JAMA surgery
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Current outcome predictors for illness and injury are measured at a single time point-admission. However, patient prognosis often changes during hospitalization, limiting the usefulness of those predictions. Accurate depiction of the dynamic interaction between competing events during hospitalization may enable real-time outcome assessment. ⋯ Real-time measurement of dynamic interrelationships among burn outcome predictors using competing risk analysis demonstrated that the key factors influencing outcomes differed throughout hospitalization. Further application of this analytic technique to other injury or illness types may improve assessment of outcomes.
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Surgical site infections (SSIs), commonly caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), are associated with significant morbidity and mortality, specifically when hardware is implanted in the patient. Previously, we have demonstrated that a preoperative decontamination protocol using chlorhexidine gluconate washcloths and intranasal antiseptic ointment is effective in eradicating MRSA in the nose and on the skin of patients. ⋯ Our study demonstrates that preoperative MRSA decontamination with chlorhexidine washcloths and oral rinse and intranasal povidone-iodine decreased the SSI rate by more than 50% among patients undergoing elective orthopedic surgery with hardware implantation. Universal decontamination using this low-cost protocol may be considered as an additional prevention strategy for SSIs in patients undergoing orthopedic surgery with hardware implantation and warrants further study.
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Individualized risk prediction tools have an important role as decision aids for use by patients and surgeons before surgery. Patient-centered outcomes should be incorporated into such tools to widen their appeal and improve their usability. ⋯ Individualized risk of discharge to postacute care can be predicted with excellent accuracy. This outcome will be incorporated into the ACS NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator.
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Significant health inequities persist among minority and socially disadvantaged patients. Better understanding of how unconscious biases affect clinical decision making may help to illuminate clinicians' roles in propagating disparities. ⋯ Unconscious social class and race biases were not significantly associated with clinical decision making among acute care surgical clinicians. Further studies involving real physician-patient interactions may be warranted.