Safety Of Early Hospital Discharge Research Articles

Safety of early hospital discharge following admission with ST-elevation myocardial infarction treated with percutaneous coronary intervention: a nationwide cohort study.

The Second Primary Angioplasty in Myocardial Infarction (PAMI-II) risk score is recommended by guidelines to identify low-risk patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) for an early discharge strategy. We aimed to assess the safety of early discharge (≤2 days) for low-risk STEMI patients treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Using nationwide data from the SWEDEHEART registry, we identified patients with STEMI treated with primary PCI during the period 2009-2017, of whom 8,092 (26.4%) were identified as low risk with the PAMI-II score. Low-risk patients were stratified according to their length of hospital stay (≤2 days vs >2 days). The primary endpoint was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE, including death, reinfarction treated with PCI, stroke or heart failure hospitalisation) at one year, assessed using a Cox proportional hazards model with propensity score as well as an inverse probability weighting propensity score of average treatment effect to adjust for confounders. A total of 1,449 (17.9%) patients were discharged ≤2 days from admission. After adjustment, the one-year MACE rate was not higher for patients discharged at >2 days from admission than for patients discharged ≤2 days (4.3% vs 3.2%; adjusted HR 1.31, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.92-1.87, p=0.14), and no difference was observed regarding any of the individual components of the main outcome. Results were consistent across all subgroups with no difference in MACE between early and late discharge patients. Nationwide observational data suggest that early discharge of low-risk patients with STEMI treated with PCI is not associated with an increase in one-year MACE.

#35: Safety of Early Hospital Discharge of Neutropenic Pediatric Oncology Patients After Febrile Neutropenia

Abstract Background Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in children in Mexico. Infections are the main cause of morbidity and mortality in these patients. Febrile neutropenia (FN) constitutes an infectious emergency and early aggressive antibiotic treatment is the standard of care. Recent guidelines suggest discontinuing empirical antibiotics in patients who have negative blood cultures at 48 hours, who have been afebrile for at least 24 hours, and who have evidence of marrow recovery. Nevertheless, recommendations about discontinuing antibiotics and discharging patients while they are still neutropenic are less clear. We aimed to evaluate the safety of early hospital discharge of FN patients who are still neutropenic. Methods Observational, case–control study nested in a prospective cohort of pediatric oncology patients with FN at Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez (HIMFG) in Mexico City from May 2015 to September 2017. We defined early discharge as when a patient is discharged while neutropenic (ANC <500 cell/mm3) and has completed at least 7 days of antibiotics. Patients with FN who were discharged with neutropenia were defined as cases and patients with FN who were discharged after recovering from neutropenia were controls. To assess the safety of hospital early discharge, the following outcomes were analyzed until 7 days after discharge: new onset of fever, hospital readmission, need to restart antibiotic treatment, septic shock, and death. Descriptive statistics were performed with measures of central tendency. Variables of interest were compared with Pearson’s χ 2 or Student’s test. Results In total, 929 febrile neutropenia episodes were analyzed. The mean age was 7.5 years, 55.3% were female. Hematologic malignancies were the most frequent type of malignances in 50.8%. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) was the underlying disease in 41%. Of the 929 FN episodes, 180 (19.3%) were discharged with neutropenia. Patients with ALL were the most frequent in 49.4%, followed by acute myeloid leukemia 18.8% and rhabdomyosarcoma 6.6%. Thirty-five percent were in maintenance therapy, 22% in remission induction therapy, and 9% in consolidation. 19.4% of discharged patients received granulocyte-colony stimulating factor. Ten patients (5.5%) were re-admitted during the 7 days following discharge. Six patients returned for chemotherapy administration and one was scheduled for liver biopsy. Three patients were re-admitted due to infectious complications (1.6%), none of them were under oral antibiotic treatment; two patients due to FN without microbiological isolation and one patient with septic shock due to multi-drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Older patients had a higher risk of readmission, with a mean age of 14.6 years (SD 4.6 years, 95% CI 7.7–21.6) (P = 0.01), compared with the mean of 7.7 years (SD 2.7 years, (95% CI 7.0, – 8.4) of patients who were not re-admitted. Conclusions In our population of pediatric patients with FN who were discharged before neutrophil recovery, readmission due to infectious complications was low (1.6%). Discharging patients with persistent neutropenia who are afebrile and had completed a course of antibiotics seems an acceptable practice with a low risk of readmission.

