The primary objective of this study was to examine the impact of an electronic medical record (EMR)–driven intensive care unit (ICU) antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) service on clinician compliance with face-to-face AMS recommendations. AMS recommendations were defined by an internally developed “5 Moments of Antimicrobial Prescribing” metric: (1) escalation, (2) de-escalation, (3) discontinuation, (4) switch, and (5) optimization. The secondary objectives included measuring the impact of this service on (1) antibiotic appropriateness, and (2) use of high-priority target antimicrobials.

A prospective review was undertaken of the implementation and compliance with a new ICU-AMS service that utilized EMR data coupled with face-to-face recommendations. Additional patient data were collected when an AMS recommendation was made. The impact of the ICU-AMS round on antimicrobial appropriateness was evaluated using point-prevalence survey data.

For the 202 patients, 412 recommendations were made in accordance with the “5 Moments” metric. The most common recommendation made by the ICU-AMS team was moment 3 (discontinuation), which comprised 173 of 412 recommendations (42.0%), with an acceptance rate of 83.8% (145 of 173). Data collected for point-prevalence surveys showed an increase in prescribing appropriateness from 21 of 45 (46.7%) preintervention (October 2016) to 30 of 39 (76.9%) during the study period (September 2017).

The integration of EMR with an ICU-AMS program allowed us to implement a new AMS service, which was associated with high clinician compliance with recommendations and improved antibiotic appropriateness. Our “5 Moments of Antimicrobial Prescribing” metric provides a framework for measuring AMS recommendation compliance.

A superior cavopulmonary connection is commonly performed before the Fontan procedure in patients with a functionally univentricular heart. Data are limited regarding associations between a prior superior cavopulmonary connection and functional and ventricular performance late after the Fontan procedure.

We compared characteristics of those with and without prior superior cavopulmonary connection among 546 subjects enrolled in the Pediatric Heart Network Fontan Cross-Sectional Study. We further compared different superior cavopulmonary connection techniques: bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis (n equals 229), bilateral bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis (n equals 39), and hemi-Fontan (n equals 114).

A prior superior cavopulmonary connection was performed in 408 subjects (75%); the proportion differed by year of Fontan surgery and centre (p-value less than 0.0001 for each). The average age at Fontan was similar, 3.5 years in those with superior cavopulmonary connection versus 3.2 years in those without (p-value equals 0.4). The type of superior cavopulmonary connection varied by site (p-value less than 0.001) and was related to the type of Fontan procedure. Exercise performance, echocardiographic variables, and predominant rhythm did not differ by superior cavopulmonary connection status or among superior cavopulmonary connection types. Using a test of interaction, findings did not vary according to an underlying diagnosis of hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

After controlling for subject and era factors, most long-term outcomes in subjects with a prior superior cavopulmonary connection did not differ substantially from those without this procedure. The type of superior cavopulmonary connection varied significantly by centre, but late outcomes were similar.