Pediatric Ward Discharge Quality Improvement

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

5478 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2017-05-15

Study Completion Date

2020-12-31

Brief Summary

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This study will utilize an iterative quality improvement process to identify and address delays in the pediatric hospital discharge process.

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Detailed Description

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Hospital crowding has been associated with increased hospital length of stay in pediatric populations and adverse outcomes in adult populations. This study focuses on a 36-bed general pediatric inpatient care unit whose occupancy has seen exponential growth over the past several years. With the growth in patient population, the study hospital is experiencing increasing difficulty with hospital crowding, particularly during key times of year, such as the winter viral respiratory season. During these times, pediatric patients may experience high emergency room wait times, and admitted patients may be required to board in the emergency room or post-anesthesia care unit while they await an inpatient bed. Lack of inpatient bed availability has also, at times, required cancellation of surgical cases and denial of outside hospital patient transfers to the institution, resulting in inconvenience to patients and delays in care.

The pediatric hospital discharge process has come under particular scrutiny as an area in which both the efficiency and the effectiveness of patient care can be improved. Currently, around 10% of patients ready for discharge in a given day from the general pediatric hospitalist service are discharged prior to noon, freeing up this bed space for a new patient. While for some patients, discharge is postponed for medical reasons, others must remain in the hospital for non-medical delays. For example, they may remain hospitalized because they have not yet been seen by a physician, their medications are not available for pick-up from the pharmacy, or they do not have transportation from hospital to home. Several studies in pediatric populations have shown that quality improvement processes can improve discharge efficiency without compromising care quality or patient/family satisfaction. The investigators aim to determine if an iterative quality improvement process can reduce barriers to discharge and therefore decrease pediatric patients' length of stay. They will simultaneously analyze several secondary outcomes to evaluate patient flow, patient/family satisfaction, and subsequent hospital utilization to evaluate for unintended consequences of the interventions.

Conditions

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Pediatric Hospitalization

Study Design

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Allocation Method

NA

Intervention Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary Study Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Pediatric discharge process intervention

All patients hospitalized on the pediatric ward under the pediatric hospitalist service will participate in pediatric discharge process interventions.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Pediatric discharge process interventions

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

As this is an iterative quality improvement process, interventions will be evidence-based and chosen to test effectiveness for addressing areas of discharge bottlenecks or inefficiency within our specific hospital's context. Examples of possible interventions may include implementation of a discharge risk assessment (as in Statile et al, Pediatrics 2016), institution of a "medications-in-hand" policy on hospital discharge (as in Sauers-Ford et al, Pediatrics 2016), or initiation of a ward discharge coordinator who will help coordinate outpatient follow-up for patients. Interventions will be implemented in a stepwise fashion, utilizing successive plan-do-study-act cycles, with a minimum 2 month period between interventions to monitor outcomes.

Interventions

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Pediatric discharge process interventions

As this is an iterative quality improvement process, interventions will be evidence-based and chosen to test effectiveness for addressing areas of discharge bottlenecks or inefficiency within our specific hospital's context. Examples of possible interventions may include implementation of a discharge risk assessment (as in Statile et al, Pediatrics 2016), institution of a "medications-in-hand" policy on hospital discharge (as in Sauers-Ford et al, Pediatrics 2016), or initiation of a ward discharge coordinator who will help coordinate outpatient follow-up for patients. Interventions will be implemented in a stepwise fashion, utilizing successive plan-do-study-act cycles, with a minimum 2 month period between interventions to monitor outcomes.

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Children or young adults less than 21 years of age admitted to the University of California Davis Children's Hospital Pediatric Hospitalist Service on the general pediatric inpatient ward

Exclusion Criteria

* Adults greater than 21 years of age, including those unable to consent
* Pregnant women
* Prisoners
* Children admitted to other services (i.e. Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Trauma, Pediatric Nephrology, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Newborn Nursery, etc.)

Maximum Eligible Age

21 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No