Hannah B Edwards, Carlos Sillero-Rejon, Hugh McLeod, Elizabeth M Hill, Brent C Opmeer, Colin Peters, David Odd, Frank de Vocht, Karen Luyt
{"title":"Implementation of national guidelines on antenatal magnesium sulfate for neonatal neuroprotection: extended evaluation of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the National PReCePT Programme in England.","authors":"Hannah B Edwards, Carlos Sillero-Rejon, Hugh McLeod, Elizabeth M Hill, Brent C Opmeer, Colin Peters, David Odd, Frank de Vocht, Karen Luyt","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017763","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017763","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Since 2015, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines have recommended antenatal magnesium sulfate (MgSO<sub>4</sub>) for mothers in preterm labour (<30 weeks' gestation) to reduce the risk of cerebral palsy (CP) in the preterm baby. However, the implementation of this guideline in clinical practice was slow, and MgSO<sub>4</sub> use varied between maternity units. In 2018, the PRrevention of Cerebral palsy in PreTerm labour (PReCePT) programme, an evidence-based quality improvement (QI) intervention to improve use of MgSO<sub>4</sub>, was rolled out across England. Earlier evaluation found this programme to be effective and cost-effective over the first 12 months. We extended the original evaluation to determine the programme's longer-term impact over 4 years, its impact in later preterm births, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to compare MgSO<sub>4</sub> use in England (where PReCePT was implemented) to Scotland and Wales (where it was not).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Quasi-experimental longitudinal study using data from the National Neonatal Research Database on babies born <30 weeks' gestation and admitted to a National Health Service neonatal unit. Primary outcome was the percentage of eligible mothers receiving MgSO<sub>4</sub>, aggregated to the national level. Impact of PReCePT on MgSO<sub>4</sub> use was estimated using multivariable linear regression. The net monetary benefit (NMB) of the programme was estimated.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>MgSO<sub>4</sub> administration rose from 65.8% in 2017 to 85.5% in 2022 in England. PReCePT was associated with a 5.8 percentage points improvement in uptake (95% CI 2.69 to 8.86, p<0.001). Improvement was greater when including older preterm births (<34 weeks' gestation, 8.67 percentage points, 95% CI 6.38 to 10.96, p<0.001). Most gains occurred in the first 2 years following implementation. PReCePT had a NMB of £597 000 with 89% probability of being cost-effective. Following implementation, English uptake appeared to accelerate compared with Scotland and Wales. There was some decline in use coinciding with the onset of the pandemic.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The PReCePT QI programme cost-effectively improved use of antenatal MgSO<sub>4</sub>, with anticipated benefits to the babies who have been protected from CP.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143971903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Economic evaluations of quality improvement interventions: towards simpler analyses and more informative publications.","authors":"Teryl K Nuckols","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018349","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143970286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sarindi Aryasinghe, Phoebe Averill, Carole Waithe, Susan Ibuanokpe, Rhianna Newby-Mayers, Nawal Lakhdar, Moussa Amine Sylla, Elizabeth Cox, Sabrina Das, Erik Mayer
{"title":"Improving the maternity experience for Black, African, Caribbean and mixed-Black families in an integrated care system: a multigroup community and interprofessional co-production prioritisation exercise using nominal group technique.","authors":"Sarindi Aryasinghe, Phoebe Averill, Carole Waithe, Susan Ibuanokpe, Rhianna Newby-Mayers, Nawal Lakhdar, Moussa Amine Sylla, Elizabeth Cox, Sabrina Das, Erik Mayer","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017848","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017848","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Ethnic inequities in maternity care persist in England for Black, African, Caribbean and mixed-Black heritage families, resulting in poorer care experiences and health outcomes than other minoritised ethnic groups. Co-production using an integrated care approach is crucial for reducing these disparities and improving care quality and safety. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the alignment of health and local authority professional perspectives with community needs on how to improve maternity experiences for this ethnic group within a London integrated care system (ICS).