Faculty Bibliography

INTRODUCTION:CareMOBI (Mhealth for Organizations to Bolster Interconnectedness) is a mobile application designed to facilitate information exchange between primary care providers (PCPs) and adult day centers (ADCs). A key function of CareMOBI is to synthesize information collected outside of the provider's office (ie,: in the ADC or at home) and distill the most relevant data points into an exportable clinical summary that can help inform clinical decision making by the PCP with information from outside providers who are not formally embedded within health systems. In this study, we used a qualitative approach to understand the acceptability and utility of the clinical summary template within CareMOBI. METHODS:Purposive sampling, followed by snowball sampling, was used to recruit PCPs from a variety of primary care practice settings (i.e. home-based, academic). Semi-structured interviews were conducted virtually to elicit feedback on the user-experience after interaction with a prototype template. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS:Our sample (n = 10) consisted of physicians and nurse practitioners in a variety of settings. Feedback suggested that the summary template facilitates interdisciplinary, bidirectional, succinct, and relevant information exchange across care teams. The summary template effectively integrates observations and assessments from team members, centralizes them, and allows PCPs to hone in on the most salient components to inform clinical decision making for the geriatric patient. The summary gave PCPs "live texture" about what was happening outside the office and represented a significant improvement over other methodologies of information exchange. Prior to implementation into clinical practice, several refinements are necessary based on feedback including integration into the PCP's workflow. CONCLUSIONS:The template was viewed by PCPs as a concise and actionable record, in contrast to current communication which is characterized as "bloated"-containing too many pages on nonessential information. The summary could potentially save PCP's time in locating and analyzing historical data to enable rapid patient assessment and prompt more ready and informed action.

Tertiary healthcare ethics (HCE) consultation occurs when an HCE consultant at a healthcare facility requests guidance from one or more senior HCE consultants who are not members of that facility's HCE consultation service. Tertiary HCE consultants provide advanced HCE guidance and/or mentoring to facility (secondary) HCE consultants, mirroring healthcare consultation in clinical practice. In this article, we describe advantages and challenges of providing tertiary HCE consultation through a hub-and-spoke model administered by a national integrated HCE service.

Objective/UNASSIGNED:This study aimed at determining the various types of home-based remedies, mode of administration, prevalence of use, and their relevance in reducing the risk of infection, hospital admission, severe disease, and death. Methods/UNASSIGNED:The study design is an open cohort of all participants who presented for testing for COVID-19 at the Infectious Disease Treatment Centre (Tamale) and were followed up for a period of six weeks. A nested case-control study was designed. Numerical data were analysed using STATA version 14, and qualitative data were thematically analysed. Results/UNASSIGNED: = 2)). Participants who practiced any form of home-based therapy were protected from SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR = 0.28 (0.20-0.39)), severe/critical COVID-19 (OR = 0.15 (0.05-0.48)), hospital admission (OR = 0.15 (0.06-0.38)), and death (OR = 0.31 (0.07-1.38)). Analysis of the various subgroups of the home-based therapies, however, demonstrated that not all the home-based remedies were effective. Steam inhalation and herbal baths were associated with 26.6 (95% CI = 6.10-116.24) and 2.7 (95% CI = 0.49-14.78) times increased risk of infection, respectively. However, change in diet (AOR = 0.01 (0.00-0.13)) and physical exercise (AOR = 0.02 (0.00-0.26)) remained significantly associated with a reduced risk of infection. We described results of thematic content analysis regarding the common ingredients in the drinks, diets, and other home-based methods administered. Conclusion/UNASSIGNED:Almost a third of persons presenting for COVID-19 test were involved in some form of home-based remedy to prevent COVID-19. Steam inhalation and herbal baths increased risk of COVID-19 infection, while physical exercise and dietary changes were protective against COVID-19 infection and hospital admission. Future protocols might consider inclusion of physical activity and dietary changes based on demonstrated health gains.

Introduction/UNASSIGNED:Few treatments have demonstrated mortality benefits among hospitalized hypoxic COVID-19 patients. We evaluated the use of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) therapy as a therapeutic intervention among hospitalized patients with a high oxygen requirement prior to vaccine approval. Methods/UNASSIGNED:We extracted data on patients with COVID-19 hypoxia who required oxygen supplementation ranging from a 6L nasal cannula up to a high-flow nasal cannula at 100% FiO2 at 60L/minute with a 100% non-rebreather mask at 15 L/minute and were eligible for off-label HBO2 therapy from October 2020 to February 2021. We followed the Monitored Emergency use of Unregistered and Investigational Interventions or (MEURI) in conjunction with the consistent re-evaluation of the protocol using the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) tool [1]. We compared patient characteristics and used Fisher's exact test and a survival analysis to assess the primary endpoint of inpatient death. Results/UNASSIGNED:HBO2 therapy was offered to 36 patients, of which 24 received treatment and 12 did not receive treatment. Patients who did not receive treatment were significantly older (p ≺ 0.01) and had worse baseline hypoxia (p = 0.06). Three of the 24 (13%) patients who received treatment died compared to six of 12 (50%) patients who did not receive treatment (RR ratio: 0.25, p = 0.04, 95% CI: 0.08 to 0.83). In the survival analysis, there was a statistically significant reduction in inpatient mortality in the treatment group (HR: 0.19, p = 0.02, 95% CI: 0.05-0.74). However, after adjusting for age and baseline hypoxia, there was no difference in inpatient mortality (hazard ratio: 0.48, p = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.08-2.86). Conclusion/UNASSIGNED:The survival benefit of HBO2 therapy observed in our unadjusted analysis suggests that there may be therapeutic benefits of HBO2 in treating COVID-19 hypoxia as an adjunct to standard care.

BACKGROUND:Older adults account for a large proportion of emergency department visits, but those with serious life-limiting illness may benefit most from referral to home and community services instead of hospitalization. We aim to document emergency provider perspectives on facilitators and barriers to accessing home and community services for older adults with serious life-limiting illness. METHODS:We conducted interviewer-administered semi-structured interviews with emergency providers from health systems across the United States to obtain provider perspectives on facilitators and barriers to accessing home and community services. We completed qualitative thematic analysis using an iterative process to develop themes and subthemes to summarize provider responses. RESULTS:We interviewed 8 emergency nurses and 10 emergency physicians across 11 health systems. Emergency providers were familiar with local home and community services. Facilitators to accessing these services include care management and social workers. Barriers include services that are not accessible full-time to receive referrals, insurance/payment, and the busy nature of the emergency department. The most helpful reported services were hospice, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and visiting nursing services. Home-based palliative care and full-time emergency department-based care management and social work were the services most desired by providers. Providers expressed support for improving access to home and community services in the hopes of decreasing unnecessary emergency visits and inpatient admissions, and to provide patients with greater options for supportive care. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Obtaining the perspective of emergency providers highlights important considerations to accessing HCS for older-adults with serious life-limiting illness from the emergency department. This study provides foundational information for futures studies and initiatives for improving access to home and community services directly from the emergency department.