ARTICLE |
a Department of Emergency Medicine, Harbor-University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, Torrance, California
b Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, Torrance, California
c Departments of Medicine
d Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
e Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency, Commerce, California
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
|
|
|---|
METHODS. An observational analysis of a natural experiment was performed. Children
12 years of age who were determined to be in prehospital cardiopulmonary arrest and who received prehospital epinephrine treatment by paramedics, in the periods of 1994 to 1997 and 2003 to 2004, were included in the study.
RESULTS. In the 1994 to 1997 cohort, we identified 104 subjects in prehospital cardiopulmonary arrest who received epinephrine with a documented weight and route of administration. Only 29 of 104 subjects in the 1994 to 1997 cohort received the correct dose, whereas 46 of 104 subjects received a first dose within 20% of the correct dose. In the 2003 to 2004 cohort, we identified 41 children
12 years of age who were in cardiopulmonary arrest and received prehospital epinephrine treatment but 4 children were excluded, leaving 37 subjects. Twenty-one of 37 subjects received the correct dose, whereas 24 of 37 subjects received a dose within 20%. The odds ratio for obtaining the correct epinephrine dose after the system changes versus before was 3.0, and that for obtaining a dose within 20% of the correct dose was 2.5.
CONCLUSIONS. The program seems to have resulted in reduction of the rate of epinephrine dosing errors in the prehospital treatment of children in cardiopulmonary arrest in Los Angeles County.
Key Words: medication error emergency medical services pediatric cardiopulmonary arrest prehospital
Abbreviations: EDemergency department EMSemergency medical services IQRinterquartile range CIconfidence interval LALos Angeles
Although there is some controversy regarding the accuracy of the figures included in the 1998 Institute of Medicine report that stated that each year 44000 to 98000 patients die in the United States as a result of medical errors,1,2 there is no question that medical errors are a substantial cause of morbidity and death in pediatric clinical practice. Kaushal et al3 demonstrated a medication error rate of 5.7 errors per 100 orders in 2 pediatric academic inpatient institutions, similar to error rates observed in the treatment of adult patients.4 Error rates in the emergency department (ED) may be higher. For example, investigators in Toronto, Canada, showed that, for 1532 children who were treated in the ED of a pediatric tertiary care hospital, medication errors were identified in 10% of cases.5 Physicians in training were more likely to commit prescribing errors, and the most seriously ill patients were more likely to be subjected to prescribing errors.5 Although overall error rates in the treatment of adult and pediatric patients are similar, it is estimated that errors with potential to cause harm are 3 times more likely to occur among pediatric patients.6
Incorrect recording of patient weight, leading to incorrect dosing, is one of the most frequently reported errors in pediatric EDs.7 When clinicians are stressed during resuscitation efforts, tools that can reduce reliance on memory and error-prone calculations have the potential to decrease medication error rates and improve outcomes. Since the 1980s, the Broselow tape, a body length-based, color-coded tool, has been used to aid clinicians in rapidly estimating body weight, weight-based drug doses, and the correct size of resuscitation equipment for children.8 In 1988, Lubitz et al9 demonstrated that, among 937 patients who presented to a busy, urban, pediatric ED, use of the Broselow tape resulted in a weight assessment that was within 15% of the exact weight 79% of the time. Several other studies demonstrated improved precision of weight estimates and medication dose calculations by resident physicians and nurses with use of the Broselow tape.10,11 Vilke et al12 showed that, when paramedics estimated pediatric weights with the Broselow tape in a classroom setting, they were able to determine epinephrine doses accurately 95% of the time. Although Vilke et al12 postulated that the tape would be useful for determining drug dosages during actual pediatric resuscitations, there is little published research regarding use of the Broselow tape during prehospital pediatric resuscitations.
Paramedics have infrequent experience with critically ill children. In one study, only 7% of total paramedic calls involved patients <14 years of age.12 In fact, 87% of paramedics in the state of Maine evaluate
3 pediatric patients per month.13 Few studies of medication errors and error prevention strategies have been performed in prehospital settings, let alone in the stressful setting of prehospital resuscitation of pediatric patients. With preliminary data from the 1994 to 1997 experience that is a component of the current study, Gausche et al14 demonstrated a 62% error rate in the dosing of epinephrine in a prehospital setting during a prospective comparative trial of airway management strategies for children, despite the fact that paramedics in the study were instructed in the use of the Broselow tape and each ambulance was supplied with a tape at the beginning of the study. More than 87% of the errors were calculation errors, whereas 13% were drug concentration errors.