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Between March and June 2024, five workshops were conducted with health professionals, local authorities, voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector and the public from Black, African, Caribbean and mixed-Black heritage backgrounds across the North West London ICS. Using the nominal group technique (NGT), attendees prioritised ideas to improve the experience of maternity care for families from Black, African, Caribbean and mixed-Black heritage backgrounds, which were thematically synthesised using framework analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Fifty-four attendees, covering primary, secondary, regional and national health professionals, public health teams from three local authorities, VCSE sector and the public, generated 89 potential interventions across 11 themes. All attendees prioritised improving staff knowledge and capacity in culturally competent care and communication. Community-identified needs for advocacy mechanisms and mental health support throughout the maternity pathway were not reflected in professional priorities.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The study highlights the need for an integrated, community-centred approach beyond hospital settings when addressing ethnic inequities in maternity care, recognising key differences between community and professional priorities within an ICS. Leveraging lived experience expertise to lead the NGT community workshops was essential in building trust and buy-in of the overall prioritisation process.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"305-316"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12013574/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142738359","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kyra Rosen, Holly Krelle, William C King, Nathan Klapheke, Paulo Pina, Judd Anderman, Alicia Chung, Felicia Mendoza, Ashley Bagheri, Jay Stadelman, Sarah Tsuruo, Leora Idit Horwitz
{"title":"Effect of text message reminders to improve paediatric immunisation rates: a randomised controlled quality improvement project.","authors":"Kyra Rosen, Holly Krelle, William C King, Nathan Klapheke, Paulo Pina, Judd Anderman, Alicia Chung, Felicia Mendoza, Ashley Bagheri, Jay Stadelman, Sarah Tsuruo, Leora Idit Horwitz","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017893","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017893","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous studies have demonstrated that text message reminders can improve pediatric vaccination rates, including low income & diverse settings such as those served by federally qualified health centers. In this study, we aimed to improve compliance with routine childhood immunizations via a text message intervention in a network of urban, federally qualified health centers at a large academic medical center. We targeted parents or guardians of children aged 0-2 years who were overdue or due within 14 days for at least one routine childhood immunization without a scheduled appointment. In Round 1, two versions of a text were compared to a control (no text). In subsequent Rounds, a new text was compared to a control (no text). In each round the content, wording, and frequency of texts changed. Subjects were randomized to receive a text (treatment group(s)) or to not receive a text (control group) in each round between 2020 and 2022. The primary outcome was whether overdue vaccines had been given by 12 week follow up. The secondary outcome was appointment scheduling within the 72 hours after text messages were sent. In Round 1 (n=1203) no significant differences were found between groups in overdue vaccine administration per group or per patient at follow up, or in appointment scheduling. In Round 2 (n=251) there was no significant difference in vaccine administration per group or per patient. However, significantly more patients in the intervention group scheduled an appointment (9.1% vs. 1.7%, p=0.01). In Round 3 (n=1034), vaccine administration was significantly higher in the intervention group compared to the control overall (7.0% vs. 5.5%, 0.016) and per subject (p=0.02). Significantly more patients in the intervention group scheduled an appointment compared to the control (3.3% vs. 1.2%, p=0.02). We found that text messaging can be an effective intervention to promote health service utilization such as pediatric vaccination rates, which although improved in this study, remain low.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":"34 5","pages":"339-348"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12013542/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143974150","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Increasing vaccine uptake in underserved populations using text message interventions: considerations and recommendations.","authors":"Gaby Judah","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018245","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-018245","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"291-294"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143673322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Risk-adjusted observed minus expected cumulative sum (RA O-E CUSUM) chart for visualisation and monitoring of surgical outcomes.","authors":"Quentin Cordier, Hugo Prieur, Antoine Duclos","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017935","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017935","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To