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Investigators conducted a multidisciplinary quality improvement effort to reduce time to antibiotics for pediatric oncology patients presenting to a pediatric emergency department (ED) with fever (axillary temperature ≥38.3°C once or ≥38.0°C for more than 2 hours in a 24-hour period) and either neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count ≤500 cells/mm3) or possible neutropenia. Target goals were ceftazidime delivery within 60 minutes for patients with known neutropenia and ceftriaxone within 90 minutes for patients with possible neutropenia.
The investigators identified areas for improvement and corresponding action plans. ED nurses and physicians teamed with ED quality nurse leaders, hospital staff nurses, ED pharmacists, ED administrators, secu…