Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

OBJECTIVE: WHO recommends optimisation of available interventions to reduce deaths of under-five children with diarrhoea and dehydration (DD). Clinical networks may help improve practice across many hospitals but experience with such networks is scarce. We describe magnitude and patterns of changes in processes of care for children with DD over the first 3 years of a clinical network. METHODS: Observational study involving children aged 2-59 months with DD admitted to 13 hospitals participating in the clinical network. Processes of individual patient care including agreement of assessment, diagnosis and treatment according to WHO guidelines were combined using the composite Paediatric Admission Quality of Care (PAQC) score (range 0-6). RESULTS: Data from 7657 children were analysed and improvements in PAQC scores were observed. Predicted mean PAQC score for all the hospitals at enrolment was 59.8% (95% CI: 54.7, 64.9) but showed a wide variation (variance 10.7%, 95% CI: 5.8, 19.6). Overall mean PAQC score increased by 13.8% (95% CI: 8.7-18.9, SD between hospitals: ±8.2) in the first 12 months, with an average 0.9% (95% CI: 0.3-1.5, SD ± 1.0) increase per month and plateaued thereafter, and changes were similar in two groups of hospitals joining the network at different times. CONCLUSION: Adherence to guidelines for children admitted with DD can be improved through participation in a clinical network but improvement is limited, not uniform for all aspects of care and contexts and occurs early. Future research should address these issues.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/tmi.13176

Type

Journal article

Journal

Trop Med Int Health

Publication Date

01/2019

Volume

24

Pages

73 - 80

Keywords

children, dehydration, diarrhoea, diarrhée, déshydratation, enfants, hospitals, hôpitaux, quality, qualité, Child Welfare, Child, Hospitalized, Child, Preschool, Dehydration, Diarrhea, Disease Management, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Kenya, Male, Quality Assurance, Health Care, Quality of Health Care