Corporate Symposium: Standardizing the Deviation: When “One-Size-Fits-All” Harms Some

Session Purpose:

Patient perspective: There is a need to establish tailored standards for patients transitioning in and out of acute care spaces to ensure optimal safety and outcomes while also standardizing the deviations needed for complex patients.

Session Description:

Transitions of care between home settings and acute care pose significant risks to patients. Rigorous standards, based on research, need to be reevaluated for patient safety during these transitions. This need is especially true for high-risk patients such as those with chronic disease, complex patients, co-morbidities, and complex medications like parenteral nutrition. Medication errors are most likely to happen during these transitions. Automatic triggers identifying these patients and high-risk medications into and out of acute care spaces should exist.

Meanwhile, some standards (such as standard fluid upon admission), can harm a sub-population of specific patients such those on parenteral nutrition and complex needs. Can we standardize the deviations from standards for this population?

What role do you, as healthcare providers, play in identifying and addressing these challenges? Can we create standardized deviations protocols that better accommodate high-risk populations? Can collaborating across disciplines and using data-driven approaches improve outcomes for this vulnerable patient group?

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the unique challenges faced by patients with complex needs, such as those on parenteral and enteral nutrition, during transitions of care, and understand the risk factors leading to medication errors.
• Explore strategies for developing automated triggers and tailored standards that identify and protect high-risk patients as they move between care settings, particularly in the context of acute care.
• Learn collaborative approaches and evidence-based practices for adjusting existing protocols to better suit the specific needs of complex patient populations, minimizing harm during transitions.
• Understand your role in advocating for, designing, and implementing patient-specific standards that improve safety and outcomes for those at high risk during care transitions.