Timely administration of antibiotics in febrile neutropenia per updated ASCO/IDSA guidelines

41 Background: Current ASCO guidelines for management of febrile neutropenia (FN) recommend initial antibiotic administration within one hour of triage, and initial assessment within 15 minutes of triage for patients presenting with FN within 6 weeks of chemotherapy. The University of Illinois Cancer Center (UICC) implemented an early identification and management strategy in the ambulatory setting for FN in 2017, with success in increasing the percentage of FN patients receiving antibiotics within 2 hours from 50% to 92% over a 6 months (05/2017-11/2017) period. Given updated joint ASCO/IDSA guidelines, we aimed to increase percentage of FN patients receiving antibiotics within 1 hour from 56% to more than 90% over 16 months. Methods: A multidisciplinary team involving oncology, hematology (attendings and fellows), pharmacy, and nursing met quarterly to review FN cases including time to antibiotic administration and documentation of prompt assessment. Two Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles were completed, including development and deployment of an electronic medical record automated order set and targeted education for fellows and nurses. Results: Between 12/17 and 04/19, of 7 patients with FN, 100% (N = 7) received antibiotics in clinic. The percentage of FN patients receiving antibiotics within 1 hour of triage post first and second interventions was as follows: 25% (N = 1), 100% (N = 4). 100% (N = 7) of FN patients had documentation of prompt assessment, but time from triage was not specified. Conclusions: We were successful in improving the percentage of FN patients receiving antibiotics from 56% to more than 90% over 16 months. We are targeting our next PDSA cycle to increase assessments within 15 minutes of triage. Additional future interventions include tailoring antibiotics based on FN with low or high risk of complication via focus group and root case analyses discussion with our attendings, fellows, and nurses, and collaborating with ED on a standard care pathway for FN management.