Simultaneously Implementing Pathways for Improving Asthma, Pneumonia, and Bronchiolitis Care for Hospitalized Children

Asthma, pneumonia, and bronchiolitis are the top causes of childhood hospitalization in the US, leading to approximately 350,000 hospitalizations and $2 billion in costs annually. Poor guideline adoption by clinicians contributes to poor health outcomes for children hospitalized with these respiratory illnesses, including longer recovery time/hospital stay, higher rates of transfer to intensive care units, and increased risk of hospital readmission.

Pathways can improve clinicians' adoption of evidence-based practices/guidelines in both children's and community hospital settings. Pathways are simple, visual diagrams that guide clinicians step-by-step through the evidence-based care of a specific medical condition (accessed via paper or electronically). Most hospitals implement pathways for a single medical condition at a time (e.g., asthma). But Seattle Children's Hospital developed an intervention for simultaneously implementing pathways for multiple conditions. This intervention led to sustained guideline adoption, decreased length of stay, and decreased costs; and, these effects were comparable to those shown with single-condition pathway implementation. This multi-condition pathway intervention has not yet been studied in community hospitals, which face unique implementation barriers.

The study's objective is to identify and test pragmatic and sustainable strategies for implementing a multi-condition pathway intervention for children hospitalized with asthma, pneumonia, or bronchiolitis in community hospitals. The study is a pragmatic, cluster-randomized trial in US community hospitals. The pathway intervention will be implemented using the key implementation strategies defined for this intervention (audit and feedback, electronic health record integration, plan-do-study-act cycles). The primary outcome will be adoption of evidence-based practices over a sustained period of 2 years. Secondary outcomes include length of hospital stay, intensive care unit transfer, and hospital readmission/emergency department revisit.

Inclusion criteria

• Primary diagnosis of asthma AND age >2 to <18 years-old at time of admission to the hospital OR
• Primary diagnosis of pneumonia AND age >2 months and <18 years at time of admission to the hospital OR
• Primary diagnosis of bronchiolitis AND age <2 years at time of admission to the hospital

Exclusion criteria

• Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2
• Transfer in from another inpatient facility
• Pre-existing chronic illnesses (e.g., lung disease, cardiovascular disease, neurologic disorders)