Project Details
About the Project
A large critical care team of Cardiologists, Cardiac Surgeons, Cardiac Anesthesiologists, Perfusionists, Cardiac Nurse Educators, Heart Health Quality Coordinator, Cardiac NPs, Intensivists became connected while working on four complimentary SIFEI-funded projects.
A project led by Dr. Elizabeth Swiggum focused on developing a cardiogenic shock team and protocol to improve patient mortality. Another initiative, led by Dr. Shavaun MacDonald and Dr. Brian Gregson, aimed to improve and provide a consistent approach to managing Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) in the critical care area. Dr. Mark German worked with his team on the development of a site-specific approach to cardiac arrest among post operative patients with a sternotomy. And Dr. Craig Bosenberg led a committee to develop a standardized approach to clinical debriefs following critical events.
These four projects are crucially interrelated. When a patient arrests in Cardiogenic Shock, Extracorporeal Life Support is one of the Mechanical Circulatory support options. The other piece is CODE Shock post Cardiac Surgical procedure which requires a CSU-ALS approach and leads to a rapid thoracotomy and will lead to further CODE Shock support. Many team members required for CODE Shock are a part of the CSU-ALS and the ECLS groups. Then when the dust settles, this is where Hot Debrief comes in – all physicians, nurses and other allied health have a prescriptive debrief to follow supporting closure and further program development.
Together, these 4 smaller projects have made a huge improvement to all corners of care in the very Critically Sick Cardiac patient population. One of the team members involved in the project stated, “This funding has allowed the opportunity for incredible change and supportive engagement from all the specialists involved – something that would have been less possible without the funding.”