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Biomedical subjects

R Platt

Publications and source records attributed to R Platt.

157 records · Page 9Linked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Reducing vancomycin use utilizing a computer guideline: results of a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Vancomycin-resistant enterococci represent an increasingly important cause of nosocomial infections. Minimizing vancomycin use represents a key strategy in preventing the spread of these infections. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a structured ordering intervention using computerized physician order entry that requires use of a guideline could reduce intravenous vancomycin use. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial assessing frequency and duration of vancomycin therapy by physicians. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Three hundred ninety-six physicians and 1,798 patients in a tertiary-care teaching hospital. INTERVENTION: Computer screen displaying, at the time of physician order entry, an adaptation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for appropriate vancomycin use. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The frequency of initiation and renewal of vancomycin therapy as well the duration of therapy prescribed on a per prescriber basis. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, intervention physicians wrote 32 percent fewer orders (11.3 versus 16.7 orders per physician; P = 0.04) and had 28 percent fewer patients for whom they either initiated or renewed an order for vancomycin (7.4 versus 10.3 orders per physician; P = 0.02). In addition, the duration of vancomycin therapy attributable to physicians in the intervention group was 36 percent lower than the duration of therapy prescribed by control physicians (26.5 versus 41.2 days; P = 0.05). Analysis of pharmacy data confirmed a decrease in the overall hospital use of intravenous vancomycin during the study period. CONCLUSION: Implementation of a computerized guideline using physician order entry decreased vancomycin use. Computerized guidelines represent a promising tool for changing prescribing practices.

Drug Prescriptions↗
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Supplementing tuberculosis surveillance with automated data from health maintenance organizations.

Data collected by health maintenance organizations (HMOs), which provide care for an increasing number of persons with tuberculosis (TB), may be used to complement traditional TB surveillance. We evaluated the ability of HMO-based surveillance to contribute to overall TB reporting through the use of routinely collected automated data for approximately 350,000 HMO members. During approximately 1.5 million person-years, 45 incident cases were identified in either HMO or public health department records. Eight (18%) confirmed cases had not been identified by the public health department. The most useful screening criterion (sensitivity of 89% and predictive value positive of 30%) was dispensing of two or more TB drugs. Pharmacy dispensing information routinely collected by many HMOs appears to be a useful adjunct to traditional TB surveillance, particularly for identifying cases without positive microbiologic results that may be missed by traditional public health surveillance methods.

Antitubercular Agents↗
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Using automated pharmacy records to assess the management of tuberculosis.

We used automated pharmacy dispensing data to characterize tuberculosis (TB) management for 45 health maintenance organization (HMO) members. Pharmacy records distinguished patients treated in HMOs from those treated elsewhere. For cases treated in HMOs, they provided useful information about appropriateness of prescribed regimens and adherence to therapy.

Adult↗
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Preoperative drug dispensing as predictor of surgical site infection.

The system used by the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance (NNIS) program to measure risk of surgical site infection uses a score of 3 on the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA)-physical status scale as a measure of underlying illness. The chronic disease score measures health status as a function of age, sex, and 29 chronic diseases, inferred from dispensing of prescription drugs. We studied the relationship between the chronic disease score and surgical site infection and whether the score can supplement the NNIS risk index. In a retrospective comparison of 191 patients with surgical site infection and 378 uninfected controls, the chronic disease score and ASA score were highly correlated. The chronic disease score improved prediction of infection by the NNIS risk index and augmented the ASA score for risk adjustment.

Case-Control Studies↗
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Automated methods for surveillance of surgical site infections.

Automated data, especially from pharmacy and administrative claims, are available for much of the U.S. population and might substantially improve both inpatient and postdischarge surveillance for surgical site infections complicating selected procedures, while reducing the resources required. Potential improvements include better sensitivity, less susceptibility to interobserver variation, more uniform availability of data, more precise estimates of infection rates, and better adjustment for patients' coexisting illness.

Automation↗
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Can managed health care help manage health care-associated infections?

Managed-care organizations have a unique opportunity, still largely unrealized, to collaborate with health-care providers and epidemiologists to prevent health care-associated infections. Several attributes make these organizations logical collaborators for infection control programs: they have responsibility for defined populations of enrollees and for their overall health, including preventive care; they possess unique data resources about their members and their care; and they are able to make systemwide changes in care. Health care-associated infections merit the attention and effort of managed-care organizations because these infections are common, incur substantial illness and costs, and can be effectively prevented by using methods that are unevenly applied in different health-care settings. Both national and local discussions will be required to enable the most effective and efficient collaborations between managed care organizations and health-care epidemiologists. It will be important to articulate clear goals and standards that can be readily understood and widely adopted.

Cooperative Behavior↗
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Clinical consequences and cost of limiting use of vancomycin for perioperative prophylaxis: example of coronary artery bypass surgery.

Routine us of vancomycin for perioperative prophylaxis is discouraged, principally to minimize microbial resistance to it. However, outcomes and costs of this recommendation have not been assessed. We used decision-analytic models to compare clinical results and cost-effectiveness of no prophylaxis, cefazolin, and vancomycin, in coronary artery bypass graft surgery. In the base case, vancomycin resulted in 7% fewer surgical site infections and 1% lower all-cause mortality and saved $117 per procedure, compared with cefazolin. Cefazolin, in turn, resulted in substantially fewer infections and deaths and lower costs than no prophylaxis. We conclude that perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis with vancomycin is usually more effective and less expensive than cefazolin. Data on vancomycin's impact on resistance are needed to quantify the trade-off between individual patients' improved clinical outcomes and lower costs and the future long-term consequences to society.