Selective Early Hospital Discharge Does Not Increase Readmission but Unnecessary Return to the Emergency Department Is Excessive Across Groups After Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty

BackgroundThere has been much attention paid to the ability to optimize outcomes, limit complications, and reduce costs within the episode of care after total joint arthroplasty. Limiting the duration of postoperative hospitalization as well as reducing emergency department (ED) visits and readmissions are additional considerations in the paradigm of cost containment. Our purpose was to evaluate the safety of early hospital discharge after primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and to identify the diagnoses responsible for ED visits and readmissions in the postoperative period. MethodsWe investigated risk factors for readmission in 995 patients undergoing primary TKA. We compared 2 groups: length of hospital stay (LOS) ≤2 or ≥3 days. Analysis included LOS, Charlson score, history of DVT, discharge disposition, and postdischarge ED visits. ResultsPatients who stayed ≤2 postoperative days had a significantly lower mean Charlson score and more likely discharged home. Charlson score and history of DVT were predictive of return events. Patients discharged to home were less likely to have return events. More than half of the patients evaluated in the ED were not readmitted. ConclusionAmong patients undergoing primary TKA, it is the health of the patient, and not their resultant LOS, that correlates to return events. The ED is overused for complaints that may otherwise be managed as effectively and more cost efficiently in outpatient settings. Cost containment must include unnecessary utilization of the ED.

Safety of early hospital discharge of selected febrile children and adolescents with cancer with prolonged neutropenia.

The safety of early hospital discharge (i.e., before the absolute neutrophil count [ANC] exceeds 500 cell/mm3) of febrile neutropenic children and adolescents with cancer who had experienced prolonged neutropenia (i.e., for more than 7 days) following admission has not been studied. Three hundred and thirty nine consecutive admissions of children and adolescents with cancer for management of febrile neutropenia were reviewed. Early discharge criteria included absence of fever for 24 hours prior to discharge, sterile blood cultures for 24 hours, evidence of bone marrow recovery defined as a sustained increase in platelet count and ANC or absolute phagocyte count (APC), and control of local infection if present. Children hospitalized with febrile neutropenia who remained neutropenic for more than 7 days were analyzed to assess their outcomes following discharge it they had met criteria for early hospital discharge. Thirty-three patients in whom neutropenia had persisted for more than 7 days were discharged before attaining an ANC greater than 500/mm3 when they met the early discharge criteria. Only two children (6%) required readmission for recurrent fever, a rate which was not different from that of patients discharged after a more transient episode of neutropenia (2 of 33 vs. 3 of 121, P = 0.3). Both patients who were readmitted had a source of local infection which worsened despite oral antibiotics. Both patients appeared clinically well at the time of readmission and had sterile cultures during their second hospitalization with resolution of local infection. This study confirms that low-risk criteria used to select children with cancer for discharge before complete resolution of neutropenia can be safely applied to those patients whose neutropenia lasted more than 7 days following admission.

Safety of early hospital discharge of selected febrile children and adolescents with cancer with prolonged neutropenia

Safety of early hospital discharge of selected febrile children and adolescents with cancer with prolonged neutropenia

Early hospital discharge after direct angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction.

To determine the feasibility and safety of early hospital discharge after myocardial infarction, we reviewed a 3-yr experience with direct angioplasty: 204 patients had direct angioplasty with in-hospital mortality of 3.4%. Of these patients, 125 were discharged < 5 days after infarction and 98% of these were available for 30-day follow-up. There was one early death (0.8% mortality), two early readmissions without complications, and three late readmissions. Thus early hospital discharge a mean of 3.4 days after infarction can be achieved in > 60% of patients undergoing direct angioplasty with no significant early complications and excellent 30-day survival (99.2%).