improve patient safety, surgeons can continually monitor the surgical outcomes of their patients. To this end, they can use statistical process control tools, which primarily originated in the manufacturing industry and are now widely used in healthcare. These tools belong to a broad family, making it challenging to identify the most suitable methodology to monitor surgical outcomes. The selected tools must balance statistical rigour with surgeon usability, enabling both statistical interpretation of trends over time and comprehensibility for the surgeons, their primary users. On one hand, the observed minus expected (O-E) chart is a simple and intuitive tool that allows surgeons without statistical expertise to view and interpret their activity; however, it may not possess the sophisticated algorithms required to accurately identify important changes in surgical performance. On the other hand, a statistically robust tool like the cumulative sum (CUSUM) method can be helpful but may be too complex for surgeons to interpret and apply in practice without proper statistical training. To address this issue, we developed a new risk-adjusted (RA) O-E CUSUM chart that aims to provide a balanced solution, integrating the visualisation strengths of a user-friendly O-E chart with the statistical interpretation capabilities of a CUSUM chart. With the RA O-E CUSUM chart, surgeons can effectively monitor patients' outcomes and identify sequences of statistically abnormal changes, indicating either deterioration or improvement in surgical outcomes. They can also quantify potentially preventable or avoidable adverse events during these sequences. Subsequently, surgical teams can try implementing changes to potentially improve their performance and enhance patient safety over time. This paper outlines the methodology for building the tool and provides a concrete example using real surgical data to demonstrate its application.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"330-338"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12013565/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142715258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Greg Carney, Malcolm Maclure, David M Patrick, Jessica Otte, Anshula Ambasta, Wade Thompson, Colin Dormuth
{"title":"Pragmatic randomised trial assessing the impact of peer comparison and therapeutic recommendations, including repetition, on antibiotic prescribing patterns of family physicians across British Columbia for uncomplicated lower urinary tract infections.","authors":"Greg Carney, Malcolm Maclure, David M Patrick, Jessica Otte, Anshula Ambasta, Wade Thompson, Colin Dormuth","doi":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017296","DOIUrl":"10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017296","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>To evaluate the impact of a personalised audit and feedback prescribing report (AF) and brief educational summary (ES) on empiric treatment of uncomplicated lower urinary tract infections (UTIs) by family physicians (FPs).</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Cluster randomised control trial.</p><p><strong>Setting: </strong>The intervention was conducted in British Columbia, Canada between 23 September 2021 and 28 March 2022.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>We randomised 5073 FPs into a standard AF and ES intervention arm (n=1691), an ES-only arm (n=1691) and a control arm (n=1691).</p><p><strong>Interventions: </strong>The AF contained personalised and peer-comparison data on first-line antibiotic prescriptions for women with uncomplicated lower UTI and key therapeutic recommendations. The ES contained detailed, evidence-based UTI management recommendations, incorporated regional antibiotic resistance data and recommended nitrofurantoin as a first-line treatment.</p><p><strong>Main outcome measures: </strong>Nitrofurantoin as first-line pharmacological treatment for uncomplicated lower UTI, analysed using an intention-to-treat approach.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We identified 21 307 cases of uncomplicated lower UTI among the three trial arms during the study period. The impact of receiving both the AF and ES increased the relative probability of prescribing nitrofurantoin as first-line treatment for uncomplicated lower UTI by 28% (OR 1.28; 95% CI 1.07 to 1.52), relative to the delay arm. This translates to additional prescribing of nitrofurantoin as first-line treatment, instead of alternates, in an additional 8.7 cases of uncomplicated UTI per 100 FPs during the 6-month study period.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>AF prescribing data with educational materials can improve primary care prescribing of antibiotics for uncomplicated lower UTI.</p><p><strong>Trial registration number: </strong>NCT05817253.</p>","PeriodicalId":9077,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Quality & Safety","volume":" ","pages":"295-304"},"PeriodicalIF":5.6,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12013583/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142457766","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}