Rajendu Srivastava, MD, MPH

Hospitalized pediatric patients often require vascular access for necessary therapies, such as antibiotics. However, vascular access devices (VADs) are also associated with harm, ranging from insertion complications to life-threatening bloodstream infections or thrombosis.¹ Pediatric hospitalists often guide VAD placement. There is a paucity of evidence to guide VAD selection based on the relative benefits and risks.² The Michigan Appropriateness Guide for Intravenous Catheters in Pediatrics (miniMAGIC)² offers the first set of standards. Like its adult predecessor guideline (MAGIC) published in 2015, it provides guidance on appropriate VAD selection based on current evidence and expertise from a multidisciplinary panel.² The guideline informs device selection, device characteristics, and insertion technique for the pediatric population (term neonates to adolescents) and across a wide range of clinical indications.² This review highlights key recommendations for pediatric hospitalists to help their decision-making.

miniMAGIC was developed using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method, a method proven to reduce inappropriate (ie, overused or underused) healthcare interventions.³ It combines rigorous evidence review with multidisciplinary expert opinion on real-world clinical scenarios to provide recommendations about an intervention’s appropriateness.³ This is particularly useful for clinical scenarios that lack high-quality evidence to guide decision-making. The RAND/UCLA method deems an intervention appropriate if the benefits outweigh the risks by a wide enough margin that proceeding is worthwhile, and it does not take cost into account.² The method design consists of five phases: (1) defining the scope and key terms, (2) reviewing and synthesizing the literature, (3) selecting an expert panel, (4) developing case scenarios, and (5) conducting two rounds of appropriateness ratings by the expert panel for each clinical scenario.³ The guideline’s scope included term neonates (aged 0-30 days), infants (aged 31 days-1 year), children (aged 1-12 years), and adolescents (aged 12-18 years). Infants receiving care in the neonatal intensive care unit or special care nursery were excluded. Other specialized populations addressed based on setting or diagnosis were general hospitalized patients and patients with congenital cardiac disease, critical illness, oncologic and hematologic conditions, and long-term VAD-dependent conditions.³

A total of 133 studies or clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) met the eligibility criteria for the systematic review.⁴ Although the systematic review was conducted per the RAND/UCLA method using two independent reviewers who evaluated the methodologic quality, transparency, and relevancy of each article, there was no formal assessment of evidence quality. The recommendations were based primarily on observational studies and CPGs because there were few randomized controlled trials or systematic reviews on VAD selection for pediatric patients in the literature. Pediatric evidence was limited for certain scenarios or populations (eg, term neonates, midline catheters, difficult venous access, long-term VAD), so adult and/or neonatal evidence was included when applicable.

The panel included 14 pediatric clinical experts from cardiology, vascular access, critical care, hematology/oncology, emergency medicine, general surgery, hospital medicine, anesthesia, interventional radiology, pharmacology, and infectious diseases. The panel also included nonvoting panel members such as the panel facilitators, a methodologist, and a patient representative.

We review four common clinical scenarios encountered by pediatric hospitalists and summarize key recommendations (Table).

Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter

Patients may require peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) to facilitate a longer duration of intravenous (IV) therapy, such as delivery of antibiotics, or frequent blood draws. The need for prolonged vascular access is decreasing, as studies show many infections in children previously treated with prolonged IV antibiotics can be safely and equally effectively managed with early transition to oral therapy.^5-8 These studies highlight the higher rate of complications and risks associated with PICCs, including thrombosis, infection, and mechanical issues, as well as the added healthcare utilization needed to evaluate and manage the complications. PICC-associated complication rates also increase with duration.⁴

However, there are some clinical scenarios that still warrant prolonged therapy and/or access; PICC recommendations are summarized in the Appendix Figure. The miniMAGIC panel deemed PICC lines appropriate for any nonperipheral therapy of any length. For peripherally compatible therapy, the panel rated PICC placement as inappropriate for therapy lasting less than 8 days, regardless of patient age. PICC placement in infants, children, and adolescents was rated appropriate for therapy with a duration exceeding 14 days, but the panel was uncertain about therapy expected to last between 8 and 14 days. Recognizing the additional challenges with maintaining peripheral IV catheter access in neonates, PICCs were deemed appropriate for neonates needing peripheral therapy lasting longer than 7 days.

The panel rated PICC placement appropriate for frequent blood draws (defined as more than one time per day) for more than 7 days in neonates or infants and more than 14 days in children and adolescents. But regardless of patient age, the PICC caliber must be at least 3F.

The miniMAGIC panel found that a single lumen is appropriate in most cases, highlighting that multilumen catheters increase the risk for infection, occlusion, and venous thrombosis.⁴ Multilumen catheters were rated as inappropriate in the case of reserving a lumen for blood products and blood sampling. When reserving a lumen for lipids and parenteral nutrition (PN), the panel was uncertain given the lack of evidence regarding the risks/benefits of the complications associated with the infusions themselves versus those of the device. Regardless, collaboration with a pharmacist and vascular access specialist is recommended to aid in choosing the most appropriate device characteristics.

Midline Catheters

Midline catheters are inserted in a peripheral vein, but the catheter tip terminates in the proximal extremity. Compared with peripheral IV catheters, midline catheters last longer and have lower rates of phlebitis. In addition, midline catheter placement does not require sedation or fluoroscopy and has lower rates of infection compared with PICC lines.⁹ Although there is good evidence in adults, and multiple panelists reported success in using midline catheters in various age groups, the evidence for their safe and efficacious use in pediatrics is limited, particularly for infants. Midline catheters were rated as appropriate for peripheral therapy lasting less than 8 days in neonates and less than 15 days in children and adolescents. Use in infants was deemed uncertain based on lack of published evidence. Midline catheters were also rated as appropriate for frequent blood draws of less than 8 days in neonates and less than 15 days in adolescents, but uncertain for children and infants.

