Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 4, 2025
Protocol and Guidelines for Point-of-Care Lung Ultrasound in Diagnosing Neonatal Pulmonary Diseases Based on International Expert Consensus
Published on: March 6, 2019
Using quality improvement to implement consensus guidelines for postnatal steroid treatment of preterm infants with
Taylor P Hansen1, Alexandra Oschman2, Eugenia K Pallotto1,3
1Division of Neonatology, Children's Mercy Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA.
Objective:
Achieve over 90% adherence to consensus guidelines on use of postnatal steroids (PNS) in preterm infants for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) within 6 months.
Methods:
A multidisciplinary team formulated and implemented consensus guidelines using the Plan-Do-Study-Act method of quality improvement. Outcome measure was rate of compliance to guidelines, process measure was age of starting PNS treatment, and balancing measure was rate of repeat steroid courses.
Results:
Retrospective application of guidelines to preceding 10 months showed mean baseline compliance rate of 71% (n = 42). After implementation, compliance escalated to a mean rate of 96% within 6 months. Rate of PNS treatment ≤ 30 days of life increased from 50 to 80%, while rate of repeat PNS was unchanged.
Conclusions:
Compliance with new guidelines for PNS treatment of BPD was quickly attained using simple quality improvement interventions. Further study is needed to evaluate effects of these guidelines on clinical outcomes.
Related Concept Videos
01:26COPD: Management Using Bronchodilators and Corticosteroids
01:29Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease-V: Management
Smoking Cessation
01:30Asthma-IV: Diagnostic and Management
Clinical Assessment for Asthma:
This is the first step in diagnosing and managing asthma. It includes:
01:30Asthma-IV: Nursing Management
First, in...
01:29Drug Dosing: Infants and Children
01:19Standards of Care II