Analysis of a Training Intervention for Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis in Emergency Department (APEED)

Fundació Institut de Recerca de l'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

Status: Completed

Conditions: Pulmonary Embolism

Treatments: Behavioral: Training Intervention for PE Diagnosis

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03023605

IIBSP-EPU-2016-61

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to analyze the clinical impact of an educational intervention on adherence to Clinical Practice Guidelines in an Emergency Department (ED), by using a standardized training, for improving diagnostic sensibility and reducing unnecessary scans, adverse effects and stays in the ED.

Full description

The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau Emergency Department (ED) implemented a training program between May and June 2015 to improve compliance and adherence to recommended clinical practice and optimize the diagnosis and management of patients with suspected Pulmonary Embolism (PE). The training program was standardized, systematic and continuous, with subsequent reinforcement to ensure implementation. This paper aims to evaluate the clinical impact of the training intervention. The establishment of training measures to improve adherence to guidelines implies clinical practice improvement and benefits patients and health system. Moreover, it is a simple and inexpensive intervention, and can be easily reproduced in other ED.

All adult patients (<18 y) with suspected pulmonary embolism attended at Emergency Department will be included. Retrospective information from two different periods (before and after the training intervention) will be collected. First period: 1/1/2012 - 31/12/2012 and second Period: 01.06.2015 - 30/11/2015, pre and post intervention.

OBJECTIVES

A. Primary:

1. Analyze adherence to guidelines for the evaluation of suspected PE in the ED.
2. Determine the clinical impact of training intervention (change in adherence to guidelines after training measures among staff in Emergency Department)
3. Implementation and consolidation of a systematic, standardized, continuous training intervention for improving processes and results.

B.- Secondary

1. Analyze PE cases (presentation, clinical features, treatment, clinical evolution)
2. analyze the clinical differences in three subgroups of patients with PE: young patients (<50 years), elderly patients (<65 years) and cancer
3. Analyze the value of D-dimmer corrected by age in diagnostic algorithms
4. Analyze the results of a new algorithm (EPC + Dimmer corrected age) in the elderly population group (<65 years).

Enrollment: 440 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Are included
• those patients who underwent a D-dimmer for suspected PE
• all those who underwent the diagnosis of PE at discharge
• those who died from EP.

Exclusion criteria

• Are excluded:
• all patients who underwent D-dimmer test with a different diagnosis of EP and those who had a chronic EP

Trial design

Primary purpose: Diagnostic

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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440 participants in 2 patient groups

Pre-intervention PE Diagnosis

No Intervention group

Description:

Patients visited in Emergency Department, with suspected Pulmonary Embolism, before the training intervention.

Post-intervention PE Diagnosis

Experimental group

Description:

Patients visited in Emergency Department, with suspected Pulmonary Embolism, after the training intervention. Training intervention centered on emergency department staff, regarding the application of clinical probability scores (Wells and Geneva scores) to guide the determination of D-dimer and the performance of pulmonary CT in patients with suspected pulmonary embolism.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Training Intervention for PE Diagnosis