Effect of a quality improvement intervention to decrease delays in antibiotic delivery in pediatric febrile neutropenia: a pilot study.

Purpose: Guidelines recommend the early (less than 1 hour) initiation of antibiotics for patients with severe sepsis. We hypothesize that a simple quality improvement intervention, leaving the first dose of broad-spectrum antibiotics available in the emergency cart, decreases the time to delivery of antibiotics and reduces medical complications in pediatric oncologic patients with febrile neutropenia.

Materials And Methods: Before and after observation of time to antibiotic delivery.