Background: Older adults face high mortality following resuscitation efforts for in-hospital cardiac arrest.Less is known about the role of frailty in survival to discharge after in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation.Objective: To investigate whether frailty, measured by the Clinical Frailty Scale, is associated with mortality after cardiopulmonary resuscitation following in-hospital cardiac arrest in older adults in the USA.Design: Retrospective cohort study.Participants: Patients ≥ 65 years who had undergone cardiopulmonary resuscitation during an inpatient admission at two urban academic hospitals and three suburban community hospitals within a Boston area healthcare system from January 2018-January 2020. Patients with Clinical Frailty Scale scores 1-3 were considered not frail, 4-6 were considered very mildly, mildly, and moderately frail, respectively, and 7-9 were considered severely frail.
Background
The American College of Surgeons Geriatric Surgery Verification Program outlines best practices for surgical care in older adults. These recommendations have guided institutions to create workflows to better support needs specific to older surgical patients. This qualitative study explored clinician experiences to understand influences on implementation of frailty screening and an interdisciplinary care pathway in older elective colorectal surgery and neurosurgery patients.
Study Design
Semi‐structured in‐person and video‐based interviews were conducted from July 2021 to March 2022 with clinicians caring for patients ≥70 years on the colorectal surgery and neurosurgery services. Interviews addressed familiarity with and beliefs about the intervention, intervention alignment with routine workflow and workflow adaptations, and barriers and facilitators to performing the intervention. Interviews were analyzed using the consolidated framework for implementation research (CFIR) to find themes related to ongoing implementation.
Results
Thirty‐two clinicians participated (56.3% female, 58.8% White). Fifteen relevant CFIR constructs were identified. Key themes to implementation success included strong participant belief in effectiveness of the intervention and its advantage over standard care; the importance of training, reference materials, and champions; and the need for institution‐level investment in resources to amplify the impact of the intervention on patients and expand the capacity to address their needs.
Conclusion
Systematic evaluation found implementation of frailty screening and an interdisciplinary care pathway in elective colorectal surgery and neurosurgery patients to be supported by participating clinicians, yet sustainability of the intervention and further adoption across surgical services to better meet the needs of older patients would necessitate organizational resource allocation.
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