Improving Emergency Department Management of Adults With Sickle Cell Disease
Improving Emergency Department Management of Adults With Sickle Cell Disease
The objective of this study is to design, implement and test quality improvement measures to
 improve the care of adults with sickle cell disease in the emergency department.
There is a critical need to consistently provide best practice care for adult patients with
 sickle cell disease (SCD) who present to emergency departments (EDs). Patients with SCD
 suffer a shortened lifespan, and often die of many disease associated complications in their
 4th and 5th decade of life. These complications include, but are not limited to: stroke,
 sepsis, pulmonary embolus, acute chest syndrome, and multi-system organ failure. Patients
 typically present to the ED with severe acute pain that requires rapid analgesic
 administration, often with high doses of opioids. The perception among many clinicians is
 that these patients, usually African American, are "drug seeking". This results in delays to
 administration of analgesics and inferior pain management. Finally, a small proportion of
 adults with SCD have a large number of visits. A recent study revealed that approximately 25%
 of adult patients with SCD had more than six ED visits per year with about 10% having more
 than 23 visits. Several patients had up to 175 visits over a 2-year period. There is also
 evidence that SCD patients with more than two hospitalizations/year are at an increased risk
 of death. ED clinicians are often frustrated when they see the same patient for multiple ED
 visits. This also leads to inadequate analgesic management. These issues highlight the
 suboptimal effectiveness of the process and systems of ED care for adults with SCD. ED
 practices for SCD care would significantly benefit from re-design and implementation of
 innovative best practice management strategies to optimize ED evaluation and management of
 VOC-related pain and facilitate appropriate referral to a primary care provider.

 The ED-SCANS is a validated and reliable decision support tool developed by the principal
 investigator to help guide ED clinicians in delivering best practice care to adults with SCD.
 However, optimal integration of the tool within ED systems and process of care and the effect
 of the tool on both ED system and patient outcomes have not been evaluated. This study is the
 next logical step in the implementation of the ED-SCANS. The proposed study will use four key
 decisions of the ED-SCANS (triage, analgesic management, identification of high risk
 patients, and patient referral for care) as a framework to improve the processes and systems
 in ED management of adults with SCD. A proactive risk assessment methodology -- Failure
 Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) -- will be used in two EDs to identify the
 vulnerabilities, risks, and weak points (failures) in the systems and processes involved in
 four key decisions of the ED-SCANS. Based on the aggregated results of the FMECA's,
 generalizable quality improvement interventions (QII's) will be developed and implemented
 with the purpose of changing the way emergency care for adults with SCD is delivered and
 organized. These re-designed systems and processes (interventions) will be developed to be
 generalizable to most EDs, with minor modifications. A formal program evaluation will be
 conducted to determine the barriers and facilitators to implementation of the interventions.
 Preliminary, hypothesis generating data will be collected for selected outcomes related to
 each of the four decisions associated with the ED-SCANS. A toolbox of educational materials
 and electronic medical record prompts for EDs will be developed to facilitate implementation
 of the ED-SCANS at EDs across the country. This study will therefore focus on (1) developing
 an optimal implementation strategy using formal risk assessment (FMECA) and quality
 improvement (PDSA) methods focused on four key decisions of the ED-SCANS: Decision 1: triage,
 Decision 2: analgesic management, Decision 3: identification of high risk patients, and
 Decision 7: patient referral for care to improve the processes and systems involved in the
 care of adults with SCD and (2) conducting a formal program evaluation consisting of a
 process evaluation (to understand whether the optimal implementation strategy performs as
 intended (e.g. actual versus planned) through assessment of the barriers and facilitators to
 the implementation) and an outcomes evaluation of relevant clinical performance indicators,
 and patient and clinician outcomes. The outcome evaluation is designed to be hypothesis
 generating, not hypothesis testing. Finally, a toolbox of educational materials and other
 implementation tools such as decision support tools (e.g., documentation templates) will be
 developed during the project.
Inclusion Criteria for Patient Subjects:

 -  18 years and older

 -  Ability to read and understand English

 -  Diagnosis of Sickle Cell Disease

 Exclusion Criteria for Patient Subjects:

 -  Diagnosis of Sickle Cell Trait, vs. Disease

 Inclusion Criteria for Clinician Subjects:

 -  Attending or resident physician, or nurse in the Emergency Department

 Exclusion Criteria for Clinician Subjects:

 -  None