Aims and methodThis audit examines the quality of ‘as required’ (p.r.n.) prescribing for in-patients before and after standard setting.ResultsThere were improvements in writing oral/intramuscular prescriptions and in the use of different drugs regularly and p.r.n. There was a trend for improvement in completion of guidelines for those on high doses but completion was not influenced by hidden p.r.n. prescribing. Writing p.r.n. prescriptions as a ranged dose was common and did not improve significantly.Clinical implicationsBy using some simple measures, improvements in some aspects of potentially problematic p.r.n. medication can be achieved.

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Background:Human papilloma virus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection with a national prevalence of greater than 70 million. Most infections are among persons 15–24 years of age. The HPV vaccine has nearly 100% efficacy when administered before natural exposure. However, national vaccination rates remain less than 50%. Our objective was to improve the rate of initiation of the HPV vaccination series in a resident teaching practice.Methods:We used the Plan Do Study Act methodology for quality improvement. Eligible patients included children 9 through 13 years of age who presented to a general pediatric clinic. We established baseline data by reviewing HPV immunization rates taken from a convenience sample of ≤20 patients per month over 7 months. A key driver diagram guided interventions including resident communication, nursing staff education, family knowledge, and an electronic medical record prompt beginning at age 9. Using standard run chart rules, we plotted monthly postintervention vaccination rates over 7 months of data collection.Results:Baseline data included 136 patients age 9–13. Run chart monitoring revealed an increase in our HPV vaccination rate from 53% at baseline to 62% by October 2015. Additionally, we observed a statistically significant increase in mean vaccination rates from 50% to 69% (odds ratio 2.071; P = 0.0042). We noted an increase in vaccination rates after resident education initiatives and after implementation of an electronic medical record prompt.Conclusions:Simple and practical interventions involving residents led to a marked increase in HPV vaccination in our patient population.

BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are a group of infectious diseases that cause acute illness and lifelong health effects. Half of the diagnosed cases occur in adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 24. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provide guidelines for STI screening for sexually active adolescents. Despite this, screening rates in adolescents admitted to our hospital are low. The purpose of this study is to use quality improvement methodology to improve the percent of adolescent patients who had documentation of sexual histories from 49% to 69% and STI testing from 29% to 49%. METHODS: Eligible patients included adolescents ages 14 to 18 admitted to our hospital’s academic general pediatric service. After baseline data collection, we introduced a series of 6 interventions; percentages of sexual history documentation and STI screening were recorded monthly. Interventions included resident education on STI screening, history, and physical form prompts for sexual history documentation, “badge buddy” sexual history templates, faculty development, and an electronic medical record template. Data were interpreted by using statistical process control to show process change. RESULTS: Before the interventions, 48.7% of patients ages 14 to 18 had sexual histories documented; 29.1% of patients were tested for STIs. After interventions, there was a special cause variation resulting in new center lines of 67.1% and 49.1%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Simple interventions to normalize and standardize adolescent sexual history discussions cumulatively led to a significant increase in sexual history documentation and STI screening in an inpatient adolescent population.