Quality improvement in pediatric intensive care: A systematic review of the literature

IMPORTANCE: Measuring and improving performance is an essential component of any high‐risk industry, including intensive care medicine. We undertook this systematic review to describe the current state of quality improvement efforts in pediatric intensive care medicine. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality and rigor of all published literature on quality improvement efforts in the pediatric intensive care unit in the current era. METHODS: We conducted a literature search on MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane for studies that met two broad inclusion criteria: 1) the terms “pediatric critical care” and “quality improvement” and 2) they were completed in the past ten years. In the initial search, we also included academic and professional societies or organizations devoted to providing resources on quality improvement in intensive care medicine. We excluded studies that examined quality improvement processes exclusively for neonatal or adult patients receiving intensive care. RESULTS: Forty‐nine of 332 identified articles were selected for final review by two reviewers who independently rated the quality of the methodology and rigor of the evidence reported for each study. Of these, 23 studies targeted structural issues, 14 studies targeted process issues, and 12 targeted an outcome as the focus of the intensive care quality improvement effort. INTERPRETATION: Our review of the published literature on quality improvement efforts in the pediatric intensive care unit in the current era found that 85% of studies were limited in methodology or analysis. Fifteen high‐quality studies are reported here and serve as helpful examples of rigorous research methodology in this domain going forward.