In 2001, the Los Angeles (LA) County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Agency instituted a program called "LA Kids." Before 2001, paramedics were encouraged and instructed to use the Broselow tape, but the LA Kids program mandated that paramedics use the Broselow tape and report the color zones to the base station. Base stations were given a color-coded, drug-dosing chart, and base station personnel were instructed formally in the use of the color-coded system. The objective of our study was to determine whether the LA Kids program reduced epinephrine dosing error rates in the prehospital treatment of pediatric patients in cardiopulmonary arrest, by comparing epinephrine dosing error rates before and after implementation of the LA Kids program.
| METHODS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Setting
The setting of the pre- and postintervention data collection was the large, urban EMS system of LA County, California, which uses a 2-tiered response of basic life support and advanced life support.16
System Changes for Determination of Epinephrine Doses for Children
In the pre-LA Kids period, paramedics were trained in the use of the Broselow tape and were encouraged to use it for determination of drug doses and equipment sizes. Paramedics could deliver the first dose of epinephrine before base hospital contact, and base hospitals had information about dosing epinephrine in milligrams per kilogram but were not supplied uniformly with precalculated drug charts or Broselow tapes (Table 1).
|
|
Selection of Participants
The pre-LA Kids subjects were selected from the Pediatric Airway Management Study cohort, which included 830 critically ill children <13 years of age from LA and Orange counties. The study group included children in prehospital cardiopulmonary arrest who received prehospital epinephrine treatment with a specified route of epinephrine administration and whose weight was documented with the Broselow tape in the field, was reported by parents, or was measured in the ED. Only children from LA County were included. The post-LA Kids cohort was selected from all LA paramedic calls involving children <13 years of age who were in prehospital cardiopulmonary arrest, received prehospital epinephrine treatment, and had a weight documented with the Broselow tape in the field, reported by parents, or measured in the ED, between January 1, 2003, and September 30, 2004.
Observations
Data collection forms from the original interventional study, EMS data forms, and coroner reports were reviewed for each patient in the 1994 to 1997 group.1416 For the 2003 to 2004 cohort, EMS data forms and the original paramedic run sheets were collected and reviewed. Variables recorded for both study cohorts included age, patient weight determined with the Broselow tape, gender, arrest rhythm, and actual dose, concentration, and route of the first dose of epinephrine administered. The correct dose of epinephrine that should have been administered to each patient was calculated according to LA County prehospital care treatment guidelines, on the basis of the route of administration (intravenous versus endotracheal tube) and the weight determined with the Broselow tape (used preferentially, if available), the parental weight estimate recorded in the field, or the weight recorded in the ED. In LA County, intraosseous needle insertion was not within the scope of practice during either time period.
Data Analyses
The 1994 to 1997 study database was created by using Paradox 3.5 software (Borland, Scotts Valley, CA), and the 2003 to 2004 cohort data were entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft, Redmond, WA). A final combined database was then translated into native SAS format by using DBMS/Copy 8 (Data Flux, Cary, NC).
With SAS 8.1 software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC), we computed the Mantel-Haenszel
2, stratified according to route of administration, to compare epinephrine dosing error rates between the 2 cohorts. The primary outcome was receiving the exact correct dose; the secondary outcome was receiving a dose within 20% of the correct dose. Secondary exploratory analysis with logistic modeling was also performed with SAS 8.1 software. A priori, we set the
level at .05 and the power at .8 to find a reduction in the absolute error rate of 20% in the second cohort, assuming an error rate of 50% in the first cohort. To achieve this power, we determined that we would need to enroll retrospectively 65 post-LA Kids subjects in cardiopulmonary arrest who received prehospital epinephrine treatment, given that 104 such children existed in the 1994 to 1997 cohort. The sample size calculations were performed with PASS 2002 (NCSS, Kayesville, UT). However, in an unplanned interim analysis in which we evaluated the error rates for 37 subjects from 2003 to 2004 and compared the findings with rates for the original intervention cohort, we found a statistical and clinical difference in error rates that far exceeded our expectations, and we elected not to continue with additional data collection.
| RESULTS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
The Mantel-Haenszel odds ratio, stratified according to route of administration, for obtaining the correct epinephrine dose after the system changes versus before was 3.0 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.46.6), and that for obtaining a dose within 20% of the correct dose was 2.5 (95% CI: 1.15.6). In addition, secondary exploratory analyses using multivariate logistic modeling, adjusting for age, weight, and route of administration, demonstrated effect estimates that were qualitatively similar to the Mantel-Haenszel odds ratios.
