A Web-Based Perioperative Dashboard as a Platform for Anesthesia Informatics Innovation

Perioperative Near Infrared Spectroscopy Measurements of Cerebral Regional Oxygen Desaturations Are Not Associated With Delirium After Cardiac Surgery

OBJECTIVE

Postoperative delirium remains a common complication after cardiac surgery in high-risk patients and has been associated with prolonged intensive care unit length of stay, overall morbidity, and mortality. It has been proposed that cerebral hypoperfusion is an important etiological component. In the present study, we retrospectively queried intraoperative near-infrared spectroscopy measurements of regional cerebral oxygen saturations (rSO2) during adult cardiac surgical procedures to examine the association between rSO2 desaturations and postoperative delirium.

DESIGN

Retrospective observational cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Single tertiary care institution.

PARTICIPANTS

Patients aged 18 and older undergoing cardiac or open ascending thoracic aortic surgery from January 2016 through April 2023 were eligible; 3,696 patients were included in the analysis.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

As per departmental protocol, bilateral rSO2 probes were applied to the patients' forehead before induction of anesthesia. The first 5 minutes of rSO2 measurements were averaged and used as their baseline measurements. The total intraoperative duration of rSO2 measurements that were either 20% below baseline or below an absolute value of 50% and the total time in either category were determined. Postoperative delirium was assessed using the Confusion Assessment Method for Intensive Care Unit during the postoperative period. Age, cerebral vascular disease, preoperative cognitive impairment, dexmedetomidine use, and durations of cardiopulmonary bypass and bispectral index values less than 40 were associated with delirium. Neither baseline rSO2 nor any of the perioperative rSO2 desaturation incidences or durations were associated with postoperative delirium.

CONCLUSIONS

Neither baseline nor intraoperative near-infrared spectroscopy-measured cerebral rSO2 parameters were associated with postoperative delirium. Additional future studies are necessary to further define the value of perioperative cerebral rSO2 monitoring for the prevention of delirium after cardiac surgery.

Influence of Practitioner Dashboard Feedback on Anesthetic Greenhouse Gas Emissions: A Prospective Performance Improvement Investigation

Anesthetic gases contribute to global warming. We described a two-year performance improvement project to examine the association of individualized provider dashboard feedback of anesthetic gas carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE20) production and median perioperative fresh gas flows (FGF) during general anesthetics during perioperative management. Using a custom structured query language (SQL) query, hourly CDE20 for each anesthetic gas and median FGF were determined. During the first year, practitioners were not given any feedback on their use of anesthetic gases. During the second year of the study protocol, a commercially available business intelligence platform was used to deliver individualized monthly dashboard of these parameters to each practitioner. Continuous values are expressed as median [first quartile, third quartile]. During the study period, 53,294 patients managed by 79 anesthesiologists were available for analysis. Bivariate analysis revealed an overall decrease in median FGF from 2.0 [1.9, 3.0] liters/minute (l/min) to 1.9 [1.7, 2.0] l/min (p < 0.001). There was a significant decrease in the overall total CDE20 from 5.10 [0,12.3] to 3.59 [0,8.78] kg/hr (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated an initial decrease in monthly practitioner total CDE20 production with the intervention (odds ratio (OR) 0.875 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.809-0.996, p < 0.001) and a faster decrease rate in monthly total CDE20 (OR 0.986, 95% CI 0.976-0,996, p < 0.001). Dashboard distribution initially decreased isoflurane (intervention OR 0.97 95% CI 0.96-0.99, p = 0.001) and N2O (OR 0.82 95% CI 0.73-0.94, p = 0.003) CDE20 production and was associated with a steeper declining rate of isoflurane (OR 0.87, CI 0.79-0.94, p < 0.001) and desflurane (OR 0.9, 0.84-0.97, p = 0.005) CDE20 production. The intervention did not have a significant effect on the monthly rate of decline of sevoflurane or N2O CDE20. The average practitioner FGF decreased by 0.3 l/m (95% confidence interval (CI): -0,011, -0.5, p = 0.002) with dashboard distributions. Dashboard distribution may be an effective tool to decrease FGF as well as components of anesthetic greenhouse gas emissions.

Practitioner dashboard feedback improves glycemic but not temperature compliance during cardiac surgery: A single center retrospective analysis

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To determine the association of practitioner dashboard feedback of intraoperative glycemic and temperature control on maintenance of normoglycemia and normothermia.

DESIGN

Retrospective review.

SETTING

Single tertiary care institution.

PATIENTS

Patients over the age of 18 undergoing cardiac surgery from February 17, 2021 through February 16, 2023. During the study interval, 15 anesthesiologists providing care during 2255 procedures were analyzed: 1114 prior to the individual faculty dashboard distribution and 1141 after commencement of dashboard distribution.

INTERVENTIONS

On February 17, 2022, anesthesia faculty members began receiving monthly individualized dashboards indicating their personal intraoperative glycemic and temperature compliance rates.

MEASUREMENTS

Baseline patient demographic characteristics, surgical and cardiopulmonary bypass times, perioperative temperature and glucose concentrations, and the incidence of sternal wound infections. Glycemic compliance was defined as final serum glucose between 80 and 180 mg/dL. Temperature compliance was defined as an average temperature during the final 30 min of the surgical procedure between 35 and 37.3 °C inclusive.

