PICO question for class

[deelittles3]

I need HELP! I have to write a PICO question for my BSN class. This is what I have right now, please leave your thoughts and any helpful tips to make it better! Thank you!

For patient's who are sent to an acute rehab facility, does the use of written prescriptions compared with an order for durable medical equipment (DME) reduce the risk of future readmission for the same problem?

[JKL33]

Does this question stem from a particular problem or curiosity you've experienced? And you're talking about sending a paper prescription with the patient when s/he is discharged from acute care to acute rehab, as opposed to, say, ordering the DME in the acute care's EMR and having it delivered prior to discharge? And you're curious whether sending the paper Rx for a particular piece of DME will help prevent readmissions for things like CHF, COPD, etc?

Just trying to make sure I understand.

Next, have you at least perused the available published research to make sure you can find something that speaks to your question?

[cleback]

*patients

DME stands for durable medical equipment, which can be a written/printed order. Do you mean eprescribed vs written DME orders? Are you worried that people are not getting their DME when it's a printed/written order?

Also readmitted for what? DME in my practice is usually walkers , hospital beds, commodes... readmissions are pretty general. Not sure how much you'll find on that topic.

[deelittles3]

Thank you both for replying! I think I want my PICO question to be about discharging to rehabs and how hard it is to get people their DMEs & beds in rehab! The floor I work on we seem to really have a problem with this! A lot of time it's the insurance/acceptance from the rehab facility itself so it isn't on our side but it does heavily delays the patient's discharge which in turn can hinder the patient from getting better! I work on a trauma floor & ive seen patients start getting other problems the longer they stay on our floor to wait for a bed/DME. So where I'm going with this is this is my first time doing a PICO & I don't think I formulated a PICO question that portrays what I'm actually trying to say

[JKL33]

Ha, ha! I think you did pretty well. It's an interesting question for that setting. If you stick with this topic I might consider making the "O" something like "prevent/decrease discharge delays" (although I followed your slight hop to preventing readmission for the same problem). Remember that new patient problems that crop up while the patient is waiting for discharge don't necessarily speak to whether or not the likelihood of readmission for the same (original) thing is increased. I do very much recommend that you get into the databases now, before submitting the PICOT question, to make sure you'll be able to find articles.

Good luck!