Diarrhea training and treatment unit: experience from a teaching hospital.

Case management of children with diarrhea has been evaluated after the establishment of a Diarrhea Training and Treatment Unit (DTU) in Kalawati Saran Children's Hospital, New Delhi. Our one year experience has shown a decrease in hospital admissions on account of diarrhea by 13%. With the help of proper treatment protocol, 69.5% of total cases have been managed with home available fluids/ORS after educating the mothers on home management of diarrhea. Majority of admitted cases (80.7%) were managed in the ORT area and rehydrated under proper monitoring and supervision between 3-8 hours (mean duration of stay 4.28 +/- 1.8 hours). Out of 1951 cases with dehydration, 1585 patients (81.2%) were rehydrated with ORS and only 366 cases (18.8%) received intravenous fluids. In more than 85% of cases with associated vomiting, successful oral rehydration was achieved with ORS. Use of ORS and early feeding even in those patients who initially received intravenous fluids for rehydration significantly reduced the average duration of stay in the diarrhea ward (P = less than 0.001). During the first year of its inception the average cost of rehydrating one patient of diarrhea in the DTU came down to Rs. 18.54 from Rs. 31.69 in the preceding year. Rationalising drug therapy in the case management helped to significantly reduce the consumption of antibiotics (P = less than 0.001) and antiemetics (P = less than 0.001), which has helped to reduce the expenditure on drugs on an average from Rs. 17.60 to Rs. 4.92 per patient.