1. The Impact of Pediatric-Specific Vancomycin Dosing Guidelines: A Quality Improvement Initiative
- Author
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Janet Actis, Molly Miloslavsky, Marjorie F. Galler, Chadi M. El Saleeby, Iman Moawad, and Brian M. Cummings
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Male ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Quality management ,Adolescent ,030106 microbiology ,Trough (economics) ,Infections ,03 medical and health sciences ,Vancomycin ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,Trough Concentration ,Dosing ,Prospective Studies ,Intensive care medicine ,Prospective cohort study ,Child ,Retrospective Studies ,Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ,business.industry ,Infant ,Retrospective cohort study ,Guideline ,Quality Improvement ,Anti-Bacterial Agents ,Child, Preschool ,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health ,Female ,Guideline Adherence ,Drug Monitoring ,business ,medicine.drug - Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There are limited data guiding vancomycin dosing practices in the pediatric population to target the goal troughs recommended by national vancomycin guidelines. In this study, we sought to improve adherence to guideline trough targets through a quality improvement intervention. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was first conducted to assess baseline performance. A multidisciplinary team then developed and implemented a standardized dosing algorithm recommending 15 mg/kg per dose for mild and moderate infections (goal trough: 10โ15 µg/mL) and 20 mg/kg per dose for severe infections (goal trough: 15โ20 µg/mL), both delivered every 6 hours (maximum single dose: 750 mg). The impact of the intervention was evaluated prospectively using standard statistics and quality improvement methodology. The outcome measures included the percentage of patients with an initial therapeutic trough and the time to therapeutic trough. RESULTS: A total of 116 patients (49 preintervention, 67 postintervention) were included. Postintervention, there was a significant increase in the percentage of patients with an initial therapeutic trough (6.1% to 20.9%, P = .03) and in the percentage of patients with initial troughs between 10 and 20 µg/mL (8.2% to 40.3%, P < .001). The time to therapeutic trough decreased from 2.78 to 1.56 days (P = .001), with the process control chart showing improved control postintervention. Vancomycin-related toxicity was unchanged by the intervention (6.1% versus 4.5%; P = .70). CONCLUSIONS: Using quality improvement methodology with standardized higher initial vancomycin doses, we demonstrated improved adherence to national trough guidelines without noted safety detriment.
- Published
- 2017