Results
During the control period, the average time spent on telemetry was 86.29
hours/patient/month. During the nurse-discontinuation protocol patients
spent on average 70.86 hours/patient/month on telemetry (Figure 1).
During the physician-discontinuation protocol patients spent on average
81.6 hours/patient/month on telemetry (Figure 1). To assess the
significance of the interventions and to determine that there was no
pre-existing trend in time on telemetry over each study period, we
performed an interrupted time series analysis that provides rates of
change in time on telemetry over each period of the study. This analysis
found a significant level drop in the mean hours on telemetry by 19.4
hours per patient per month after the nurse-discontinuation protocol
(P<0.001, Figure 1). This analysis found no significant change
in the trend of monthly time on telemetry after the
physician-discontinuation protocol (P=0.34, Figure 1). During the
nurse-discontinuation protocol, there was no significant change in the
likelihood that a patient was placed on telemetry throughout their
admission when compared with the control period (96.1% versus 92.1%,
P=0.59, Figure 2). During the physician-discontinuation protocol, there
was a significant decrease of 56.1% in the likelihood that a patient
would be put on telemetry when compared with the control time period
(36.5% versus 92.1%, P<0.0001, Figure 2).