Impact on Emergency Department Interventions After Implementing a Guideline Based on the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network Prediction Rule for Identifying Low-Risk Febrile Infants 29 to 60 Days Old

Background The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) prediction rule identifies febrile infants at low risk for serious bacterial infection (SBI). However, its impact on avoidable interventions in the emergency department remains unknown.Objective To study the impact on lumbar puncture (LP) performance, empiric antibiotic use, and admissions after implementing a febrile infant clinical practice guideline for infants aged 29 to 60 days based on the PECARN prediction rule in the pediatric emergency department.Methods This single center preintervention to postintervention study included infants 29 to 60 days old who presented with a chief complaint of fever from November 2018 to November 2021 and were assessed for SBI via blood culture and either urinalysis or urine culture. A new clinical practice guideline based on the PECARN prediction rule was implemented on December 2019. Lumbar puncture attempts, antibiotic administration, and admissions were compared preimplementation and postimplementation and in subgroups of low- and high-risk patients.Results Of 1597 (PRE: 785, POST: 812) infants presenting with fever, 1032 (PRE: 500, POST: 532) met inclusion criteria. Adoption of guideline recommendations (measured as procalcitonin order rate) was 89.7% in eligible infants postimplementation. Overall, there was a significant decrease in LPs (PRE: 30.6%, POST: 22.6%, P < 0.05) and no significant change in antibiotics or admissions. Among low-risk infants, there was a significant reduction in LPs (PRE: 17.2%, POST: 4.4%, P < 0.05) and antibiotics (PRE: 14.5%, POST: 4.1%; P < 0.05). There was no change in missed SBI (PRE: 3, POST: 2, P = 0.65). No cases of missed meningitis preimplementation or postimplementation were observed.Conclusions After implementation of a guideline based on the PECARN prediction rule, we observed a reduction of LPs and antibiotics in low-risk infants. Overall, a decrease in LPs was observed, whereas antibiotic use and admissions remained unchanged.