STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine whether differences exist between the acute presentations and post-assault needs of youth presenting to an emergency department (ED) following multiple perpetrator sexual assault (MPSA) compared with those presenting after single perpetrator sexual assault.

METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of all female adolescents evaluated in an urban pediatric ED between 2014 and 2021 for acute sexual assault was conducted. Demographic characteristics and assault outcomes were assessed using bivariate analyses.

RESULTS: Survivors of MPSA were not more likely than survivors of single perpetrator assaults to be diagnosed with an anal-genital injury or sexually transmitted infection but were more likely to re-present in the subsequent year for an emergent mental health concern (31% vs 11%, P = .001), including suicide attempt (6% vs 1%, P = .022).

CONCLUSION: The high rate of subsequent ED visits for mental health concerns among female adolescent survivors of MPSA highlights the need for providing specialized support to this population.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Recognition of pediatric sepsis is a key clinical challenge. We evaluate the performance of a sepsis recognition process including an electronic sepsis alert and bedside assessment in a pediatric emergency department (ED).

METHODS: This was a cohort study with quality improvement intervention in a pediatric ED. Exposure was a positive electronic sepsis alert, defined as elevated pulse rate or hypotension, concern for infection, and at least one of the following: abnormal capillary refill, abnormal mental status, or high-risk condition. A positive electronic sepsis alert prompted team assessment or huddle to determine need for sepsis protocol. Clinicians could initiate team assessment or huddle according to clinical concern without positive electronic sepsis alert. Severe sepsis outcome defined as activation of the sepsis protocol in the ED or development of severe sepsis requiring ICU admission within 24 hours.

RESULTS: There were 182,509 ED visits during the study period, with 86,037 before electronic sepsis alert implementation and 96,472 afterward, and 1,112 (1.2%) positive electronic sepsis alerts. Overall, 326 patients (0.3%) were treated for severe sepsis within 24 hours. Test characteristics of the electronic sepsis alert alone to detect severe sepsis were sensitivity 86.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 82.0% to 89.5%), specificity 99.1% (95% CI 99.0% to 99.2%), positive predictive value 25.4% (95% CI 22.8% to 28.0%), and negative predictive value 100% (95% CI 99.9% to 100%). Inclusion of the clinician screen identified 43 additional electronic sepsis alert-negative children, with severe sepsis sensitivity 99.4% (95% CI 97.8% to 99.8%) and specificity 99.1% (95% CI 99.1% to 99.2%). Electronic sepsis alert implementation increased ED sepsis detection from 83% to 96%.

CONCLUSION: Electronic sepsis alert for severe sepsis demonstrated good sensitivity and high specificity. Addition of clinician identification of electronic sepsis alert-negative patients further improved sensitivity. Implementation of the electronic sepsis alert was associated with improved recognition of severe sepsis.

