JAMA network open
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Effects of a Telehealth Early Palliative Care Intervention for Family Caregivers of Persons With Advanced Heart Failure: The ENABLE CHF-PC Randomized Clinical Trial.
Family caregivers of persons with advanced heart failure perform numerous daily tasks to assist their relatives and are at high risk for distress and poor quality of life. ⋯ This 2-site randomized clinical trial of a telehealth intervention for family caregivers of patients with advanced heart failure, more than half of whom were African American and most of whom were not distressed at baseline, did not demonstrate clinically better quality of life, mood, or burden compared with usual care over 16 weeks. Future interventions should target distressed caregivers and assess caregiver effects on patient outcomes.
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Broad-spectrum antibiotics are recommended for all patients with suspected sepsis to minimize the risk of undertreatment. However, little is known regarding the net prevalence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens across all patients with community-onset sepsis or the outcomes associated with unnecessarily broad empiric treatment. ⋯ In this study, most patients with community-onset sepsis did not have resistant pathogens, yet broad-spectrum antibiotics were frequently administered. Both inadequate and unnecessarily broad empiric antibiotics were associated with higher mortality. These findings underscore the need for better tests to rapidly identify patients with resistant pathogens and for more judicious use of broad-spectrum antibiotics for empiric sepsis treatment.
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State vaccination benefits coverage and access for adult Medicaid beneficiaries vary substantially. Multiple studies have documented lower vaccination uptake in publicly insured adults compared with privately insured adults. ⋯ Even in programs with complete vaccination benefits coverage, reimbursement amounts to health care professionals for vaccine purchase and administration may not fully cover vaccination provision costs. Reimbursement amounts below costs may reduce incentives for health care professionals to vaccinate low-income adults and thereby limit Medicaid adult beneficiary access to vaccination.
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Obstructive sleep apnea has been associated with postoperative delirium, which predisposes patients to major adverse outcomes. Positive airway pressure may be an effective intervention to reduce delirium in this population. ⋯ After risk adjustment, this study found no association between obstructive sleep apnea and postoperative delirium in the context of usual care in the intensive care unit, with 99% CrIs excluding clinically meaningful associations. With limited precision, no association was found between positive airway pressure adherence and delirium. Selection bias and measurement error limit the validity and generalizability of these observational associations; however, they suggest that interventions targeting sleep apnea and positive airway pressure are unlikely to have a meaningful association with postoperative intensive care unit delirium.
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Studies have shown that adverse events are associated with increasing inpatient care expenditures, but contemporary data on the association between expenditures and adverse events beyond inpatient care are limited. ⋯ Hospitals with high adverse event rates were more likely to have high 30-day episode-of-care Medicare expenditures for patients discharged with AMI, HF, or pneumonia.