Order Substitutions and Education for Balanced Crystalloid Solution Use in an Integrated Health Care System and...

Trials comparing balanced crystalloids with normal saline have yielded mixed results regarding reductions in kidney complications and mortality for hospitalized patients receiving intravenous fluids.

To evaluate the association of a multifaceted implementation program encouraging the preferential use of lactated Ringer solution with patient outcomes and intravenous fluid-prescribing practices in a large, multilevel health care system.

This type 2 hybrid implementation and comparative effectiveness study enrolled all patients 18 years or older who received 1 L or more of intravenous fluids while admitted to an emergency department and/or inpatient unit at 1 of 22 hospitals in Idaho and Utah between November 1, 2018, and February 29, 2020. An interrupted time series analysis was used to assess study outcomes before and after interventions to encourage use of lactated Ringer solution.

Implementation program combining order set modification, electronic order entry alerts, and sequential clinician-targeted education to encourage prescribing of lactated Ringer solution instead of normal saline.

The primary implementation outcome was the patient-level proportion of intravenous fluids that was balanced crystalloids. The primary effectiveness outcome was the incidence of major adverse kidney events (MAKE30)-a composite of new persistent kidney dysfunction, new initiation of dialysis, and death-at 30 days.

Among 148 423 patients (median [IQR] age, 47 [30-67] years; 91 302 women [61%]), the proportion of total fluids received that was lactated Ringer solution increased from 28% to 75% in the first week vs the last week of the study (immediate implementation effect odds ratio [OR], 3.44; 95% CI, 2.79-4.24). The estimated MAKE30 absolute risk reduction was 2.2% (95% CI, 1.3%-3.3%) based on interrupted time series analysis showing a decrease in the week-on-week trend for MAKE30 (OR difference, 0.03; 95% CI, 0.03-0.03, P < .001). The immediate postimplementation OR for MAKE30 was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.76-1.01), with a decrease in persistent kidney dysfunction (OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.69-0.93) and mortality (OR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.65-0.93) but not dialysis (OR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.76-1.32).

In this comparative effectiveness study, an implementation program was associated with an increase in the proportion of fluids administered as lactated Ringer solution compared with normal saline and was associated with a reduction in MAKE30 events among patients treated in a large integrated health care system.