Leveraging Electronic Health Record Tools to Improve the Evidence-Based Treatment of Children Hospitalized With Bronchiolitis

Last updated: May 7, 2025
Sponsor: Johns Hopkins University
Overall Status: Active - Recruiting

Phase

N/A

Condition

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (Rsv) Infection

Bronchitis (Pediatric)

Treatment

Interruptive

Non-interruptive

Clinical Study ID

NCT06932341
IRB00456658
  • Ages < 24
  • All Genders

Study Summary

The goal of this experimental study is to learn whether different types of best practice advisories (BPAs) that direct clinicians to reference clinical guidelines embedded in the electronic health record (EHR) increase the delivery of evidence-based care in children presenting to the hospital with bronchiolitis. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Do BPAs improve clinicians' delivery of guideline-concordant care in bronchiolitis?

  • Do interruptive BPAs improve guideline-concordant care of bronchiolitis more than non-interruptive BPAs?

Researchers will compare the treatment and outcomes of patients whose clinicians did not receive a BPA, to those whose clinicians received a non-interruptive BPA, to those whose clinicians received an interruptive BPA.

Patients will continue to receive standard hospital care for bronchiolitis.

Clinicians will:

  • retain access to an EHR-embedded clinical guideline for bronchiolitis care

  • be exposed to either no BPA, a non-interruptive BPA, or an interruptive BPA promoting the EHR-embedded clinical guideline (randomized per patient encounter)

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion

Patient Inclusion Criteria:

  • Children <=24 months of age presenting to the emergency room and/or hospitalized (under observation or inpatient status) with bronchiolitis at one of three studysites.

Exclusion

Patient Exclusion Criteria:

  • Current encounter is birth-encounter

  • Currently hospitalized in an ICU

  • Hospitalized with length of stay >14 days

Clinician Inclusion Criteria:

  • Physicians and advanced practice providers entering the patient's chart or ordersentry activity for Emergency Department (ED) and inpatient encounters

Clinician Exclusion Criteria:

  • Physicians and advanced practice providers who do not enter the patient's chart ororders entry activity

Study Design

Total Participants: 800
Treatment Group(s): 2
Primary Treatment: Interruptive
Phase:
Study Start date:
May 05, 2025
Estimated Completion Date:
July 31, 2026

Study Description

Bronchiolitis, a viral respiratory illness affecting infants and toddlers, is the most common reason children less than 2 years old are hospitalized. However, many children admitted with bronchiolitis receive unnecessary treatments that do not hasten recovery and may even cause harm. Despite evidence that the best treatment for bronchiolitis is supportive care (i.e. oxygen and hydration support), clinicians continue to overuse certain therapies, leading to longer hospital stays, higher costs, and increased stress for families.

The investigators will study the effects of BPAs, which are real-time alerts within the EHR. The BPAs in this study promote the use of an evidence-based care guideline for bronchiolitis that is embedded within the EHR. There are multiple BPA designs commonly used in EHRs: 1) interruptive BPAs, which require clinicians to interact with the alert to continue the clinician's workflow; and 2) non-interruptive BPAs, which appear as visual cues but do not require clinicians to alter workflows.

Connect with a study center

  • Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital

    Saint Petersburg, Florida 33701
    United States

    Active - Recruiting

  • Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center

    Baltimore, Maryland 21224
    United States

    Active - Recruiting

  • Johns Hopkins Children's Center

    Baltimore, Maryland 21287
    United States

    Active - Recruiting

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