Implementation and Evaluation of a Diabetic Ketoacidosis Order Set in Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes at a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Quality-Improvement Initiative.

Abstract

Despite published clinical practice guidelines in pediatrics for the use of a standardized diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) protocol, our centre lacked an accepted, evidence-informed protocol for pediatric DKA management. Our primary aim was to attain broad clinical uptake of a DKA order set. Secondary aims included improved standard-of-care DKA management principles regarding fluid, potassium and dextrose administration. A pediatric multidisciplinary collaborative was created to examine evidence for the development and implementation of a DKA order set. A modified plan-do-study-act cycle guided by end-user feedback and early clinical outcomes allowed progressive order-set modifications and hospitalwide implementation. We achieved 83% uptake of the order set for patients presenting to our tertiary centre and 67% uptake for patients transferred from peripheral centres. Following the implementation of the DKA order set, we observed improvements in DKA management, which included more appropriate intravenous (IV) replacement fluid rates (30% vs. 55.1%; p=0.03); earlier administration of potassium to IV fluids (66% vs. 93.1%; p=0.006); more appropriate potassium chloride dosing to IV fluid (40% vs. 79.3%; p=0.0007) and earlier addition of IV dextrose (67.4% vs. 93.1%; p=0.009). Implementation of a DKA order set in a tertiary hospital required identification of key stakeholders, formation of a multidisciplinary team and the development of an evaluation process. There was an observed increase in physician order-set uptake and DKA management practice improvements. Future goals involve expanding the implementation and evaluation process to provincial regional and remote centres and analyzing the impact on resource utilization.