How Institutional Guidelines for Urgent Inpatient Surgeries Affect Intensity of Perioperative Cardiovascular Testing

PERLHS: How Institutional Guidelines for Urgent Inpatient Surgeries Affect Intensity of Perioperative Cardiovascular Testing: A PrePost Study

This study will evaluate the impact of implementing an educational clinical decision support (CDS) tool designed to guide perioperative cardiovascular evaluation for adults undergoing urgent inpatient surgery. The CDS tool, integrated within the Epic electronic health record via AgileMD, provides evidence-informed recommendations regarding perioperative cardiac testing and specialty consultation based on American Heart Association guidance and multidisciplinary institutional consensus. The investigators will conduct a retrospective and prospective pre-post observational cohort study comparing perioperative cardiovascular testing intensity, consultation patterns, time to operating room, and clinical outcomes before and after implementation of the tool among adult patients admitted through the emergency department at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center who undergo urgent surgery. Data will be obtained from the Core for Clinical Research Data Acquisition (CCDA) and Epic electronic health record, with case-level chart review performed as needed to validate rare outcomes such as major adverse cardiac events.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults age 18 years or older
• Admitted through the Emergency Department at Johns Hopkins Hospital or Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Undergoing urgent inpatient surgery during the index hospitalization

Exclusion Criteria:

• Elective surgeries,
• Outpatient procedures,
• Procedures followed only by observation or extended-stay recovery rather than inpatient admission,
• Patients younger than 18 years old