Congratulations to Bowral Hospital staff on their recently published articles
Lynette McEvoy 1 , Matthew Richter 2 , Tanghua Chen 1 , Ann Le 1 , Carol Wilson 3 , Lynda Marov 4 , Poumansing Gujraz 5 , Leeanne Gray 5 , Mandana Mayahi-Neysi 6 , Nevenka Francis 1 7 8 , Ha Thi Mai 9 , Steven He 8 9 , Danielle Ní Chróinín 1 7 , Steven A Frost 1 7 8 (2023) Frailty among older surgical patients and risk of hospital acquired adverse events: The SouthâWestern Sydney frailty and nurse sensitive indicators study. Journal of clinical nursing. doi:10.1111/jocn.16259
BACKGROUND: While advances in healthcare mean people are living longer, increasing frailty is a potential consequence of this. The relationship between frailty among older surgical patients and hospital acquired adverse events has not been extensively explored. We sought to describe the relationship between increasing frailty among older surgical patients and the risk of hospital acquired adverse events. METHODS: We included consecutive surgical admissions among patients aged 70 years or more across the SWSLHD between January 2010 and December 2020. This study used routinely collected ICD-10-AM data, obtained from the government maintained Admitted Patient Data Collection. The relationships between cumulative frailty deficit items and risk of hospital acquired adverse events were assessed using Poisson regression modelling. This study followed the RECORD/STROBE guidelines. RESULTS: During the study period, 44,721 (57% women) older adults were admitted, and 41% (25,306) were planned surgical admissions. The risk of all adverse events increased with increasing number of frailty deficit items, the highest deficit items group (4-12 deficit items) compared with the lowest deficit items group (0 or 1 deficit item): falls adjusted rate ratio (adj RR) = 15.3, (95% confidence interval (CI) 12.1, 19.42); pressure injury adj RR = 21.3 (95% CI 12.53, 36.16); delirium adj RR = 40.9 (95% CI 31.21, 53.55); pneumonia adj RR = 16.5 (95% CI 12.74, 21.27); thromboembolism adj RR = 17.3 (95% CI 4.4, 11.92); and hospital mortality adj RR = 6.2 (95% CI 5.18, 7.37). CONCLUSION: The increase in number of cumulative frailty deficit items among older surgical patients was associated with a higher risk of adverse hospital events. The link offers an opportunity to clinical nursing professionals in the surgical setting, to develop and implement targeted models of care and ensure the best outcomes for frail older adults and their families.
Leung, K. F. C., Golzan, M., Egodage, C., Rodda, S., Cracknell, R., Macken, P., & Kaushik, S. (2022). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on ophthalmic presentations to an Australian outer metropolitan and rural emergency department: a retrospective comparative study. BMC Ophthalmology, 22(1). doi:10.1186/s12886-022-02271-8
Abstract: Background: To analyse ophthalmic presentations to an outer metropolitan and a rural emergency department (ED) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Methods: A retrospective comparative study of ophthalmic emergency presentations to Campbelltown Hospital (fifth busiest NSW metropolitan ED; population 310,000) and Bowral and District Hospital (rural ED; population 48,000) before and during COVID-19 was conducted. Patient demographics, triage category, referral source, diagnosis, length of stay, departure status, and follow-up location were assessed from coding data between March 1st to May 31st in 2019 and 2020, corresponding to the peak case numbers and restrictions during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in NSW. Differences before and during COVID-19 were analysed using chi-squared tests or independent sample t-tests. Results: There was no change in ophthalmic presentations at Campbelltown (n = 228 in 2019 vs. n = 232 in 2020; + 1.75%, p = 0.12) and an increase at Bowral (n = 100 in 2019 vs. n = 111 in 2020; + 11%, p < 0.01) during COVID-19. Urgent ophthalmic presentations (Triage Category 3) decreased at Bowral (p = 0.0075), while non-urgent ophthalmic presentations (Triage Category 5) increased at both hospitals (Campbelltown p < 0.05, Bowral p < 0.01). Conclusions: There was no change in the total number of ophthalmic presentations to an outer metropolitan and an increase to a rural ED during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales, Australia. A change in the type of ophthalmic presentations at these peripheral EDs suggest that a high demand for ophthalmic services remained despite the pandemic and its associated gathering and movement restrictions. A flexible healthcare delivery strategy, such as tele-ophthalmology, may optimise patient care during and after COVID-19. © 2022, The Author(s).
He, S., Rolls, K., Stott, K., Shekhar, R., Vueti, V., Flowers, K., Moseley, M., Shepherd, B., Mayahi-Neysi, M., Chasle, B., Warner, B., Ni Chroinin, D., & Frost, S. A. (2022). Does delirium prevention reduce risk of in-patient falls among older adults? A systematic review and trial sequential meta-analysis [Article]. Australasian Journal on Ageing, 41(3), 396-406. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.13051
Objectives: To determine whether delirium prevention interventions reduce the risk of falls among older hospitalised patients. Methods: A systematic search of health-care databases was undertaken. Given the frequency of small sample sized trials, a trial sequential meta-analysis was conducted to present estimate summary effects to date. A Bayesian approach was used to estimate the posterior probability of the delirium prevention interventions reducing falls risk by various clinically relevant levels. Results: Five randomised controlled trials were included in our final meta-analysis. There was a 43% reduction in the risk of falls among participants in the delirium prevention intervention arm, compared to the control; however, confidence intervals were wide (RE RR = 0.57, 95% CI 0.32; 1.00, p = 0.05). This result was found to be statistically significant, according to traditional significance levels (z > 1.96) and the more conservative trial sequential analysis monitoring boundaries. The posterior probabilities of the delirium prevention intervention reducing the risk of falls by 10%, 20% and 30% were 0.86, 0.63 and 0.29 respectively. Conclusions: The results of this systematic review and trial sequential meta-analysis suggest that delirium prevention trials may reduce the risk of in-hospital falls among older patients by 43%. However, despite significant risk reduction found upon meta-analysis, the variation among study populations and intervention components raised questions around its application in clinical practice. Further research is required to investigate what the necessary components of a multifactorial intervention are to reduce both delirium and fall incidence among older adult in-patients. © 2022 AJA Inc.