Aged↗
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Epidemiology of and surveillance for postpartum infections.

We screened automated ambulatory medical records, hospital and emergency room claims, and pharmacy records of 2,826 health maintenance organization (HMO) members who gave birth over a 30-month period. Full-text ambulatory records were reviewed for the 30-day postpartum period to confirm infection status for a weighted sample of cases. The overall postpartum infection rate was 6.0%, with rates of 7.4% following cesarean section and 5.5% following vaginal delivery. Rehospitalization; cesarean delivery; antistaphylococcal antibiotics; diagnosis codes for mastitis, endometritis, and wound infection; and ambulatory blood or wound cultures were important predictors of infection. Use of automated information routinely collected by HMOs and insurers allows efficient identification of postpartum infections not detected by conventional surveillance.

Ambulatory Care↗
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Intraoperative redosing of cefazolin and risk for surgical site infection in cardiac surgery.

Intraoperative redosing of prophylactic antibiotics is recommended for prolonged surgical procedures, although its efficacy has not been assessed. We retrospectively compared the risk of surgical site infections in 1,548 patients who underwent cardiac surgery lasting >240 min after preoperative administration of cefazolin prophylaxis. The overall risk of surgical site infection was similar among patients with (43 [9.4%] of 459) and without (101 [9.3%] of 1,089) intraoperative redosing (odds ratio [OR] 1.01, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70-1.47). However, redosing was beneficial in procedures lasting >400 min: infection occurred in 14 (7.7%) of 182 patients with redosing and in 32 (16.0%) of 200 patients without (adjusted OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.23-0.86). Intraoperative redosing of cefazolin was associated with a 16% reduction in the overall risk for surgical site infection after cardiac surgery, including procedures lasting <240 min.

Adolescent↗
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Perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis in middle Tennessee, 1989-1990.

The patterns of use of perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis were assessed in a randomly selected sample of short-stay hospitals in middle Tennessee. Overall, 438 procedures (48%) were associated with antimicrobial prophylaxis. Prophylaxis was more common in hospitals with more than 400 beds than in smaller hospitals. Moreover, prophylactic antibiotics were given more often for procedures with a proven indication for prophylaxis than for those without a proven indication (60% vs. 41%, P less than .05); this relationship remained constant regardless of hospital size (common odds ratio, 2.09). However, prophylaxis for procedures with a proven indication was more likely to be given in teaching hospitals than in nonteaching hospitals (odds ratios, 5.41 vs. 1.94). The duration of prophylaxis was less than 2 days for 89% of procedures. A wide variety of agents were used. This study suggests that while improvements have been made over the past decade in decisions about the duration of prophylaxis, considerable variation remains in the selection of the procedures in which such treatment is administered and of the antimicrobial agents used.

Anti-Infective Agents↗
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Absence of antibodies to HTLV-III in health workers after hepatitis B vaccination.

A proportion of the plasma for the triply inactivated, plasma-derived hepatitis B vaccine produced in the United States is obtained from homosexual men. Because homosexual men are a high-risk group for the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), concern has emerged that the vaccine could harbor the AIDS agent. To evaluate this risk, we tested 15-month postvaccination serum samples for antibodies to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III in 100 health care workers who had received inactivated hepatitis B vaccine lots made from plasma collected between 1977 and 1979 and 100 who had received placebo injections. None of the 200 health workers had serological evidence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type III infection. These serological findings lend additional support to earlier epidemiologic and immunologic observations suggesting that hepatitis B vaccine does not transmit infection with an AIDS virus.

Antibodies, Viral↗
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The incidence of herpes zoster.

BACKGROUND: There are few population-based studies of the natural history and epidemiology of herpes zoster. Although a relatively common cause of morbidity, especially among the elderly, contemporary estimates of herpes zoster incidence are lacking. Herein we describe a population-based investigation of incident and recurrent herpes zoster from 1990 through 1992 in a health maintenance organization. METHODS: The health maintenance organization's automated medical records contain clinical and administrative information about care rendered to patients in ambulatory settings, emergency departments, and hospitals. Cases of herpes zoster were ascertained by screening the medical record for coded diagnoses. The predictive value of a herpes zoster diagnosis code was determined by review of a sample of patient records. Records from all patients with potential recurrences were also reviewed. RESULTS: The overall incidence, based on 1075 cases in 500,408 person-years, was 215 per 100,000 person-years (95% confidence interval, 192 to 240 per 100,000) and did not vary by gender. Although the rate increased sharply with age, approximately 5% of the cases occurred among children younger than 15 years. Infection with human immunodeficiency virus was documented in 5% of the persons with incident herpes zoster and cancer in 6%. Four persons had confirmed recurrences of herpes zoster (744 per 100,000 person-years; 95% confidence interval, 203 to 1907); three of these persons were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. CONCLUSIONS: The recorded incidence of herpes zoster was 64% higher than that reported 30 years ago; the age-standardized rate was more than twofold higher. Immunosuppressive conditions had little impact on overall incidence, although they were strongly associated with early recurrences.

Adolescent↗