Clinical effectiveness of an integrated care pathway for infants with bronchiolitis

Abstract

Bronchiolitis is the most common lower respiratory tract infection in infants, affecting around 10 per cent of babies in their first 12 months of life. Many of these will be admitted to hospital. Using recent clinical evidence, we aimed to standardise the management of hospitalised infants with bronchiolitis through the use of integrated care pathways. The audit process was used to measure clinical outcomes including initial assessment, oxygen therapy, hydration, investigations and drug therapies. Other aspects reviewed were staff satisfaction, length of stay, hospital readmissions and intensive care transfers. Improvements were identified in certain aspects of care, which correlate with previous findings in the literature. The measured benefits of implementing integrated care pathways need to be considered together with the time commitment, resources and manpower required, possibly highlighting a need for national centralised pathways that are robustly evaluated and regularly updated.