Is This Thing Working? A Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Evaluate a Healthcare Intervention to Reduce C.Diff

Clostridium Difficile Infection (C. diff) is the most common healthcare-associated infection (HAI), affecting nearly half a million people in the United States each year. One risk factor is the inappropriate use of antibiotics. This multi-site study evaluates the effectiveness of a Best Practice Alert (BPA) intervention aimed at reducing C. diff rates. By incorporating interdisciplinary approaches, the study examines both clinical and non-clinical outcomes, utilizing quality improvement (QI) methodologies and implementation science to enhance adoption and impact. The study aims to provide recommendations for integrating evidence-based innovations into routine clinical practice, addressing key barriers and facilitators that influence success.

Describe and explain key outcome measures used to evaluate healthcare innovations, including utilization rates, appropriateness of care, and patient outcomes.

Explain a systematic approach (e.g., Process Mapping) for logging and monitoring design adaptations in healthcare interventions disseminated across sites.

Identifying barriers and facilitators to implementing innovations, such as Best Practice Alerts (BPAs), and providing recommendations for enhancing the successful implementation of healthcare innovations within Quality Improvement (QI) initiatives.

Authors

Demetrius Solomon is the Associate Director of Operational Effectiveness at UF Health and a Ph.D. candidate in Industrial Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His academic and professional work integrates health systems engineering, implementation science, and health informatics, focusing on improving quality and patient safety. Demetrius is committed to leading transformative, process-driven healthcare initiatives by merging research methodologies with innovative, practical solutions.

Jukrin Moon is an Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa in Industrial and Systems Engineering. She has been professionally trained to be a human-systems engineer with her extensive experience and education in Industrial and Systems Engineering. She earned her PhD (2021) from Texas A&M University (advisor: Dr. Farzan Sasangohar and Dr. S. Camille Peres) in addition to her BS (2012) and MS (2014) from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). 

Dr. Vishala Parmasad (MBBS/PhD) is a Research Scientist in the Division of Infectious Disease at the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on antimicrobial stewardship, infection prevention and control, and how these are impacted by the social determinants of health.

Dr. Douglas Wiegmann is an Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before joining the faculty at UW-Madison, Dr. Wiegmann was the Director of Human Factors and Patient Safety Research within the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Mayo Clinic. He also formerly served as an aviation psychologist and accident investigator for both the National Transportation Safety Board and the United States Navy. Dr. Wiegmann received his B.S. in psychology from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (1988) and his M.Sc. (1990) and Ph.D. (1992) in cognitive psychology from Texas Christian University. He also holds a postdoctoral master’s degree in biomedical science from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (2007). 

Dr. Nasia Safdar is the Dr. Dennis G. Maki Faculty Fellow in the Division of Infectious Disease within the Department of Medicine and the associate dean for clinical trials at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She also holds affiliate appointments in the Department of Medicine's Division of Geriatrics, the Department of Population Health and the UW College of Engineering's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Dr. Safdar leads the department in its mission to reduce healthcare-associated infections by identifying, testing, and implementing novel interventions to reduce and prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAI).