Every year, nearly 240,000 patients age 60 and older are transferred between acute care hospitals for nontraumatic surgical emergencies, and these patients experience worse outcomes than patients admitted directly from an emergency department within a given hospital. Care coordination for older patients with emergency general surgery (EGS) diagnoses suffers because conversations between referring and accepting providers regarding decisions to transfer are ineffective, incomplete, and inefficient. To standardize a method to support transfer decisions that is tailored to older adults within extant transfer processes, the team will (1) engage key stakeholders to develop the intervention to Support Interhospital Transfer Decisions (SITe) for older EGS patients by adapting an existing intervention for interhospital handoffs and (2) assess the acceptability of the SITe intervention, test the feasibility of study procedures, and explore efficacy outcomes for evaluation in a future, larger clinical trial.
Aim 2 of the protocol qualifies as a clinical trial. Aim 2 will assess the acceptability of the intervention to Support Interhospital Transfer Decisions (SITe), test the feasibility of study procedures, and explore efficacy outcomes for evaluation in a future, larger clinical trial. Modeling a similar and successful pilot, the investigators will conduct a pre (control)/post (intervention) study with 50 transfers in each arm. They will collect pre- and post-intervention data after each eligible transfer through (1) chart review and transfer center logs and (2) Qualtrics surveys of referring and accepting providers. The team will collect baseline (pre) and post-intervention measures of the potential to avoid transfers, efficiency of transfer communication and execution, provider emotional labor, and patient health outcomes. accepting providers will utilize the SITe intervention during calls discussing transfer decisions regarding older emergency general surgery patients. Transfer center nurses and referring providers will be informed of the SITe intervention tool. The study was terminated early. The research team completed pre-intervention data collection and intervention training. No post-intervention data was collected. As of 3/21/2024, the UW-Madison IRB no longer considers training accepting surgeons on the intervention research.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
25
The SITe intervention and implementation toolkit was developed in Aim 1 through stakeholder activities. SITe, an intervention to support interhospital transfer decisions regarding older EGS patients, includes a checklist and script to be utilized by accepting providers during their conversations with referring providers. The investigators and stakeholders also developed a toolkit for implementation with resources to reduce barriers to and support facilitators of utilizing the tools. The toolkit includes: (1) the checklist and script; (2) methods to train accepting providers on the tools including a PowerPoint presentation and demonstration video; and (3) resources to familiarize other parties (transfer center nurses, referring providers, referring hospitals) with the SITe intervention.
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Acceptability of the Intervention to Support Interhospital Transfer Decisions (SITe)
The team will identify 50 study-eligible patient transfers post-intervention training. The team will ask the accepting provider and referring provider who executed the eligible transfer to rate the following statements on a Likert-scale (1=completely disagree to 5=completely agree): * This intervention meets my approval. * This intervention is appealing to me. * I like this intervention. * I welcome this intervention. Acceptability is defined as a minimum average score of 4 per item.
Time frame: 3 months
Fidelity to the Intervention to Support Interhospital Transfer Decisions (SITe)
The team will identify 50 study-eligible patient transfers post-intervention training. The team will measure missingness of the tool elements. Fidelity is defined as \<15% missing patient information.
Time frame: 3 months
Feasibility of Study Procedures
The team will measure the rate of survey completion for study-eligible patient transfers and examine rates of and reasons for missing outcome data.
Time frame: pre-intervention at 3 months, post-intervention at 7 months
Potential to Avoid Transfer: Chart Review
The team will evaluate the quality outcome: potential to avoid transfer. Through chart review, the team will look at number of transfers with no intervention and discharge to home within 72 hours.
Time frame: 7 months
Potential to Avoid Transfer- Second Related Question on Survey - Should Have Been Able
The team will evaluate the quality outcome: potential to avoid transfer. Accepting Providers were asked: "I felt that the referring hospital should have been able to care for the patient." A similar question was not asked of Referring Providers
Time frame: pre-intervention at 3 months, post-intervention at 7 months
Efficiency of Transfer Communication
Following the Relational Model of Organizational Change and through chart review and review of transfer center logs, the team will evaluate the efficiency of transfer communication. The team will review the number of calls required to complete the transfer and time required to complete transfer calls.
Time frame: 7 months
Efficiency of Transfer Execution
The team will evaluate the efficiency of transfer execution. The team will review the time from initial call to patient arrival.
Time frame: 7 months
Emotional Labor - First Related Question on Survey - Respect
Following the Relational Model of Organizational Change and specific Qualtrics questions, the team will evaluate the emotional labor of providers. The team will ask about providers' feelings about being listened to and supported when discussing patient care and difficult patient issues. Question for Referring Providers: I felt respected by the referring provider. Question for Accepting Providers: I felt respected by the UW surgeon.
Time frame: pre-intervention at 3 months, post-intervention at 7 months
Patient Health Outcomes
The team will evaluate patient health outcomes. The team will measure the number of admissions to the emergency department vs inpatient floor, the number of changes in level of patient care (general, intermediate, intensive) within 24 hours of arrival, and the number of adverse events (inpatient mortality, morbidity, extended length of stay.)
Time frame: 7 months
Emotional Labor - Second Related Question on Survey - Listening
Following the Relational Model of Organizational Change and specific Qualtrics questions, the team will evaluate the emotional labor of providers. The team will ask about providers' feelings about being listened to and supported when discussing patient care and difficult patient issues. Question for Referring Providers: The UW Surgeon listened to my concerns about the patient. A similar question was not asked of Accepting Providers
Time frame: pre-intervention at 3 months, post-intervention at 7 months
Emotional Labor - Third Related Question on Survey - Understanding
Following the Relational Model of Organizational Change and specific Qualtrics questions, the team will evaluate the emotional labor of providers. The team will ask about providers' feelings about being listened to and supported when discussing patient care and difficult patient issues. Question for Referring Providers: I felt that the UW Surgeon understood my reason for transfer. A similar question was not asked of Accepting Providers
Time frame: pre-intervention at 3 months, post-intervention at 7 months
Emotional Labor - Fourth Related Question on Survey - Doubt
Following the Relational Model of Organizational Change and specific Qualtrics questions, the team will evaluate the emotional labor of providers. The team will ask about providers' feelings about being listened to and supported when discussing patient care and difficult patient issues. Question for Referring Providers: I felt that the UW Surgeon doubted whether the transfer was necessary. A similar question was not asked of Accepting Providers
Time frame: pre-intervention at 3 months, post-intervention at 7 months
Potential to Avoid Transfer- First Related Question on Survey - Justifiable
The team will evaluate the quality outcome: potential to avoid transfer. Accepting Providers were asked: "I felt that the reason for transfer was justifiable." A similar question was not asked of Referring Providers
Time frame: pre-intervention at 3 months, post-intervention at 7 months
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