Not infrequently, dosing errors were incorrect by a factor of 10, as shown in Fig 3A. Such overdosing and underdosing errors might be attributable to the added difficulty of memorizing the different doses and concentrations that are used when epinephrine is administered through different routes. Tenfold errors were seen less frequently for the post-LA Kids cohort (Fig 3B), possibly because endotracheal intubation was removed from the paramedic scope of practice and therefore there were far fewer children who received epinephrine through the endotracheal route.
Baseline characteristics for the preintervention and postintervention groups were compared, with assessment of the following possible confounding factors: weight, age, whether the Broselow tape was used, gender, presenting rhythm, and route of epinephrine administration (Table 3). The following characteristics were statistically significantly different between the 2 cohorts: median weight, 12 kg (interquartile range [IQR]: 618 kg) vs 16 kg (IQR: 1018 kg; P < .001); median age, 1.7 years (IQR: 0.35.4 years) vs 3 years (IQR: 1.510 years; P < .001); use of the Broselow tape, 61 (59%) of 104 cases vs 36 (97%) of 37 cases (P < .001); intravenous route of administration, 47 (45%) of 104 cases vs 34 (92%) of 37 cases (P < .001). We also found that, when subjects in the pre-LA Kids cohort for whom the Broselow tape was used were compared with subjects for whom the tape was not used, the estimated odds ratio for obtaining an epinephrine dose within 20% of the correct dose was 1.0 (95% CI: 0.52.2), and the odds ratio for obtaining the exact dose was 4.9 (95% CI: 1.714.3).
|
| DISCUSSION |
|---|
|
|
|---|
It was apparent even in the pre-LA Kids cohort that there were fewer dosing errors in the subgroup in which the Broselow tape was used. Therefore, it is not surprising that, in the post-LA Kids cohort, in which a larger proportion of subjects were measured with the Broselow tape (because the LA Kids program mandated use of the Broselow tape), a reduction in the medication dosing error rate was seen.
On the basis of crew resource management behavioral principles developed in the aviation industry, teamwork is known to reduce error rates in nonmedical settings. Sequences of events that lead to errors can be interrupted by checks and balances by team members.17 Features of this teamwork approach that can be adapted to medical settings include assigning roles and responsibilities to team members and using check-back processes to verify communications and actions. For example, errors resulting from verbal orders or telephone reports of critical laboratory results may be decreased if the recipient must repeat the verbal order or result.18,19
Our study has several limitations. Because of the observational design, we cannot be certain that the change in error rates that we observed in the 2003 to 2004 cohort was attributable to the LA Kids program, because secular changes and increased vigilance in reducing iatrogenic error rates had been occurring concomitantly. In addition, because endotracheal intubation was removed from the scope of practice for LA County's paramedics in 1997, we observed low rates of use of the endotracheal route for epinephrine administration in the post-LA kids cohort. Error rates for intravenous and endotracheal dosing were different, but stratification according to route of administration and logistic regression modeling demonstrated that this difference alone did not account for the marked improvement in dosing accuracy after the system change. There were statistically significant differences between the 2 cohorts in median age and weight, with older and heavier children in the post-LA Kids cohort. However, after adjustment for these potentially confounding variables in the exploratory logistic models, the resulting odds ratios were similar to the results obtained from the stratified analysis.
The results of this study are from an unplanned interim analysis in which we evaluated the error rate for 37 subjects from 2003 to 2004 and compared it with the rate for the original intervention cohort. Although we found a statistical and clinical difference in error rates that far exceeded our expectations, such an analysis should be interpreted with care.
The retrospective nature of the chart review limited the analysis to data that had actually been recorded. From the written records, we were unable to discern whether the base station or the prehospital care provider was making the dose determination for the first dose of epinephrine. Although weight determinations and drug dosages were both required fields in the paramedic run sheet and base station contact form, inaccuracies in data recording are possible. There is no reason to suspect that there would be greater errors in recording or greater misclassification biases after LA Kids was implemented, however.
| CONCLUSIONS |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
We thank the LA County EMS Agency and Maureen Hasbrouk, the LA County coroners' offices, research nurses Pamela D. Poore and Suzanne M. Goodrich, and all of the paramedic provider agencies and field paramedics in LA County for their dedication to the Pediatric Airway Management Project.
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
Address correspondence to Amy H. Kaji, MD, MPH, Department of Emergency Medicine, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, 1000 W Carson St, Box 21, Torrance, CA 90509. E-mail: akaji{at}emedharbor.edu
The authors have indicated they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.
| REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||