Projects

Optimizing Post-Cath Care Interventional Cardiology fellow Dr. Sandeep Krishnan and cardiac care nurse Sue Hansen wanted to improve care, outcomes, and patient satisfaction after catheterization using the ICU early mobility movements as a model. They performed a randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of early mobilization after cardiac catheterization, enrolling over 100 patients. Early analysis indicates…

ED-2-ICU: Improving Transitions Patient outcomes worsen with increasing time in the ED, particularly for critical care patients who require many interventions and high-acuity care. ED/Critical Care fellow Dr. Clint Orloski and attending Dr. Nick Johnson decided to take on these important transitions. Their team has worked to promote change through culture and systems by revising the Harborview…

SQuIRREL: Trainee Event Reporting Resident event reporting is an issue in centers around the country, and an interdisciplinary trainee team led by Dr. Katy Hicks is seeking to change that. The SQuIRREL (Subcommittee on QI Event Reporting & Resident-Engaged Learning) project started off with surveys showing that only 5% of trainees regularly reported events (56% rarely reported, 39% never reported) due to…

Kefir for C diff prevention What if we could use groceries to save our patients? Internal Medicine resident Dr. Aynsley Duncan and her team are working to do just that, using kefir (a commercially available probiotic supplement)  to try to prevent Clostridium difficile infections in the ICU. Kefir is cheaper than most traditional probiotics and contains multiple…