PARTNERING OF A FRONTLINE HEALTHCARE TEAM WITH A FAMILY ADVISOR TO IMPROVE ACUTE ASTHMA CARE IN A PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT: COST SAVINGS ANALYSIS

In 2016, a Canadian paediatric emergency department (ED) partnered with families in the co-design of a LEAN-based quality improvement (QI) project with the goal of increasing the proportion of asthmatic children receiving oral corticosteroids within one hour of arrival. LEAN projects aim to eliminate non-value-added process steps and to creatively solve problems as a team. Implemented changes included a process redesign with steroids given at the door and a revised asthma pathway increasing nurse autonomy prior to physician assessment. A sustained improvement (>12 months) was achieved, with asthmatic children consistently (>90%) receiving timely steroids within a mean time of 20 minutes