Bringing I-PASS to the Bedside: A Communication Bundle to Improve Patient Safety and Experience

Patient and Family-Centered I-PASS is a bundle of communication interventions to improve the quality of information exchange between physicians, nurses, and families, and to better integrate families into all aspects of daily decision making in hospitals. This project tests the hypothesis that rates of medical errors and adverse events (primary outcome), hospital experience, communication, and shared understanding will improve following implementation of Patient and Family Centered I-PASS, as compared with current practice.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Communication
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Patient and Family Centered I-PASS

Detailed Description

We conducted an intervention study on pediatric inpatient units in seven North American hospitals. Each site was assigned to one of 3 staggered waves of implementation and data collection. The Patient and Family Centered I-PASS intervention included a health literacy-informed, structured communication framework for family-centered rounds; written rounds summaries for families; a training and learning program; and strategies to support teamwork and implementation. We measured errors and adverse events (AEs) via an established systematic surveillance methodology, family experience via pre-discharge surveys, and communication processes via direct observations.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 6478
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 1X8
      • The Hospital for Sick Children
• United States
  • California
    • Palo Alto, California, United States, 94304
      • Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford
    • San Francisco, California, United States, 94158
      • UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco
  • Maryland
    • Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20889
      • Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
  • Ohio
    • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, 45229
      • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
  • Pennsylvania
    • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19134
      • St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
  • Utah
    • Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, 84113
      • Primary Children's Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All patients admitted to the pediatric inpatient study units of participating hospitals
• Parents/caregivers of patients less than 18 years of age who speak English, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, or Spanish
• Nurses working on these units
• Residents working on these units
• Medical students working on these units

Exclusion Criteria:

• Parents/caregivers who do not speak a study language (decided based on the 5 most commonly spoken languages across study sites; study languages include: English, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish)
• Parents/caregivers of patients greater than 18 years of age

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Pre-intervention; Before implementation of Patient and Family Centered I-PASS.
Experimental: Post-intervention; After implementation of Patient and Family Centered I-PASS.	Behavioral: Patient and Family Centered I-PASS; Patient and Family-Centered I-PASS is a bundle of communication interventions to improve the quality of information exchange between physicians, nurses, and families, and to better integrate families into all aspects of daily decision making in hospitals. The intervention included a health literacy-informed, structured communication framework for family-centered rounds; written rounds summaries for families; a training and learning program; and strategies to support teamwork and implementation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Rate of Medical Errors	Our primary outcome was the rate of medical errors, including harmful errors (preventable adverse events) and non-harmful errors. Medical errors and adverse events were measured per 1000 patient-days before and after implementation of Patient and Family Centered I-PASS using an established systematic safety surveillance methodology. Trained research clinicians reviewed patient medical charts, hospital incident reports, family safety interviews, and staff reports for potential errors and adverse events. Trained physician-reviewers blinded to pre- vs. post-intervention status then categorized all suspected incidents as either adverse events, non-harmful errors, or exclusions. Adverse events that were clearly caused by a medical error were subsequently deemed preventable and all other cases were categorized as non-preventable.	6 months (3 months pre, 3 months post) per site (7 sites total)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Rate of Non-Preventable Adverse Events	An additional measure of interest was the rate of non-preventable adverse events. Medical errors and adverse events were measured per 1000 patient-days before and after implementation of Patient and Family Centered I-PASS using an established systematic safety surveillance methodology. Trained research clinicians reviewed patient medical charts, hospital incident reports, family safety interviews, and staff reports for potential errors and adverse events. Trained physician-reviewers blinded to pre- vs. post-intervention status then categorized all suspected incidents as either adverse events, non-harmful errors, or exclusions. Adverse events that were clearly caused by a medical error were subsequently deemed preventable and all other cases were categorized as non-preventable.	6 months (3 months pre, 3 months post) per site (7 sites total)
Family Experience With Care	Family experience before and after implementation. Experience was measured using a 10-15 minute survey verbally administered prior to discharge. Parents were asked to rate various aspects of their experience with care. This included experience during and after rounds, experience with written communication, experience with physicians and nurses, and overall hospital experience. The survey was developed, cognitively tested, and piloted at a non-intervention site (Boston Children's Hospital) and translated into Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish. We compared percent top-box experience ratings pre- vs. post-intervention using a GEE chi-squared test for binary outcomes, clustered by site. Top-box score was calculated as the percentage of participants that gave the top-most response for the given survey item (e.g., 5=Extremely; 5=Excellent). Missing data was accounted for through use of multiple imputations appropriate for missing data in clustered studies.	6 months (3 months pre, 3 months post) per site (7 sites total)
Quality of Communication on Rounds	Changes in quality of communication during rounds processes were assessed before and after implementation based on: (a) real-time structured direct observations of rounds (n=653) and (b) post-hoc analyses of audio-recordings of a subset of rounds observations (n=164). Research assistants conducted 1-hour weekly in-person rounds observation sessions per site, simultaneously completing a real-time assessment tool for each patient and audio-recording rounds. Site research clinicians blinded to pre- vs. post-intervention status conducted post-hoc analyses of a subset of rounds audio recordings using a structured assessment tool to measure rounding team adherence. Percent top-box ratings pre- vs. post-intervention were compared using a GEE chi-squared test for binary outcomes, clustered by site. Top-box score was calculated as the percentage of participants that gave the top-most response (e.g., 5=Excellent). Missing data were accounted for through use of multiple imputations.	6 months (3 months pre, 3 months post) per site (7 sites total)
Shared Understanding Between Parent, Resident, and Nurse	Shared understanding between parent, resident, and nurse was measured before and after implementation of the Patient and Family Centered I-PASS intervention.	6 months (3 months pre, 3 months post) per site (7 sites total)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Boston Children's Hospital
• Collaborators: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Christopher P Landrigan, MD, MPH, Boston Children's Hospital

