were excluded from the study. High-volume centers were defined as institutions that performed ten or more LNFs per year averaged over a period of 4 years. Comparative statistics were performed on comorbidities and complications between high- and low-volume centers.Results: A total of 1,019 patients underwent LNF for GERD in North Carolina between 2005 and 2008 in the inpatient setting. High-volume centers performed 530 LNFs (52%) while low-volume centers performed 489 LNFs (48%). Patients at high-volume centers were older (median 52.5 years old vs. 49.0 years old, p = 0.019), had a higher incidence of diabetes (13.4% vs. 8.8%, p = 0.026), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (5.1% vs. 2.0 %, p = 0.015), hyperlipidemia (9.6% vs. 4.7%, p = 0.004), and cystic fibrosis (2.8% vs. 0.8%, p = 0.03). Patients with a history of transplantation were also more likely to undergo LNF at a high-volume center (15.8% vs. 1.6%, p < 0.0001). There were no deaths among the two groups and also no difference between median length of stay (2.7 days for high-volume center vs. 2.6 days for low-volume center). Low-volume centers had a higher incidence of intraoperative accidental puncture or laceration (3.3% vs. 0.9%, p = 0.017) while high-volume centers had a higher incidence of atelectasis (5.3% vs. 2.5%, p = 0.031).Conclusion: A significant proportion of the LNFs in North Carolina are performed at low-volume centers. High-volume centers perform LNF on older patients with more comorbidities. Low-volume centers have three times more accidental perforations, yet there is no detectable difference in mortality or median length of stay. It is impossible to tell if these perforations are managed at these low-volume centers or transferred to facilities with a higher level of care. These findings argue for regionalization of LNF and for a reevaluation of the global safety of this operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) effectively treats depressive disorders, but many patients will have subsequent relapses. While some guidelines suggest prior response to ECT is an indication for ECT in a subsequent mood episode, it is unknown whether response to ECT is correlated between treatment courses. This study explores whether response to ECT at a first treatment correlates with response to treatment in a second independent ECT course.Methods: Single-center retrospective cohort of patients receiving two different ECT treatment courses between 2011 and 2020 and who self-reported depression symptoms using the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS) at baseline and following treatment #5.Results: 286 patients received two independent ECT series during the study period, of whom 153 received at least 5 treatments in both series. Patients had similar QIDS scores at the start of each treatment series (Pearson's correlation, r = 0.58, p <0.001), but the change in QIDS following 5 ECT treatments was not correlated between series for individual patients (Pearson's correlation, r = 0.083, p = 0.31). In multivariate analyses, change in QIDS was similar for both treatment series, but patients were less likely to receive 5 treatments in the second treatment series.Limitations: retrospective cohort cannot control for factors influencing access to repeat ECT treatment CONCLUSIONS: While on average final QIDS score was the same following two independent treatment courses, for individual patients the change in depression symptoms was not correlated between treatment series. Further research is needed to identify factors that may predict longitudinal ECT response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study (COMS) established iodine-125 plaque brachytherapy as an accepted standard treatment for medium-size choroidal melanoma. In the COMS, the prescription dose was 85 Gy. This is a retrospective review of our outcomes in patients treated with lower doses than those used in the COMS. Methods and Materials: From 1990 to 2004, 62 patients were treated with iodine-125 plaque brachytherapy for choroidal melanoma. COMS eye plaques were used with dose prescribed to the apex of the tumor. The median and average dose rates at the tumor apex were 63.5 cGy/h and 62.7 cGy/h, respectively. The median and average total doses were 63.0 Gy and 62.5 Gy (range, 56–69 Gy), respectively. The median and mean durations of implant were 100.0 hours and 101.1 hours (range, 71–165 hours). Results: Median follow-up time was 58.2 months. The 5-year outcomes including overall survival, disease-free survival, cause-specific survival, local failure, secondary enucleation rate, and visual acuity (VA) <20/200 were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Overall, there were 7 local failures, 4 distant failures, and 10 secondary enucleations (6 due to local failure and 4 due to treatment complications). Univariate analysis was performed to identify significant prognostic factors associated with disease-free survival (baseline VA in tumor eye, tumor shape), cause-specific survival (diabetic retinopathy), local failure (none found), secondary enucleation rate (diabetic retinopathy, basal tumor dimension) and VA <20/200 (diabetic retinopathy, tumor shape, age, retinal detachment, treatment depth, and history of vision-limiting condition). Conclusions: Our survival and local control outcomes are comparable to those of the COMS. However, VA at 5 years seems to be better. Lower doses of radiation could potentially lead to better visual outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]