Kimberly K.

Eight decades of service. That’s what the men and women of Travis Air Force Base celebrated Thursday, complete with speakers, athletics, games, bounce houses, live music and food.

With music and prayer, testimony and ceremony, military members who gave the ultimate sacrifice were remembered and celebrated Saturday during a Memorial Day tribute at Sacramento Valley National C…

Anticipation was high early Saturday as Solano residents descended on Vacaville, lining the streets to watch what could be the city’s biggest event of the year — the Fiesta Days parade.

Floored. That’s how Ron Switzer of Vacaville felt following the inaugural Tyler Switzer Memorial Golf Tournament, an event that raised close to $50,000 in the name of his late son.

After 26 years in journalism, almost 24 here in Vacaville, I’ll be putting down my pen and signing off from The Reporter.

A sea of American flags waved softly at Vacaville-Elmira Cemetery, spotlighting the final resting places of the men and women whom hundreds came to honor this Memorial Day for sacrificing their fut…

Warming temperatures signal the onslaught of summer and, just before that, the milestone of high school graduations. Following is a partial list of northern Solano graduations. They include:

This systematic review to support the 2023 US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement on screening for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy summarizes published evidence on the benefits and harms of screening for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy using in-person and home-based blood...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:. Standardized review of mortalities may identify potential system improvements. We designed a hospitalwide identification, review, and notification system for inpatient pediatric mortalities.METHODS:. Key stakeholders constructed a future state process map for identification and review of deaths. An online mortality review form was modified through a series of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles and spread to all pediatric services in January 2019. Mortalities occurring within 30 days of discharge were added in December 2019. Our primary outcome was percentage of mortalities reviewed, and the process measure was time to review completion. Additional Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles were used to refine 2 mechanisms for monthly notification of deaths. We surveyed monthly mortality notification e-mail recipients to elicit feedback to further improve notifications.RESULTS:. After the pilot, 284 of 328 (86.6%) of mortalities were reviewed. Average time to review completion decreased by 49% compared with baseline after an increase during the first year of the pandemic. Qualitative analysis of a subset of these mortalities showed that 154 of 229 (67.2%) underwent further review. We added a summary of mortalities by unit to a monthly hospitalwide safety report and developed monthly mortality notification e-mails. The survey showed that 89% of respondents (70 of 79) learned about a death they did not know about, 58% (46 of 79) sought additional information through discussion with a colleague, and 76% (65 of 86) agreed that the notifications helped process grief.CONCLUSIONS:. We describe an effective and well-received approach to the identification, review, and notification of mortalities at an academic pediatric hospital, which may be useful at other institutions.

Background Advance Care Planning via Group Visits (ACP-GV) is a patient-centered intervention facilitated by a clinician using a group modality to promote healthcare decision-making among veterans. Participants in the group document a “Next Step” to use in planning for their future care needs. The next step may include documentation of preferences in an advance directive, discussing plans with family, or anything else to fulfill their ACP needs. This evaluation seeks to determine whether there are identifiable subgroups of group participants with differing needs prior to delivery of the ACP-GV program and, if so, to use information about the subgroups to enhance the program offered to veterans in United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare settings. Methods We conducted a secondary analysis of national data from a quality improvement evaluation. Patient- and provider-level data from administrative healthcare records for VA users in all 50 states, territories, and the District of Columbia provides data on veterans attending ACP-GV during federal fiscal years 2018–2022 (N = 26,857). Latent class analysis seeks to identify the various subgroups of veterans based on their level of ACP self-efficacy before attending ACP-GV and any demographic differences across the resulting subgroups of veterans attending ACP-GV. ACP self-efficacy is derived from seven items obtained from a participant worksheet used during the group. Results Analysis revealed two distinct groups of veterans, distinguishable by their pre-ACP-GV levels of one aspect of ACP self-efficacy: prior knowledge of ACP. Veterans with higher prior knowledge of ACP are associated with an identified next step focused on checking their current AD status and updating it, and veterans with lower ACP prior knowledge are associated with identifying a next step to discuss ACP more fully with family. Differences in age, sex, race, ethnicity, and marital status exist across subgroups of veterans. Conclusion Greater attention must be paid to ACP and veterans’ prior knowledge of ACP to consistently encourage annual review and status updates.