An Improvement Project to Decrease Time to Pain Medication for Patients with Vaso-occlusive Crisis Presenting to an Emergency Department

Abstract

Background Vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) is an acute morbidity of sickle cell disease (SCD) and the most common reason for Emergency Department (ED) visits. Guidelines recommend rapid initiation of analgesics. Standardized care pathways utilizing intranasal fentanyl (INF) as a bridge to parental opioid can expedite medication administration for SCD patients. Local Problem Baseline percentage of patients who received pain medication under 30 minutes of rooming in the ED was 8%. The purpose of this quality improvement initiative was to decrease time to first medication through the implementation of a standardized …