Dear Community,
We excitedly rolled out two new projects this month! The CardioMEMS Registry project and the VAD Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO’s) & e-Consent projects are open for teams to sign up! Sites must have an IRB and DUA completed to participate in these projects.
- Review the project charter and sign up for the CardioMEMS project here.
- Review the project charter and sign up for the VAD PRO’s & ACTION e-Consent project here.
A big thanks to our Heart Failure Committee/CardioMEMS leaders and Patient Reported Outcomes Committee for their efforts in designing and launching these. We sincerely appreciate the continued collaboration across our network to improve outcomes for all children & ACHD patients with heart failure.
Stay safe and healthy,
Summer Break
Thanks to all who have participated in our Virtual Learning Sessions. We are taking a little break for the month of June, but will be back soon with more exciting topics.
Check it out!
Spring 2021 ACTION Meeting Debrief
Thank you all for making the Spring 2021 Virtual ACTION Meeting held at the beginning of April 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. A brief meeting summary, ACTION members contact list, slides and materials are on Basecamp. We will circle back with Committee Leaders to talk about new projects and tools we may be able to create to help with some of these shared pitfalls – stay tuned! Let us know if you have any questions. Thank you again for a successful All Teach, All Learn style meeting!
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. We successfully completed 2 days of meetings in May, and we have one day left on June 28th that is still available for meeting sign-up. Some points of discussion:
- Academics
- Data
- Projects
- Good Standing
- TRACTION
Meetings are first come, first serve, for 20 minutes each. Principal Investigator’s should sign up as soon as possible to reserve your time. Please Submit only one request per center. Both Co-Directors will be present, as well as Matthew O’Connor, MD (CHOP) as he has recently joined the ACTION Leadership in an Academic Oversight role. Thanks to the sites who have already signed up—we look forward to meeting with you!
2020 ANCC Magnet Nurse of the Year
Allison Reichhold, NP, VAD Coordinator of ACTION center, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, recently won the ANCC Magnet Nurse of the Year award for Transformational Leadership.
“It is really ACTION and all the other VAD Coordinators I must thank for this recognition!!” Allie says.
Congratulations to Allie on this momentous nomination and achievement!
Quality Improvement Updates
Discharge Project
The next Discharge Committee meeting will take place on June 2, 2021. We will continue discussing the scope and next steps of the project direction. Survey results around listing practices for transplant will also be shared. 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
Last month we had a successful M&M-type of sharing forum where David Rosenthal presented a previous stroke case. There was lively discussion that will help us guide the next set of improvements. The next meeting will be held on June 3, 2021, and Cincinnati Children’s will present a case.
We are taking a pause on collecting stroke data in REDCap as we revise questions and format. Please see the notice above in the Data Updates section regarding this announcement.
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. The next team meeting is on June 9, 2021 to continue to design the project. An invitation to begin testing interventions will be coming soon.
Heart Failure Project
Teams continue to test the two 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 June 29, 2021. Please continue to enter data into the enrollment REDCap for all heart failure patients.
Registry Database
Updates
Volunteer to join the Adjudication Committee!
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 38 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!
ABC’s of Reducing Stroke 1.0 Data Collection Changes
The ABC’s project has now transformed into the ABCD’s of stroke reduction, which includes greater focus on discussion and data collection. With this new project design and all we have learned from our initial roll-out in 2018, we are now stopping the current REDCap data collection for the initial ABC’s project. It is still important for us to know which sites are using the QI measures, so a more efficient way to collect this data will be coming soon. For now, please stop entering your VAD patient data into the ABC’s REDCap. We sincerely appreciate your efforts in collecting this data as we have learned so much. Please continue to use all the past tools we have made as we carry learnings forward into this new phase of the project. Please email action.dcc@cchmc.org for any questions.
Open Positions in ACTION Centers
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA
Looking for: Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Heart Transplant Coordinator III
Responsibilities: The Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner/Transplant Coordinator provides vital support to a world-class Heart Transplant program. Serve a critical role in delivering life-saving patient care. Experience unmatched professional challenge and growth. At UCLA Health, you can do all this and more.Primary responsibility is for the clinical case management of the transplant recipient involving all phases of the transplant process, from initial referral throughout patient follow-up. This position requires an advanced level of expertise and overall understanding of organ transplantation for the organ type specified functions in an interdependent role by implementing the appropriate “standardized procedures” (SP). By using the SPs the NP is able to change treatment regimen after observing signs and symptoms of illness, reactions to treatment, general behavior and physical condition, and determines if they are abnormal findings. Provide and coordinate the care of the transplant and/or organ failure patients.
To Apply: See full job listing for more details and to apply.
Email Contact: Juan Alejos MD, Medical Director, or Melissa Moore RN,BSN,CCTC, Heart and Lung Transplant Nurse Manager