<p>Within the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, minimizing health care worker exposure to the novel coronavirus has become a paramount part of the provision of health care in all settings across the world. Limited supply of personal protective equipment, personnel shortages as a result of exposure, and ensuring the safety and health of workers have all dictated the need to minimize the number of health care workers with direct patient contact. In resuscitation events, there is high likelihood of multiple aerosol-generating procedures and increased risk of viral transmission; therefore, limiting personnel is of particular importance. The development of creative solutions to allow vital team contributions to occur outside of the direct patient care space whenever possible is critical.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To characterize the cohort of missed sepsis patients since implementation of an electronic sepsis alert in a pediatric emergency department (ED).</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Retrospective cohort study in a tertiary care children's hospital ED from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2017. Missed patients met international consensus criteria for severe sepsis requiring intensive care unit admission within 24 hours of ED stay but were not treated with the sepsis pathway/order set in the ED. We evaluated characteristics of missed patients compared with sepsis pathway patients including alert positivity, prior intensive care unit admission, and laboratory testing via medical record review. Outcomes included timeliness of antibiotic therapy and need for vasoactive medications.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>There were 919 sepsis pathway patients and 53 (5%) missed patients during the study period. Of the missed patients, 41 (77%) had vital signs that flagged the sepsis alert. Of these 41 patients, 13 (32%) had a documented sepsis huddle where the team determined that the sepsis pathway was not indicated and 28 (68%) had no sepsis alert-related documentation. Missed patients were less likely to receive timely antibiotics (relative risk, 0.4; 95% confidence interval, 0.3-0.7) and more likely to require vasoactive medications (relative risk, 4.3; 95% confidence interval, 2.9-6.5) compared with sepsis patients.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>In an ED with an electronic sepsis alert, missed patients often had positive sepsis alerts but were not treated for sepsis. Missed patients were more likely than sepsis pathway patients to require escalation of care after admission and less likely to receive timely antibiotics.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>To compare timeliness of sepsis recognition and initial treatment in patients with and without high-risk comorbid conditions.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>This was a retrospective cohort study of patients presenting to a pediatric emergency department (ED) who triggered a vital sign-based electronic sepsis alert resulting in bedside "huddle" assessment per institutional practice. A positive sepsis alert was defined as age-specific tachycardia or hypotension, concern for infection, and at least 1 of the following: abnormal capillary refill, abnormal mental status, or a high-risk condition. High-risk conditions were derived from the American Academy of Pediatrics sepsis alert tool. Patients with a positive alert underwent bedside huddle resulting in a decision regarding initiation of sepsis protocol. Placement on the protocol and time to initiation of protocol and individual therapies were compared for patients with and without high-risk conditions.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>During the 1-year study period, there were 1107 sepsis huddle alerts out of 96,427 ED visits. Of these, 713 (65%) had identified high-risk conditions, and 394 (35%) did not. Among patients with sepsis huddles, there was no difference in sepsis protocol initiation for patients with high-risk conditions compared with those without (24.8% vs 22.0%, P = 0.305). Between patients with high-risk conditions and those without, there were no differences in median time from triage to sepsis protocol activation, triage to initial intravenous antibiotic, triage to initial intravenous fluid therapy, or ED length of stay.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Timeliness of care initiation was no different in high-risk patients with sepsis when using an electronic sepsis alert and protocolized sepsis care.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical pathway implementation and quality improvement (QI) interventions to increase the percentage of infants with extremity fractures undergoing evaluation for suspected physical abuse, including skeletal survey (SS), and consultation with social work, and/or Child Protection Team.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Charts were retrospectively reviewed to establish percentage of infants less than 12 months old with extremity fractures undergoing an SS and consultation during the prepathway (January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013) and postpathway (January 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015) periods. Using an Ishikawa framework, key process drivers were identified and additional QI interventions (clinical decision support and provider education) were developed and implemented. Impact of QI interventions on study metrics during active QI (July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016) and post-QI periods (July 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016) was monitored using statistical process control charts. Logistic regression assessed predictors of obtaining an SS, consultation use, and occult fracture detection.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Skeletal survey use pre- and postpathway averaged 40%, surpassing 60% on average during active QI and post-QI periods. Consultation performance averaged 46% pre- and postpathway, increasing to nearly 67% during active QI; consultation performance decreased during post-QI to 60%. A lack of trauma history and presence of femur or humerus fracture were associated with increased SS use and consultation (both P &lt; 0.001). Overall 20% of SS revealed occult fractures.</p>

<p><strong>BACKGROUND: </strong>Ventricular shunt complications in children can be severe and life-threatening if not identified and treated in a timely manner. Evaluation for shunt obstruction is not without risk, including lifetime cumulative radiation as patients routinely receive computed tomography (CT) scans of the brain and shunt series (multiple radiographs of the skull, neck, chest, and abdomen).</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>A multidisciplinary team collaborated to develop a clinical pathway with the goal of standardizing the evaluation and management of patients with suspected shunt complication. The team implemented a low-dose CT scan, specifically tailored for the detection of hydrocephalus and discouraged routine use of shunt series with single-view radiographs used only when specifically indicated.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>There was a reduction in the average CT effective dose (millisievert) per emergency department (ED) encounter of 50.6% (confidence interval, 46.0-54.9; P ≤ .001) during the intervention period. There was a significant reduction in the number of shunt surveys obtained per ED encounter, from 62.4% to 5.32% (P &lt; .01). There was no significant change in the 72-hour ED revisit rate or CT scan utilization rate after hospital admission. There were no reports of inadequate patient evaluations or serious medical events.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>A new clinical pathway has rapidly reduced radiation exposure, both by reducing the radiation dose of CT scans and eliminating or reducing the number of radiographs obtained in the evaluation of patients with ventricular shunts without compromising clinical care.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>Delayed antimicrobial therapy in sepsis is associated with increased hospital mortality, but the impact of antimicrobial timing on long-term outcomes is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that hourly delays to antimicrobial therapy are associated with 1-year mortality in pediatric severe sepsis.</p>

