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There is broad understanding and appreciation that quality and safety are indispensable parts of the business enterprise of delivering care. However, because health care organizations have resource constraints and competing priorities, leaders and managers must create, demonstrate, and articulate a business case for continuing to prioritize investments in quality and safety. To accomplish this, one must leverage financial principles with compelling story-telling. Success creates a virtuous cycle whereby ongoing investments in robust structures increase returns (value defined as improvements in quality and safety outcomes), and cost savings are reinvested to continue to improve delivery of high-quality care.

BACKGROUND Despite the growth of patient safety programs across the United States, errors and adverse events remain a source of patient harm. Many hospitals rely on retrospective voluntary reporting systems; however, there are opportunities to improve patient safety using novel tools like trigger programs. METHODS Children’s National Hospital developed a unique pediatric triggers program that offers customized, near real-time reports of potential safety events. Our team defined a measure to quantify clinical utility of triggers, termed “trigger signal,” as the percentage of cases that represent true adverse or near-miss events (numerator) per total triggers activated (denominator). Our key driver diagram focused on unifying the program structure, increasing data analytics, promoting organizational awareness, and supporting multidisciplinary end user engagement. Using the model for improvement, we aimed to double overall trigger signal from 8% to 16% and sustain for 12 months. RESULTS The trigger signal increased from 8% to 41% and sustained during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. A balancing measure of time to implement a new trigger decreased. Key interventions to increase trigger signal were change in the program structure, increasing stakeholder engagement, and development of self-service reports for end users. CONCLUSIONS Children’s National Hospital’s triggers program highlights successful evolution of an iterative, customized approach to increase clinical utility that hospitals can implement to impact real-time patient care. This triggers program requires an iterative, customized approach rather than a “1-size-fits-all,” static paradigm to add a new dimension to current patient safety programs.

Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS) is a network of over 140 children’s hospitals who share the vision of working together to eliminate serious harm across all pediatric hospitals. The SPS network is built on the fundamental belief that by sharing successes and failures transparently and learning from one another, children’s hospitals can achieve their goals more effectively and quickly than working alone. Each year, SPS hosts National Learning Sessions to which members are invited to submit abstracts describing relevant safety research or improvement work. The following abstracts were among the top submitted for the SPS Spring 2021 National Learning Session.

COVID-19 forced industries to change work processes; this was no different for those working to improve patient outcomes in healthcare. Due to competing priorities, many hospitals struggled with the upkeep of hospital-acquired condition (HAC) auditing and engagement. Children's National hospital developed a three-pronged approach for virtual engagement and sustainment of the processes necessary to achieve and maintain goal auditing and bundle compliance in three HACs: unplanned extubation, central line-associated bloodstream infections, and employee staff safety overexertion injuries.The overall goal was to create a flexible approach to maintaining engagement while relying on virtual communication.To maintain, without a decrease of more than 20%, the baseline bundle compliance per month for each HAC (unplanned extubation, central line-associated bloodstream infections, and employee staff safety) from March 2020 to March 2021. Our approach to increasing bundle compliance (primary outcome measure) and audits (process measure) included: regular leadership meetings using multiple virtual modalities, improving the audit process, and ensuring fidelity to bundle elements.Qualitatively, we have found that microsystem leaders regularly engage with quality improvement staff and their teams using virtual touchpoints and ongoing communication. We exceeded the goal of maintaining our monthly bundle compliance, and we saw a significant positive change in the rate of audits after COVID-19.In a time of change during a pandemic, increased engagement in HAC work can adapt structure and processes. Our results are generalizable by increasing touchpoints using multiple virtual modalities.

Introduction Gastroesophageal reflux is a physiologic occurrence in infants. Clinicians caring for neonates use histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2As) or proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for symptomatic reflux, apnea/bradycardia/desaturations, or irritability. Recent studies have shown that there is an increased incidence of infection, fracture, and mortality in neonates who receive antacids. Methods A multidisciplinary team aimed to decrease nonindicated antacid use in the NICU by 50% by April 2019. Outcome measures include the median number of inappropriate antacid prescriptions and patient-days on acid-suppressants. Interventions include education regarding use and risks of antacids, development of a list of indications deemed "appropriate" for starting an H2A or PPI, mandatory discussion on rounds when considering antacids, documentation of treatment goal, and indication, and an automatic drop-off in the electronic medical record. Results Baseline data (June-December 2017) showed 19 prescriptions of H2As or PPIs. Of those, 10 orders were deemed "inappropriate," according to our indicated uses. There were 407 total patient-days of medication-use (median: 51 patient-days). After the implementation of the interventions (October 2018-May 2019), there were 11 prescriptions of antacid medications, 3 of which were deemed "inappropriate." There were 206 total days of medication-use (median: 18.5 patient-days). Conclusions A multidisciplinary agreement on indications for antacid use in neonates stimulates discussion and creates more purposeful use. Overall, we successfully decreased nonindicated antacid prescriptions in the NICU. For the next steps, we hope to educate physicians on the risks of antacid use and reduce prescriptions in other areas of the hospital and the outpatient setting.