Substantial reduction in hospital stay of children and adolescents with diabetic ketoacidosis after implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines in a university hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: We aimed to determine the effect of Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) implementation on length of hospital stay of children and adolescents with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).

Methods: This was a 6-year (2008-2014) case-control retrospective study conducted at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, that compared patients with DKA managed using CPG with those treated before CPG implementation.

Results: There were 63 episodes of DKA in 41 patients managed using CPG compared with 40 episodes in 33 patients treated before implementation of CPG. Baseline characteristics of the 2 groups were similar (age, sex, newly diagnosed patients, recurrent DKA, DKA severity, and mean glycosylated hemoglobin). The mean length of hospital stay (±SD) was 68.6 ± 53.1 hours after implementation of CPG compared with 107.4 ± 65.6 hours before implementation (P < .001). The reduction in length of hospital stay equals to 1700 bed days saved per year per 1000 patients.

Conclusions: Implementation of CPG for DKA decreased the length of hospital stay.