"Early-onset Sepsis Risk-calculator Curbs Antibiotic Overuse in Newborns" - Marilynn Larkin
Integrating an early-onset sepsis risk calculator into the electronic health record reduced antibiotic orders in a newborn nursery, with no increase in adverse events, researchers say. As reported in Pediatrics, the study included programming an EHR form containing fields that were outside of the infant's admission note with nonautomatic access to the calculator, education for end-users, and reviewing risk scores in structured bedside rounds. Czer Anthoney Lim, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who was not involved in the study said, “The risk calculator used in this study is validated, the intervention described by the authors follows the general approach used in many quality improvement studies, and the results are impressive." He added, “As demonstrated in the study, it took over three years to fully implement the risk calculator to obtain the widespread use resulting in decreased antibiotic prescribing. The timing in other areas may be different but will often require a combination of physician education and integration of the scoring system into current workflows to be successful."
— Czer Anthoney Lim, MD, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Medical Director, Pediatric Emergency Department, Pediatric Short Stay Unit, Mount Sinai Beth Israel