Background Health care disparity persists despite vigorous countermeasures. Clinician performance is paramount for equitable care processes and outcomes. However, precise and valid individual performance measures remain elusive. Objectives We sought to develop a generalizable, rigorous, risk-adjusted metric for individual clinician performance (MIP) derived directly from the electronic medical record (EMR) to provide visual, personalized feedback. Methods We conceptualized MIP as risk responsiveness, i.e., administering an increasing number of interventions contingent on patient risk. We embedded MIP in a hierarchical statistical model, reflecting contemporary nested health care delivery. We tested MIP by investigating the adherence with prophylactic bundles to reduce the risk of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), retrieving PONV risk factors and prophylactic antiemetic interventions from the EMR. We explored the impact of social determinants of health on MIP. Results We extracted data from the EMR on 25,980 elective anesthesia cases performed at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center between June 3, 2018 and March 31, 2019. Limiting the data by anesthesia Current Procedural Terminology code and to complete cases with PONV risk and antiemetic interventions, we evaluated the performance of 83 anesthesia clinicians on 2,211 anesthesia cases. Our metric demonstrated considerable variance between clinicians in the adherence to risk-adjusted utilization of antiemetic interventions. Risk seemed to drive utilization only in few clinicians. We demonstrated the impact of social determinants of health on MIP, illustrating its utility for health science and disparity research. Conclusion The strength of our novel measure of individual clinician performance is its generalizability, as well as its intuitive graphical representation of risk-adjusted individual performance. However, accuracy, precision and validity, stability over time, sensitivity to system perturbations, and acceptance among clinicians remain to be evaluated.

Aim: Medicaid versus private primary insurance status may predict in-hospital mortality and morbidity after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Materials & methods: Regression models were used to test our hypothesis in patients in the State Inpatient Database (SID) from five states who underwent primary TKA from January 2007 to December 2014. Results: Medicaid patients had greater odds of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio [OR]: 1.73; 95% CI: 1.01–2.95), greater odds of any postoperative complications (OR: 1.25; 95% CI: 1.18–1.33), experience longer lengths of stay (OR: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.08–1.10) and higher total charges (OR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.02–1.04). Conclusion: Medicaid insurance status is associated with higher in-hospital mortality and morbidity in patients after TKA compared with private insurance.

During exercise, β-adrenergic receptors are activated throughout the body. In healthy humans, the net effect of β-adrenergic stimulation is an increase in coronary blood flow. However, the role of vascular β1 vs. β2 receptors in coronary exercise hyperemia is not clear. In this study, we simultaneously measured noninvasive indexes of myocardial oxygen supply (i.e., blood velocity in the left anterior descending coronary artery; Doppler echocardiography) and demand [i.e., rate pressure product (RPP) = heart rate × systolic blood pressure) and tested the hypothesis that β1 blockade with esmolol improves coronary exercise hyperemia compared with nonselective β-blockade with propranolol. Eight healthy young men received intravenous infusions of esmolol, propranolol, and saline on three separate days in a single-blind, randomized, crossover design. During each infusion, subjects performed isometric handgrip exercise until fatigue. Blood pressure, heart rate, and coronary blood velocity (CBV) were measured continuously, and RPP was calculated. Changes in parameters from baseline were compared with paired -tests. Esmolol (Δ = 3296 ± 1204) and propranolol (Δ = 2997 ± 699) caused similar reductions in peak RPP compared with saline (Δ = 5384 ± 1865). In support of our hypothesis, ΔCBV with esmolol was significantly greater than with propranolol (7.3 ± 2.4 vs. 4.5 ± 1.6 cm/s; = 0.002). This effect was also evident when normalizing ΔCBV to ΔRPP. In summary, not only does selective β1 blockade reduce myocardial oxygen demand during exercise, but it also unveils β2-receptor-mediated coronary exercise hyperemia. In this study, we evaluated the role of vascular β1 vs. β2 receptors in coronary exercise hyperemia in a single-blind, randomized, crossover study in healthy men. In response to isometric handgrip exercise, blood flow velocity in the left anterior descending coronary artery was significantly greater with esmolol compared with propranolol. These findings increase our understanding of the individual and combined roles of coronary β1 and β2 adrenergic receptors in humans.

Despite widespread adoption of the Surgical Care Improvement Programme, the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs) remains high. It is possible that lapses in appropriate administration of antimicrobial prophylaxis may play a role. We noted significant discordance with national guidelines with regards to intraoperative antibiotic administration at our institution, leading to implementation of a quality improvement initiative using multidisciplinary education and reminder-based interventions to improve prescribing practices and increase compliance with national guidelines. We observed a significant improvement in adherence to all aspects of antibiotic administration guidelines as a result of such interventions. Targeted multidisciplinary interventions may help improve prescribing practices of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis and provide an opportunity to potentially decrease the burden of SSI and the related morbidity and mortality.

Despite its widespread clinical use, the β-adrenergic receptor antagonist esmolol hydrochloride is not commonly used in human physiology research, and the effective dose of esmolol (compared with the nonselective β-blocker propranolol) is unclear. In four separate studies we used cycle ergometry exercise and infusions of isoproterenol and epinephrine to test the heart rate (HR)-lowering effect of esmolol compared with propranolol and saline in healthy humans. In , both esmolol (ΔHR 57 ± 6 beats/min) and propranolol (ΔHR 56 ± 7 beats/min) attenuated exercise tachycardia compared with saline (ΔHR 88 ± 17 beats/min). In, we found that the HR response to exercise was similar at 5 min (ΔHR 57 ± 9 beats/min) and 60 min (ΔHR 55 ± 9 beats/min) after initiation of the esmolol maintenance infusion. In , we confirmed that the HR-lowering effect of esmolol disappeared 45 min after termination of the maintenance infusion. In, changes in femoral blood flow and hematological parameters in response to epinephrine infusion were not different between esmolol and saline infusion, indicating that our esmolol infusion paradigm does not block β-receptors. Collectively, our data indicate that infusion of ~160 mg of esmolol (range 110-200 mg in the 5 min before exercise) acutely and selectively blocks β-receptors in healthy humans. Additionally, β-receptors remain blocked 60 min later if a maintenance infusion of ~0.2 mg·kg total body mass·min- continues. The current data lay the foundation for future studies to evaluate β- vs. β-receptor control of the circulation in humans. We used cycle ergometry exercise and infusions of isoproterenol and epinephrine to test the heart rate-lowering effect of esmolol compared with propranolol and saline in healthy humans. Collectively, our data indicate that infusion of ~160 mg of esmolol (range 110-200 mg in the 5 min before exercise) acutely and selectively blocks β1-adrenergic receptors. These infusion parameters can be used in future experiments to evaluate β1- vs. β2-receptor control of the circulation in humans.