Outcome of pediatric inpatient asthma clinical pathway implementation in a military medical center.

A performance improvement project was instituted at our facility to standardize pediatric inpatient asthma care by instituting an asthma clinical pathway (ACP). Formal asthma education and standardized postdischarge follow-up plans for all asthma inpatients were initiated. Patients treated by following the ACP were compared against historically similar patients from the previous 4 years. Differences in hospital length-of-stay (LOS) for patients treated on the ACP were compared to historical LOS. Adherence to The Joint Commission's home management plan of care metric, CAC-3, was also compared. There was a 25% lower hospital LOS in the ACP group compared to historical control group, 45.8 hours versus 60.9 hours (p < 0.002). CAC-3 adherence significantly increased from 48% to 89% (p < 0.001) after initiating formal asthma education. The implementation of a pediatric asthma inpatient performance improvement project was associated with a significant decrease in hospital LOS, when compared to historic controls. It also led to a significant improvement in adherence with The Joint Commission's CAC-3 measures. Reprint &