Impact of a bedside procedure service on general medicine inpatients: A firm-based trial.

BACKGROUND

Procedure services may improve the training of bedside procedures. However, little is known about how procedure services may affect the demand for and success of procedures performed on general medicine inpatients.

OBJECTIVE

Determine whether a procedure service affects the number and success of 4 bedside procedures (paracentesis, thoracentesis, lumbar puncture, and central venous catheterization) attempted on general medicine inpatients.

DESIGN

Prospective cohort study.

SETTING

Large public teaching hospital.

PATIENTS

Nineteen hundred and forty-one consecutive admissions to the general medicine service.

INTERVENTION

A bedside procedure service was offered to physicians from 1 of 3 firms for 4 weeks. This service then crossed over to physicians from the other 2 firms for another 4 weeks.

MEASUREMENTS

Data on all procedure attempts were collected daily from physicians. We examined whether the number of attempts and the proportion of successful attempts differed based on whether firms were offered the beside procedure service.

RESULTS

The number of procedure attempts was 48% higher in firms offered the service (90 versus 61 per 1000 admissions; RR 1.48, 95% CI 1.06-2.10; P = .030). More than 85% of the observed increase was a result of procedures with therapeutic indications. There were no differences between firms in the proportions of successful attempts or major complications.

CONCLUSIONS

The availability of a procedure service may increase the overall demand for bedside procedures. Further studies should refine the indications for and anticipated benefits from these commonly performed invasive procedures.