Reducing Empiric VAncomycin Use in Pediatric Suspected Sepsis (REVAMP)

September 11, 2023 updated by: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Reducing Empiric VAncomycin Use in Pediatric Suspected Sepsis (REVAMP-Sepsis)

The goal of this quasi-experimental interventional study is to determine the effectiveness of a multifaceted stewardship intervention in reducing overall vancomycin use in five tertiary care Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICU).

There are two groups of subjects in this study: PICU clinicians/sepsis stakeholders and patients admitted to one of the participating PICUs during the study period. The intervention will at a minimum include:

  • Implementation of a clinical guideline indicating when vancomycin should and should not be used
  • Unit-level feedback on overall vancomycin use within and across centers
  • Clinician education.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

Vancomycin is among the most commonly prescribed antibiotics in United States children's hospitals, and inappropriate use of vancomycin is common. Given the high prevalence of acute kidney injury associated with vancomycin of up to 25%, reducing vancomycin overuse is a key opportunity to reduce preventable patient harm.

The primary objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a multifaceted stewardship intervention in reducing overall vancomycin use in five tertiary care PICUs. This intervention will be informed by baseline data surrounding vancomycin use and infections due to organisms requiring vancomycin therapy which will allow selective use of vancomycin, as well as a concurrent mixed methods process and formative evaluation to inform implementation of the intervention.

During the baseline period, Electronic Health Record (EHR) data will be used to retrospectively quantify unit-level vancomycin use over 24 months (measured as vancomycin days of therapy [DOT]/1000 patient days), as well as the frequency of vancomycin use and prevalence of infections due to organisms requiring vancomycin therapy among patients with suspected and confirmed sepsis.

During the post-intervention period, which will last approximately 24 months, a multifaceted stewardship intervention to reduce vancomycin use informed by these baseline data, including:

  • The creation of a consensus guideline for vancomycin use;
  • Ad hoc education related to vancomycin overuse, and;
  • Unit-level feedback on vancomycin prescribing. The feedback on vancomycin use will be provided to clinicians at each site, both within their site (to compare to past performance) and across sites (to compare local performance to the performance of other sites).

This intervention will be locally adapted by the investigative team and sepsis stakeholders at each site. Data from the EHR will be used to assess vancomycin use (DOT/1000 patient days), as well as the secondary outcomes. Investigators will perform semi-structured interviews and repeat surveys 9 months after the implementation of the intervention. This mixed-methods process and formative evaluation will help investigators understand which elements of implementation were successful and which were not.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

52500

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

  • Name: Kathleen Chiotos, MD, MSCE
  • Phone Number: 215-590-5505
  • Email: chiotosk@chop.edu

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

    • Georgia
      • Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30322
        • Recruiting
        • Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
        • Contact:
    • Maryland
      • Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21287
        • Recruiting
        • Johns Hopkins Children's Center
        • Contact:
    • Missouri
      • Saint Louis, Missouri, United States, 63110
        • Recruiting
        • St. Louis Children's Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19146
        • Recruiting
        • Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Kathleen Chiotos
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • Rebecca Same

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Patient Inclusion Criteria:

  • Admitted to one of the participating PICUs during the study period

Patient Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

Clinician Inclusion Criteria:

  1. PICU prescribing clinician (including attending physicians, fellows, residents, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants) OR sepsis stakeholder (leader of sepsis quality improvement work, medical director) at one of the participating sites at the time the survey is deployed
  2. Age ≥ 18 years old
  3. Employed by one of the participating sites

Clinician Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Volunteers or other non-employee hospital staff
  2. Limited English proficiency

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: PICU Clinicians and Sepsis stakeholders

Clinicians and sepsis stakeholders in the participating sites will be primarily recruited via email. During the course of this multifaceted intervention:

  • All the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) prescribing clinicians and sepsis stakeholders in the participating sites will receive clinical guidelines, unit-level feedback reports, and education on Vancomycin use during the intervention.
  • Investigators will perform semi-structured interviews with 90 PICU clinicians and sepsis stakeholders.
  • Surveys will be sent to all eligible clinicians, estimated to be up to 2500 individuals across the 4 sites. These structured surveys will be done at baseline and at 9 months post-implementation.
  • Clinical guidelines and group-level feedback on vancomycin use will be provided to clinicians/sepsis stakeholders at each site.
  • The semi-structured interviews will be performed by a trained member of the research team, under the supervision of a medical sociologist who is one of the co-investigators. A semi-structured interview guide will be used during the interviews. Interviews will be recorded and transcribed, then uploaded to a qualitative analysis software for management and coding. Names will not be recorded, and pseudonyms will be used in notes, communications about the study, and any presentations. Verbal consent will be obtained before conducting and recording the interviews.
  • The surveys will be performed using REDCap survey software, and participation will be voluntary. No identifiers will be collected.
Other Names:
  • Mixed methods intervention
No Intervention: PICU Patients with suspected sepsis
Research procedures involving patients will be limited to medical record review. This medical record review will help inform the intervention directed at PICU clinicians/stakeholders and the assessment of study outcomes. Approximately 50,000 patients will participate in the study. Data elements will be collected at each site and stored as password-protected Comma-separated values (CSV) files. These files will not contain any direct Protected Health Information (PHI) but will contain elements of date (e.g., date of admission, date of suspected sepsis episode). The study Identification (ID) number will be used to identify each unique patient. Each site will collect and store data in compliance with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and local Institutional Review Board (IRB) policies.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in vancomycin use
Time Frame: Baseline to 5 years
Vancomycin use will be measured as DOT per 1000 PICU patient days, measured monthly. Every day in which one or more doses of parenteral vancomycin is administered is classified as one vancomycin DOT. Every day or portion of a day a patient is admitted to the PICU is classified as one PICU patient day.
Baseline to 5 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in rate of suspected and confirmed sepsis episodes per 1000 PICU patient days.
Time Frame: Baseline to 5 years
Change in the rate of suspected and confirmed sepsis episodes in which new or persistent respiratory, renal, cardiovascular, or hematologic organ dysfunction occur at day 3 and at day 7.
Baseline to 5 years
PICU all-cause mortality
Time Frame: Up to 3 years
All-cause mortality will be measured at 30 days following sepsis onset as a proportion of suspected and confirmed sepsis episodes. Only one episode of suspected or confirmed sepsis will be counted in this measure.
Up to 3 years
PICU length of stay
Time Frame: Up to 3 years
Time elapsed between a patient's admission into the PICU and discharge from the PICU.
Up to 3 years
Hospital length of stay
Time Frame: Up to 3 years
Time elapsed between a patient's hospital admittance and discharge.
Up to 3 years
30-day PICU readmission
Time Frame: Within 30 days of discharge from a PICU admission
Readmission to the PICU is defined as an admission to the PICU occurring within 30 days following discharge from an admission in which there was one or more episodes of suspected or confirmed sepsis. Only one episode of suspected or confirmed sepsis will be counted in this measure. Patients without a readmission to the index hospital or health system will be counted as no readmission, due to the inability to assess readmissions to outside institutions.
Within 30 days of discharge from a PICU admission
30-day hospital readmission
Time Frame: Within 30 days of discharge from a hospital admission
The percentage of patients that are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days following discharge from an admission in which there was one or more episodes of suspected or confirmed sepsis. Only one episode of suspected or confirmed sepsis will be counted in this measure.
Within 30 days of discharge from a hospital admission
Use of other broad-spectrum antibiotics
Time Frame: Up to 5 years
Cefepime, ceftriaxone, and piperacillin-tazobactam DOT/1000 PICU days, measured monthly (as a non-equivalent dependent variable).
Up to 5 years
Use of other anti-MRSA antibiotics
Time Frame: Up to 5 years
Linezolid, Ceftaroline, clindamycin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole in DOT/1000 patient days, measured monthly (as a balancing measure to evaluate any increase in other anti-MRSA antibiotics that may occur as an unintended consequence of reducing vancomycin use).
Up to 5 years
Prevalence of infections due to organisms requiring vancomycin
Time Frame: Up to 5 years
Microbiologic outcome measures will focus on the prevalence of vancomycin-requiring organisms in the suspected and confirmed sepsis cohorts, and will also be measured relative to the frequency of empiric vancomycin administration and compliance with the guideline.
Up to 5 years

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Adoption of intervention
Time Frame: Onset of intervention to 2 years
Adoption, the decision to adhere to the guideline for vancomycin use, will be measured as the proportion of sepsis episodes in which the clinician adhered to the guideline based on medical record review. Adoption will be evaluated in a 10% random sample of sepsis episodes each month by chart review.
Onset of intervention to 2 years
Appropriateness of intervention
Time Frame: Onset of intervention to 2 years
Appropriateness, the perceived compatibility of the intervention to the PICU practice setting, will be measured during surveys and semi-structured interviews using the Likert Scale; where 1 = completely disagree and 5 = completely agree.
Onset of intervention to 2 years
Acceptability of intervention
Time Frame: Onset of intervention to 2 years
Acceptability, how well the intervention was received by the PICU clinicians will be measured during surveys and semi-structured interviews using the Likert Scale; where 1 = completely disagree and 5 = completely agree.
Onset of intervention to 2 years
Measure of feasibility of intervention
Time Frame: Onset of intervention to 2 years
Feasibility, the extent to which the intervention can be carried out in the setting, will be determined in collaboration with our local stakeholders but may include the proportion of PICU clinicians who attend educational sessions and/or unit-based meetings during which vancomycin use data is reviewed.
Onset of intervention to 2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Kathleen Chiotos, MD, MSCE, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 21, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

August 1, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 27, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 27, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

August 4, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 13, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 11, 2023

Last Verified

September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

This study was initiated prior to the NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy update that was released on January 25, 2023.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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