Reducing IV Antibiotic Duration for Neonatal UTI Using a Clinical Standard Pathway

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common bacterial infections in young infants and are traditionally treated with longer intravenous (IV) antibiotic courses. A growing body of evidence supports shorter IV antibiotic courses for young infants. Our primary aim was to decrease the IV antibiotic treatment to 3 days over 2 years for neonates aged 0 to 28 days who have been hospitalized with UTIs.

Using quality improvement methods, our primary intervention was to implement a revised clinical pathway recommending 3 (previously 7) days of IV antibiotics. Our primary outcome measure was IV antibiotic duration, and the secondary outcomes were length of stay (LOS) and costs. The balancing measure was readmission within 30 days of discharge. Neonates were identified by using International Classification of Diseases diagnosis codes and excluded if they were admitted to the ICU or had a LOS >30 days. We used statistical process control to analyze outcome measures for 4 years before (baseline) and 2 years after the pathway revision (intervention) in February 2020.

A total of 93 neonates were hospitalized with UTIs in the baseline period and 41 were hospitalized in the intervention period. We found special cause variation, with a significant decrease in mean IV antibiotic duration from 4.7 (baseline) to 3.1 days (intervention) and a decrease in mean LOS from 5.4 to 3.6 days. Costs did not differ between the baseline and intervention periods. There were 7 readmissions during the baseline period, and 0 during the intervention period.

The implementation of a revised clinical pathway significantly reduced IV antibiotic treatment duration and hospital LOS for neonatal UTIs without an increase in hospital readmissions.