MAIN RESULTS

Dashboard distribution was associated with a significant decrease in the average glucose concentration (median location shift by -6 mg% (95% confidence interval (CI) -8, -4), p < 0.001) from 157 mg/dL to 152 mg/dL and final glucose concentration (median location shift by -17 mg/dL (95% CI -19, -14, p < 0.001) from 161 mg/dL to 145 mg/dL. The intervention was associated with an improvement in glycemic compliance from 71.4% to 87.1% (odds ratio (OR): 2.71(95% CI 2.19, 3.37, p < 0.001)). There were no significant differences in final temperature (36.3 °C [Q1, Q3: 36.0, 36.6] vs. 36.3 °C [Q1, Q3: 36.0, 36.7] (p = 0.232)) with the intervention nor were there any statistically significant differences in temperature compliance (93.9% vs. 92.9%, OR: 0.79 (95% CI 0.55-1.14, p = 0.25). There were no statistically significant changes in the incidence of superficial, deep, or any wound infections with the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

Individualized practitioner dashboard distribution may be an effective tool to increase intraoperative glycemic control.

Development and implementation of local pediatric anesthesia performance metrics at a Canadian children's hospital: a technical report

PURPOSE

In this project, we sought to develop and implement pediatric anesthesia metrics into electronic health records (EHR) in a hospital setting to improve quality and safety of patient care. While there has been an upsurge in metric-driven health care, specific metrics catering to pediatric anesthesia remain lacking despite widespread use of EHR. The rapid proliferation and implementation of EHR presents opportunities to develop and implement metrics appropriate to local patient care, in this case pediatric anesthesia, with the strategic goal of enhancing quality and safety of patient care, while also delivering transparency in reporting of such metrics.

CLINICAL FEATURES

Using a quasi-nominal consensus group design, we collected requirements from attending anesthesiologists using Agile methodology. Forty-five metrics addressing quality of care (e.g., induction experience, anesthesia delivery, unanticipated events, and postanesthetic care unit stay) and provider performance (e.g., bundle-compliance, collaboration, skills assurance) were developed. Implementation involved integration into the EHR followed by transition from PDF-based feedback to interactive Power BI (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA, USA) dashboards.

CONCLUSION

We introduced and implemented customized pediatric anesthesia metrics within an academic pediatric hospital; however, this framework is easily adaptable across multiple clinical specialties and institutions. In harnessing data-collecting and reporting properties of EHR, the metrics we describe provide insights that facilitate real-time monitoring and foster a culture of continuous learning in line with strategic goals of high-reliability organizations.

A Web-Based Reporting System for Reviewing Local Practice Patterns of Anesthesiologists Derived from the Electronic Medical Record

After completion of training, anesthesiologists may have fewer opportunities to see how colleagues practice, and their breadth of case experiences may also diminish due to specialization. We created a web-based reporting system based on data extracted from electronic anesthesia records that allows practitioners to see how other clinicians practice in similar cases. One year after implementation, the system continues to be utilized by clinicians.

Visual Analytics to Leverage Anesthesia Electronic Health Record

BACKGROUND

Visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning supported by interactive visual interfaces called dashboards. In this report, we describe our experience addressing the challenges in visual analytics of anesthesia electronic health record (EHR) data using a commercially available business intelligence (BI) platform. As a primary outcome, we discuss some performance metrics of the dashboards, and as a secondary outcome, we outline some operational enhancements and financial savings associated with deploying the dashboards.

METHODS

Data were transferred from the EHR to our departmental servers using several parallel processes. A custom structured query language (SQL) query was written to extract the relevant data fields and to clean the data. Tableau was used to design multiple dashboards for clinical operation, performance improvement, and business management.

RESULTS

Before deployment of the dashboards, detailed case counts and attributions were available for the operating rooms (ORs) from perioperative services; however, the same level of detail was not available for non-OR locations. Deployment of the yearly case count dashboards provided near-real-time case count information from both central and non-OR locations among multiple campuses, which was not previously available. The visual presentation of monthly data for each year allowed us to recognize seasonality in case volumes and adjust our supply chain to prevent shortages. The dashboards highlighted the systemwide volume of cases in our endoscopy suites, which allowed us to target these supplies for pricing negotiations, with an estimated annual cost savings of $250,000. Our central venous pressure (CVP) dashboard enabled us to provide individual practitioner feedback, thus increasing our monthly CVP checklist compliance from approximately 92% to 99%.

CONCLUSIONS

The customization and visualization of EHR data are both possible and worthwhile for the leveraging of information into easily comprehensible and actionable data for the improvement of health care provision and practice management. Limitations inherent to EHR data presentation make this customization necessary, and continued open access to the underlying data set is essential.

How Do We Use Dashboards to Enhance Quality in Cardiac Anesthesia?

The use of clinical dashboards has expanded significantly in healthcare in recent years in a variety of settings. The ability to analyze data related to quality metrics in one screen is highly desirable for cardiac anesthesiologists, as they have considerable influence on important clinical outcomes. Building a robust quality program within cardiac anesthesia relies on consistent access and review of quality outcome measures, process measures, and operational measures through a clinical dashboard. Signals and trends in these measures may be compared to other cardiac surgical programs to analyze gaps and areas for quality improvement efforts. In this article, the authors describe how they designed a clinical cardiac anesthesia dashboard for quality efforts at their institution.