Dear Community,
As the Thanksgiving Holiday approaches, we want to take a moment and say THANK YOU for each of your contributions, ideas, support, partnership, and leadership throughout this last year. There are so many exciting things happening, especially as we turn our focus towards improving outcomes for all heart failure patients, such as those waiting for heart transplant. Please read about our in-person Waitlist Outcomes meeting below.
Happy Thanksgiving from ACTION Leadership!
Learning Session Update
Waitlist Outcomes
ATTENDEES: About 70 attendees from 22 pediatric heart failure centers, and 12 parents/patients attended
On November 2–3, 2019, ACTION held it's annual learning session in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in conjunction with Cardiac Networks United. Together, we:
- successfully process mapped the organ waitlist process from time of referral/diagnosis to successful transplant, and identified key barriers in the process.
- brainstormed educational materials for patients and families, and discussed how to get critical data out to patients/families and providers.
- started designing a quality improvement project to improve the use of donor organs, i.e. decreasing donor organ waste and identifying key interventions to improve this process.
MARCH 2020: Next in-person meeting to design projects specifically focused on heart failure
Newest Centers
UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital
Los Angeles, California
- Emily Stimpson, TX Administration
- Myke Federman, MD, ICU
- Juan Carlos Alejos, MD
- Leigh Reardon, MD, VAD Dir
- Matthew Russell, MD, TX Fellow
- Stephanie Franschilla, Head of TX Quality & Compliance
Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
- JonDavid Menteer, MD
- Deborah Dechant, RN
- John Ayala
- Donna Guadiz, RN, Coord
- Monica Horn, RN, Coord
- Paul Kantor, MBBCh
- Jennifer Su, MD
- Sarah Badran, MD
Upcoming Events
March 5–6, 2020
Potential Heart Failure Committee Meeting
Philadelphia, PA
April 2020 (Date TBD)
ACTION Happy Hour at ISHLT
Montreal, Canada
May 13–15, 2020
16th Annual MCS & CPB Meeting
Potential ACTION Happy Hour
Cincinnati, Ohio
(More info below)
June 10, 2020
Pediatric Day at ASAIO
Potential ACTION Happy Hour
Chicago, IL
June 11–13, 2020
ACHD Meeting
Potential ACTION Happy Hour (6/11)
Potential ACTION ACHD Meeting (6/13)
Cincinnati, OH
September 2020 (Date TBD)
ACTION Meeting at Heart Failure/VAD Summit
St. Louis, MO
Registry Database
Updates
Collecting Data on Readmissions
The “Readmission” form is a new form that has been added to the database (Simplified Clinical). For patients who are currently on support, please retroactively enter their readmissions. Emergency Department visits are not considered readmissions if the patient visit does not result in an actual readmission. We sincerely appreciate your efforts to improve data accuracy and quality!
Data Adjudication
Sites recently received reports from the first adjudication meetings held in September 2019. The adjudication committee welcomes any feedback.
Email us: ACTION.DCC@cchmc.org
Quality
Improvement
Updates
Discharge and De-escalation Update
We kicked off the Discharge and De-escalation project during the October Global QI meeting. 17 initial teams have signed up to test the patient journey map and team flight plan. We will collect data and learn from this cohort to eventually spread to the rest of ACTION teams.
All Teach All Learn
In order to learn best practices happening around the network, we are moving to an All Teach All Learn approach during our monthly Global QI meetings. This means we want to hear the successes, barriers, and questions you have as you work through your projects. Two teams will present each month and a template will be provided.
16th Annual MCS & CPB Meeting
May 13–15, 2020
Cincinnati, Ohio
The 16th International Conference on Pediatric Mechanical Circulatory Support Systems & Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Perfusion will focus on ways to enhance the comfort level of clinicians taking care of complex heart failure patients with and without congenital heart disease. Attendees will have the opportunity to collaborate and discuss effective ways to bring mechanical support and cardiopulmonary bypass strategies to the bedside as well as how best to manage therapies once they are instituted.
Key topics to be covered:
- New anticoagulation modalities for mechanical circulatory support
- The role of electronic data capture in improving perfusion practice
- Supporting the failing Fontan circulation, association between cyanosis, transfusion,
- and thrombotic complications in children undergoing cardiac surgery
- What it takes to perform a heart–liver transplant
Open Positions in ACTION Centers
Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital
Memphis, TN
Looking for: VAD Coordinator to join a team of HF physicians /NPs and a part-time VAD coordinator to assist in the development, implementation and maintenance of all aspects of care for patients with VAD and heart transplant candidates/recipients.
Le Bonheur runs a busy heart transplant program and VAD volumes have been increasing steadily. Last year 7 VADs were implanted and there is anticipation for more in 2020. The 10 bed Cardiac ICU is expanding to a 31 bed CVICU/Step down unit in 2020.
Requirements: Registered Nurse (RN) with 3–5 years VAD experience is preferred
Email Contact: Jeffrey A. Towbin, MD or call: 901-287-6819
Chief, Pediatric Cardiology
Medical Director, Cardiomyopathy/Heart Failure /Transplant