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Starmer AJ, Spector ND, Srivastava R, West DC, Rosenbluth G, Allen AD, Noble EL, Tse LL, Dalal AK, Keohane CA, Lipsitz SR, Rothschild JM, Wien MF, Yoon CS, Zigmont KR, Wilson KM, O'Toole JK, Solan LG, Aylor M, Bismilla Z, Coffey M, Mahant S, Blankenburg RL, Destino LA, Everhart JL, Patel SJ, Bale JF Jr, Spackman JB, Stevenson AT, Calaman S, Cole FS, Balmer DF, Hepps JH, Lopreiato JO, Yu CE, Sectish TC, Landrigan CP; I-PASS Study Group. Changes in medical errors after implementation of a handoff program. N Engl J Med. 2014 Nov 6;371(19):1803-12. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa1405556.
• Khan A, Coffey M, Litterer KP, Baird JD, Furtak SL, Garcia BM, Ashland MA, Calaman S, Kuzma NC, O'Toole JK, Patel A, Rosenbluth G, Destino LA, Everhart JL, Good BP, Hepps JH, Dalal AK, Lipsitz SR, Yoon CS, Zigmont KR, Srivastava R, Starmer AJ, Sectish TC, Spector ND, West DC, Landrigan CP; the Patient and Family Centered I-PASS Study Group, Allair BK, Alminde C, Alvarado-Little W, Atsatt M, Aylor ME, Bale JF Jr, Balmer D, Barton KT, Beck C, Bismilla Z, Blankenburg RL, Chandler D, Choudhary A, Christensen E, Coghlan-McDonald S, Cole FS, Corless E, Cray S, Da Silva R, Dahale D, Dreyer B, Growdon AS, Gubler L, Guiot A, Harris R, Haskell H, Kocolas I, Kruvand E, Lane MM, Langrish K, Ledford CJW, Lewis K, Lopreiato JO, Maloney CG, Mangan A, Markle P, Mendoza F, Micalizzi DA, Mittal V, Obermeyer M, O'Donnell KA, Ottolini M, Patel SJ, Pickler R, Rogers JE, Sanders LM, Sauder K, Shah SS, Sharma M, Simpkin A, Subramony A, Thompson ED Jr, Trueman L, Trujillo T, Turmelle MP, Warnick C, Welch C, White AJ, Wien MF, Winn AS, Wintch S, Wolf M, Yin HS, Yu CE. Families as Partners in Hospital Error and Adverse Event Surveillance. JAMA Pediatr. 2017 Apr 1;171(4):372-381. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.4812. Erratum In: JAMA Pediatr. 2018 Mar 1;172(3):302.
• Khan A, Spector ND, Baird JD, Ashland M, Starmer AJ, Rosenbluth G, Garcia BM, Litterer KP, Rogers JE, Dalal AK, Lipsitz S, Yoon CS, Zigmont KR, Guiot A, O'Toole JK, Patel A, Bismilla Z, Coffey M, Langrish K, Blankenburg RL, Destino LA, Everhart JL, Good BP, Kocolas I, Srivastava R, Calaman S, Cray S, Kuzma N, Lewis K, Thompson ED, Hepps JH, Lopreiato JO, Yu CE, Haskell H, Kruvand E, Micalizzi DA, Alvarado-Little W, Dreyer BP, Yin HS, Subramony A, Patel SJ, Sectish TC, West DC, Landrigan CP. Patient safety after implementation of a coproduced family centered communication programme: multicenter before and after intervention study. BMJ. 2018 Dec 5;363:k4764. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k4764.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 15, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 3, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): January 3, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 12, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 16, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): December 19, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 1, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 17, 2020
• Last Verified: August 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Patient Safety; Adverse Events; Family Engagement; Patient Experience; Family Centered Rounds; Errors; Interprofessional Communication
• Other Study ID Numbers: CDR-1306-03556