Discharge Criteria for Bronchiolitis Patients

To the Editor.—

After reading the article by Willson et al¹ that appeared in the October 2001 issue of Pediatrics, we were interested in finding discharge criteria for patients admitted with bronchiolitis. Although there is available literature discussing the decision to hospitalize and the therapies during hospitalization, we were unable to find much discussion on when to discharge. We sent a short questionnaire to chief pediatric residents at 30 different children’s hospitals across the country to discover their criteria for discharging patients with bronchiolitis. We received 17 responses. The following questions were asked: “Do you discharge patients with bronchiolitis home on oxygen?” “How long should the patient be off oxygen before discharge?” “What level should the patient’s oxygen saturations be on room air before discharge?” “Do you discharge patients home if they are still wheezing?” “Should a patient be at baseline home p.o. intake or is adequate hydration sufficient?” “How long should a patient be off deep suctioning before discharge?” “Do you use home health care nursing for your bronchiolitis patients, and if so, what therapies are ordered?” The …