Abstract
Objective: Home pulse oximetry is often prescribed to children
with chronic disease upon hospital discharge. Children monitored at home
may generate >20 alarms every 8 hours, contributing to
premature discontinuation of monitoring. We aimed to improve the home
oximetry ordering process using clinical decision support (CDS),
supporting more liberal oxygen saturation (SpO 2) alarm
limits. Methods: Within a large single-center improvement
project to increase informativeness of alarms in the hospital and in
patients’ homes, we compared home care oximetry orders of discharged
children pre-post CDS implementation. Order parameters included low SpO
2 limit, specification of intensity of use, an
intervention plan, pulse oximetry probe prescription, and order
completeness. We extracted order details 6 months pre-CDS and 6 months
post-CDS with a one-month washout period. The CDS intervention used a
letter template to include all required home oximeter order elements and
provide more liberal age-specific default alarm limits.
Results: There were 100 orders in the pre-CDS epoch
(7/1/2021-12/31/2021) and 112 orders in the post-CDS epoch
(2/1/2022-7/31/2022). The median low SpO 2 alarm limit
post-CDS implementation (87%, IQR 87%-90%) was significantly lower
than pre-CDS (90%, IQR 90%-90%, p=<0.001). In the post-CDS
epoch significantly more orders included an intervention plan (80.4%
versus 31%, p<0.001), prescribed pulse oximeter probes
(85.7% versus 52.0%, p<0.001), and were complete (68.8%
versus 13.0%, p<0.001). Conclusions: CDS
implementation resulted in a significant decrease in median low SpO
2 limit and a significant increase in home oximetry
order completeness. These changes may decrease home oximetry alarm
burden and improve caregiver experiences with home oximetry.