Retrospective audit of guidelines for investigation and treatment of bronchiolitis: a French perspective

INTRODUCTION: As the most recent French bronchiolitis guidelines were published in 2000, there is a current overinvestigation and an overtreatment of infants hospitalised with bronchiolitis in France. In 2012, the Group of Pediatric University Hospitals in Western France (‘HUGO’) proposed new evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in keeping with the latest international guidelines. We hypothesise that the implementation of these guidelines contributed to the quality improvement of the management of bronchiolitis in our hospital. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of these guidelines on the management of bronchiolitis inpatients. METHODS: This retrospective before/after study design was conducted in the general paediatric unit of a tertiary care French hospital, looking at 1 year before (ie, the winter of 2011–2012) and 1 year after (ie, the winter of 2013–2014) the implementation of the guidelines. Two hundred and eighty bronchiolitis inpatients, all less than 1 year of age, 115 in 2011–2012 and 165 in 2013–2014, were included. The primary outcome we sought to evaluate was the proportion of children administered a diagnostic test associated with a treatment not routinely recommended by the guidelines. As balancing measures, we evaluated the length of stay, the intensive care unit transfer and the readmission rates. RESULTS: Following implementation of the guidelines, use of any given treatment associated with a diagnostic test was reduced by 66% (p<0.001). There were major decreases in the use of chest X-ray (86%vs26%, p<0.001), antibiotics (38%vs13%, p<0.001) and corticosteroids (10%vs3%, p=0.011). Balancing measures were not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: HUGO guidelines were effective at reducing the administration of unnecessary diagnostic tests and medications. This study was the first step in convincing French paediatricians to streamline their practices until updated national guidelines are published.