At VigiLanz, data rules! And as a VigiLanz customer, you can create more actionable data by tapping into our extensive rules library or creating new rules based on your unique needs. Our clinical experts are always standing by to help, whether you need help adjusting an existing rule or creating something new.
We’ve gathered some inspiration from real VigiLanz customers on their favorite and unique VigiLanz rules that have a significant impact on patient care.
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Biofire Alert
Jeremy Frens, PharmD, BCPS-AQID, Antibiotic Stewardship Coordinator at Cone Health
“My favorite rule is the positive Biofire alert. We have customized the alert so that our antimicrobial stewardship team and ID physicians get email or text alerts based on the organism detected. Our hospital has a policy that an ID physician sees patients with Staph aureus, Candida, or enterococcal bacteremia. With the text or email alerts going directly to them, they can respond quickly, often the same day as the alert. We feel that this process helps to streamline antibiotics more quickly!”
High Risk C. difficile
Erica Lawrence, MSN, RN, Infection Preventionist at Virginia Mason Medical Center
“My favorite one is the high risk C. difficile rule. This rule helps to alert us proactively of patients at risk for C. difficile, but not necessarily diagnosed or symptomatic with C. diff. This allows for the AMS group to review prescribed medications and make recommendations to the providers if de-escalation of antibiotics or gastric acid suppressors is appropriate. Another intervention is adding signs and symptoms of C. difficile to the discharge instructions to ensure patients are educated about when to follow up with their provider if signs and symptoms of C. difficile begin after discharge.”
Critical Medication Discontinued
Jill Bennett, PharmD, APh, BCPS, Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator at Antelope Valley Hospital
“Some of my favorite rules are the ones that alert us to medications that have been discontinued when that might be detrimental to a patient outcome. For example: Levetiracetam DC’d and no active anticonvulsant order, or in patients with prolonged LOS when routine medications may fall off the profile from an ASO: Inpatient Day #30 – Check Med Profile. The real-time culture info is also nice.”
Patient Discharge SNF
Chrissie Wiebe, Infection Preventionist at Maury Regional Medical Center
“I would have to say my favorite rule we have is the “Pt Discharge SNF (CMP-QI Grant Locations)”. I like this rule because we are able to track patients who are going to certain nursing homes at discharge using keywords in their documentation. This rule is helpful because we have a grant that is allowing us to work with certain local nursing homes to help prevent readmission. This rule allows us to know which patients are going to these locations so we can get a better idea as to where our patients are going and how we can best serve the SNF’s in order to prevent a possible readmission for something they can take care of at their facility.”
Highly Infectious Disease Email Alerts
Jordan Ehni, CIC, MPH, Systems Integration Infection Preventionist at Mount Sinai Health System
“I think my favorite rule/function are the email alerts that we can set up for when a patient with a highly infectious disease comes into the hospital. We don’t have time to constantly check VigiLanz throughout the workday, so it is good to know we have this ‘back up’ alert if we go a few hours between checking our Isolation Bucket.”
Highly Infectious Disease Email Alerts
Sarah Lowtharp, MSN, RN, CIC, Assistant Director of Infection Prevention at St. Bernards Medical Center
“My favorite rules are centered on alerting us of highly infectious patients immediately. I get an email alert from a rule trigger in VigiLanz on possible meningitis, possible TB, CROs, and possible Candida auris (the Candida isolates we are required to send to dept. of health for auris testing). I usually receive my email/VigiLanz alert before our own lab notifies us of these scenarios.”
Real-Time Blood Culture Contamination Results
Frank Vanskike, MPH, CIC, Infection Preventionist at Phoenix Children’s
“We worked with our VigiLanz team to build a rule around blood culture contamination results in our ED. These reports alerted us in real-time as opposed to the previous method where we were provided the contamination rate at the end of the month. We were able to build a report off of the rule and disseminate to the ED and stakeholders on a weekly basis. This intervention helped us track when and where contamination on blood draws were occurring so real-time education and feedback could be provided. Furthermore, this helped the ED because the report enabled us to communicate to the ED patients that had contaminated specimens that were not true infections and did not need to return to the ED to seek treatment. This saved a return visit to the hospital for families, avoided potential readmissions, prevented unnecessary antibiotic use, and eliminated unnecessary financial costs.”
Metabolic Support Consult for ICU & Ventilator Patients
Adrienne Carey, PharmD, BCPS, Clinical Pharmacist / Data Mining Program Manager at Freeman
“We created a group of rules to alert our Metabolic Support Team to the fact that a patient in our ICU is on a ventilator and may need a metabolic support consult for enteral or parenteral nutrition management. A metabolic support consult can sometimes get overlooked in these patients since at the time of admission they do not have an immediate need for nutritional support and no order for such is entered by a physician, but these patients still need to be monitored closely as after a period of time on sedation, they will need nutritional support. Our Metabolic Support Team is alerted to about 30 patients per month with these rules.”
