FEBRILE NEUTROPENIA
A Quality Improvement Project to reduce the median time to antibiotic administration for high-risk febrile neutropenia patients to within 1 hour of presentation to the ED.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Neutropenia is a common complication in cancer patients, particularly those with hematologic malignancies. Neutropenic patients presenting with fever to the ED have a high risk of sepsis and significant morbidity and mortality. To minimize this risk, prompt empiric antibiotic administration is essential. Current guidelines suggest the target time from presentation to administration of antibiotics is less than 1 hour. An audit of febrile neutropenia patients presenting to the ED at TGH shows that the median time is 3 hours and 22 minutes.
PROJECT LEADS
Joseph Choi
Team members: Debra Davies, Andre Schuh, TFC Nurse Practitioners (Danielle Brandys, Shannon Nixon, Cindy Murray, Mary Doherty), Laurie Macdougall Sookraj
Term of project: October 2016- June 2017