<p><strong>DESIGN: </strong>Retrospective observational study.</p>

<p><strong>SETTING: </strong>Quaternary academic pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) from February 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013.</p>

<p><strong>PATIENTS: </strong>One hundred sixty patients aged ≤21 years treated for severe sepsis.</p>

<p><strong>INTERVENTIONS: </strong>None.</p>

<p><strong>MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: </strong>We tested the association of hourly delays from sepsis recognition to antimicrobial administration with 1-year mortality using multivariable Cox and logistic regression. Overall 1-year mortality was 24% (39 patients), of whom 46% died after index PICU discharge. Median time from sepsis recognition to antimicrobial therapy was 137 min (IQR 65-287). After adjusting for severity of illness and comorbid conditions, hourly delays up to 3 h were not associated with 1-year mortality. However, increased 1-year mortality was evident in patients who received antimicrobials ≤1 h (aOR 3.8, 95% CI 1.2, 11.7) or &gt;3 h (aOR 3.5, 95% CI 1.3, 9.8) compared with patients who received antimicrobials within 1 to 3 h from sepsis recognition. For the subset of patients who survived index PICU admission, antimicrobial therapy ≤1 h was also associated with increased 1-year mortality (aOR 5.5, 95% CI 1.1, 27.4), while antimicrobial therapy &gt;3 h was not associated with 1-year mortality (aOR 2.2, 95% CI 0.5, 11.0).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Hourly delays to antimicrobial therapy, up to 3 h, were not associated with 1-year mortality in pediatric severe sepsis in this study. The finding that antimicrobial therapy ≤1 h from sepsis recognition was associated with increased 1-year mortality should be regarded as hypothesis-generating for future studies.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>To determine whether treatment with a protocolized sepsis guideline in the emergency department was associated with a lower burden of organ dysfunction by hospital day 2 compared to nonprotocolized usual care in pediatric patients with severe sepsis.</p>

<p><strong>DESIGN: </strong>Retrospective cohort study.</p>

<p><strong>SETTING: </strong>Tertiary care children's hospital from January 1, 2012, to March 31, 2014.</p>

<p><strong>SUBJECTS: </strong>Patients older than 56 days old and younger than 18 years old with international consensus defined severe sepsis and who required PICU admission within 24 hours of emergency department arrival were included.</p>

<p><strong>MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: </strong>The exposure was the use of a protocolized emergency department sepsis guideline. The primary outcome was complete resolution of organ dysfunction by hospital day 2. One hundred eighty nine subjects were identified during the study period. Of these, 121 (64%) were treated with the protocolized emergency department guideline and 68 were not. There were no significant differences between the groups in age, sex, race, number of comorbid conditions, emergency department triage level, or organ dysfunction on arrival to the emergency department. Patients treated with protocolized emergency department care were more likely to be free of organ dysfunction on hospital day 2 after controlling for sex, comorbid condition, indwelling central venous catheter, Pediatric Index of Mortality-2 score, and timing of antibiotics and IV fluids (adjusted odds ratio, 4.2; 95% CI, 1.7-10.4).</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Use of a protocolized emergency department sepsis guideline was independently associated with resolution of organ dysfunction by hospital day 2 compared to nonprotocolized usual care. These data indicate that morbidity outcomes in children can be improved with the use of protocolized care.</p>