Dear Community,
Thank you for making the Spring Virtual ACTION Meeting held at the beginning of this month tremendously successful! We had over 150 attendees, which represented our clinicians, industry collaborators, patients, and families. 33 ACTION centers bravely shared pitfalls and pearls over the 2-day meeting. We look forward to sharing the learnings with everyone soon!
The DMD data collection project is now open for IRB and DUA-approved sites to join. We are also preparing to launch PRO’s across the entire network and a Wearables/Apple Watch Pilot Project is coming this summer! Stay tuned this spring and summer for some exciting new projects that we will be rolling out!
Stay safe and healthy,
How can we best care for the ACHD patient with Advanced HF?
Thursday, May 13, 2021
4:00 PM Eastern
Moderator
Steven Kindel, MD
Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin
Roundtable Discussion Panelists
Ashish Shah, MD
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Lucy Roche, MD
University Health Network, University of Toronto
Ari Cedars, MD
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center
Jonathan Menachem, MD
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
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Please submit any questions that you would like for our presenters to discuss on the registration page.
Please register by May 12, 2021. Registration is free and open to anyone interested in participating. To join us, click below:
Upcoming Events
Check it out!
PI Meetings with ACTION Co-Directors
ACTION is turning 4 years old this June, and we have grown our collaborative efforts with each new year. Due to our growth and commitment to ensuring the success of each ACTION center, we are offering meetings to touch base directly with our PI’s and Co-PI’s. Some points of discussion during these meetings will be:
- Academics
- Data
- Projects
- Good Standing
- Traction
Meetings are for 20 minutes, on a first come, first serve basis. Principal Investigator’s should sign up here ASAP to reserve a preferred meeting date/time. Please submit only one request per center. Both Co-Directors will be present, as well as Matthew O’Connor, MD (CHOP) (ACTION's Academic Oversight Leader). Thanks to the sites who have already signed up—we look forward to meeting with you!
Our Newest ACTION Members
Welcome Nikita!
Please welcome Nikita D’Souza, ACTION's newest Program Management Specialist!
Hi everyone!
I joined Cincinnati Children’s in 2018 as an Administrative Fellow and soon after as a Project Management Specialist in the Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence. In these roles, I provided project management support for internal quality improvement (QI) trainings, ad-hoc improvement projects throughout the hospital, and managed the submission of the US News and World Report Pediatric Hospital Survey. These positions allow me to understand the hospital system as a whole and best practices to integrate project management and QI methodology to work towards the best outcomes possible.
Outside of work, I love traveling, an occasional Netflix binge, trying new restaurants & coffee shops, and finding the best trails to walk my dog. Travel initiated my passion at a young age to better children’s lives and continued to grow as I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Public Health and Master’s degree in Health Administration with a focus on Quality Improvement and Global Health.
I am grateful and excited to use my skills while continuing to follow my passion with the ACTION team here at Cincinnati Children’s as a program management specialist.
Nikita
Congratulations to Karina and family!
Congratulations to Karina Tabar, Data Management Specialist, on our ACTION staff! Karina and family welcomed Jackson Patrick Tabar, born 4/21/21 at 1:09 AM, weighing in at 6 lbs. 9 oz., and 19.5 inches long. Mom, baby and family are all doing well!
Quality Improvement Updates
Discharge Project
The next Discharge Committee meeting will take place on May 5, 2021. We will discuss the scope and next steps of the project direction around listing practices for transplant. Please continue to test the Flight Plan and Journey Map, and enter data into REDCap on any patients who have been discharged or transferred to the floor.
Stroke Project
We believe that we can drive down strokes even further and are working on re-launching ABCs 2.0 soon. During ACTION’s fall meeting there was encouraging discussion around how we can use real time data and an M&M-type of sharing forum to learn from past strokes to make improvements. The first meeting will be held on May 6 and Cincinnati Children’s and Stanford will be presenting (more details coming to ACTION clinicians soon!). Additionally, the REDCap fields have been revamped to make it easier and faster to enter data. Please continue to enter data into REDCap for your VAD patients for the first 8 weeks of implant.
Telehealth Project: now called the Medication Titration Project
Teams & telehealth leadership have recently agreed to shift the project focus. The next focus will be on using telehealth to optimize and uptitrate medicines for heart failure patients. Team members are currently working to refine the charter and SMART aim. An invitation to begin testing interventions will be coming soon.
Heart Failure Project
We excitedly launched the Heart Failure Improvement Project on January 26th with 22 sites! Teams are testing 2 interventions: a communication checklist and a discharge plan. We are aiming to reduce length of stay for heart failure patients admitted to the hospital, as well as decrease readmissions. The next meeting will be on May 25. Please continue to enter data into the enrollment REDCap for all heart failure patients. Please see the NEW heart failure data entry infographic to know when and where to enter data for this project.
Registry Database
Updates
The adjudication process is to ensure accurate ascertainment and categorization of major events. By conducting a quarterly meeting, our adjudication committee reviews major events and corrects any data or information. Having accurate data allows our network to learn from one another and provide the best care for our patients. Having access to our network’s precise data allows our members to write different publications. In addition, the data is shared with the FDA for various devices under the labeling approval process and is also analyzed for critical research questions.
Our ACTION team consist of 800+ members and 36 active sites. The adjudication review committee consist of only 13 members. On average, there are 50 events to adjudicate per quarter. Our goal is to accept additional volunteers into the adjudication committee to help with the responsibility of reviewing the quarterly events and providing accurate updates to the data. If you are interested in joining the Adjudication Committee, please contact action.dcc@cchmc.org.
Open Positions in ACTION Centers
Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital
Hollywood, FL
Looking for: RN VAD Coordinator
Responsibilities: Assist in the development, implementation, and maintenance of all aspects of care for patients with a ventricular assist device (VAD). Provides clinical consultation and education related to the management and care of patients with VAD devices for staff, physicians and other disciplines who may have contact or care responsibilities for this population. Participates in training, orientation and evaluation of staff competencies related to VAD care. Accountable for compliance with organizational policies, procedures, private, state and regulatory requirements for VADs
To Apply: See full job listing for more details and to apply.
Email Contact: Breanna Vandale, MSN, RN, Interim DON Pediatric Heart and Transplant Institute
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital
San Francisco, CA
Looking for: Nurse Care Coordinator for Heart Failure/Transplant/VAD
Responsibilities: Responsibilities include telephone triage of patient symptoms, coordinate patient evaluations, assisting with insurance authorizations, contacting home health companies, assuring DME and other home supplies are adequate. Assisting with medication refill requests, line and tube care, patient teaching and assisting in the overall coordination of timely patient care. In the inpatient setting, the Nurse Care Coordinator for Pediatric Heart Failure, Transplant, and VAD will act as a liaison to ensure continuity of care for patients and their families. The Nurse Care Coordinator will collaborate with the inpatient nursing and provider teams to assist with patient and family education as well as complex care coordination and management, including comprehensive VAD care and management.
To Apply: See full job listing for more details and to apply.
Email Contact: Maria Fe Partible, Manager Heart Failure, Transplant, VAD
