The Effect of a Collaborative Pediatric Emergency Readiness Improvement Intervention on Patients’ Hospital Outcomes

Objective

We hypothesized that collaborative intervention to improve weighted pediatric readiness score (WPRS) will be associated with decreased pediatric intensive care (PICU) mortality, PICU and hospital length of stay.

Methods

This study analyzes the transfer of acutely ill and injured patients from general emergency departments (GEDs) to our institution. The intervention involved customized assessment reports focusing on team performance and systems improvement for pediatric readiness, sharing best practices and clinical resources, designation of a nurse pediatric emergency care coordinator (PECC) at each GED and ongoing interactions at 2 and 4 months. Data was collected from charts before and after the intervention, focusing on patients transferred to our pediatric emergency department (ED) or directly admitted to our PICU from the GEDs. Clinical outcomes such as PICU length of stay (LOS), hospital LOS, and PICU mortality were assessed. Descriptive statistics were used for demographics, and various statistical tests were employed to analyze the data. Bivariate analyses and multivariable models were utilized to examine patient outcomes and the association between the intervention and outcomes.

Results

There were 278 patients in the pre-intervention period and 314 patients in the post-intervention period. Multivariable analyses revealed a significant association between the change in WPRS and decreased PICU LOS (β = −0.05 [95% CI: −0.09, −0.01), P = .02), and hospital LOS (β = −0.12 [95% CI: −0.21, −0.04], P = .04), but showed no association between the intervention and other patient outcomes.

Conclusions

In this cohort, improving pediatric readiness scores in GEDs was associated with significant improvements in PICU and hospital length of stay. Future initiatives should focus on disseminating pediatric readiness efforts to improve outcomes of critically ill children nationally.