Difficult Access and Insertion Procedure

The panel rated three or more attempts for peripheral IV catheter insertion by a single clinician as inappropriate and recommended early escalation to a more experienced inserter after 0 to 2 attempts by a single provider. The goal is to preserve insertion sites and reduce patient discomfort. If a patient loses access when only 1 day of therapy remains, the provider should transition to oral or intramuscular therapy when appropriate, particularly if there are no advanced insertion staff available or after two or more attempts at re-insertion are unsuccessful. There is high-quality evidence that supports vessel visualization (primarily ultrasound) with peripheral IV catheter and PICC placement.² In the case of two or more unsuccessful attempts at peripheral IV catheter placement by an advanced inserter using technology assistance (ultrasound), PICC placement is considered appropriate by the panel to avoid delays in treatment and limit patient discomfort associated with repeat attempts.

Long-term Vascular Access

Children with medical complexity or chronic illness may require long-term (>2 months) or very-long-term (>1 year) vascular access. Common themes for VAD selection in this heterogeneous population include a focus on vessel preservation and complication prevention.² The panel strongly recommended that clinicians partner with the patient and caregivers in the decision-making process. Shared decision-making is necessary to meet both the short-term and evolving needs of the of the patient and family. The panel also believed the frequency of hospitalization should not be used as a criterion for VAD selection since acute hospitalization is an unreliable proxy for disease severity in pediatric chronic disease conditions.² Rather, the infusate characteristics and length/intermittency of therapy should be primary influencers of VAD selection. In general, the panel rated cuffed tunneled central VADs (CVADs) as appropriate for all age groups for long-term PN, long-term continuous infusions, and long-term intermittent therapies. For continuous non-PN infusions, appropriate ratings were given to PICCs for infants and children and total implanted venous devices (TIVDs) in children and adolescents. For intermittent (but at least daily) access, TIVDs and PICC lines were both rated as appropriate for children and adolescents but uncertain for neonates and infants. Peripheral devices were deemed inappropriate for all long-term complex therapies. For children and adolescents needing intermittent, regular peripheral treatments (eg, steroids or antibiotics), peripheral IVs and TIVDs were rated appropriate for short duration (<7 days) therapies. PICCs and midlines for this indication were uncertain because of the lack of evidence. For medium-duration intermittent therapies (8-14 days), PICCs, tunneled cuffed CVADs, and TIVDs were rated as appropriate. A recently released mobile application can help guide the clinician through many varied clinical scenarios and indications.¹⁰

The guideline recommendations were more often reliant on clinical practice guidelines and expert panel opinion given the lack of high-quality pediatric evidence for most scenarios. The panel members were from the United States and Australia, so the recommendations may not be generalizable to care systems in other countries. Although the panel included experts from many specialties that care for patient populations needing VADs, not all subspecialty populations were considered, particularly those with long-term vascular access–dependent conditions who may be commonly hospitalized. Scenarios with disagreement or uncertainty highlight gaps in need of future study (eg, midline catheter use and device selection for blood draws).

miniMAGIC is the first appropriateness guideline to help standardize the safe use of VADs in children. Although some gaps remain, the authors intend it to be a living document that will need revisions as new evidence is published. A mobile health application facilitates use of the recommendations, providing quick, point-of-care decision support based on clinical features.¹⁰ Pediatric hospitalists should collaborate with their institutions to examine their current VAD use in hospitalized children and identify opportunities for practice change and standardization. Use of these recommendations may help hospitalists improve the care of hospitalized children by decreasing unnecessary PICC placement and better partner with patients and caregivers to limit discomfort surrounding VAD placement.

Hospitalized pediatric patients often require vascular access for necessary therapies, such as antibiotics. However, vascular access devices (VADs) are also associated with harm, ranging from insertion complications to life-threatening bloodstream infections or thrombosis.¹ Pediatric hospitalists often guide VAD placement. There is a paucity of evidence to guide VAD selection based on the relative benefits and risks.² The Michigan Appropriateness Guide for Intravenous Catheters in Pediatrics (miniMAGIC)² offers the first set of standards. Like its adult predecessor guideline (MAGIC) published in 2015, it provides guidance on appropriate VAD selection based on current evidence and expertise from a multidisciplinary panel.² The guideline informs device selection, device characteristics, and insertion technique for the pediatric population (term neonates to adolescents) and across a wide range of clinical indications.² This review highlights key recommendations for pediatric hospitalists to help their decision-making.

miniMAGIC was developed using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method, a method proven to reduce inappropriate (ie, overused or underused) healthcare interventions.³ It combines rigorous evidence review with multidisciplinary expert opinion on real-world clinical scenarios to provide recommendations about an intervention’s appropriateness.³ This is particularly useful for clinical scenarios that lack high-quality evidence to guide decision-making. The RAND/UCLA method deems an intervention appropriate if the benefits outweigh the risks by a wide enough margin that proceeding is worthwhile, and it does not take cost into account.² The method design consists of five phases: (1) defining the scope and key terms, (2) reviewing and synthesizing the literature, (3) selecting an expert panel, (4) developing case scenarios, and (5) conducting two rounds of appropriateness ratings by the expert panel for each clinical scenario.³ The guideline’s scope included term neonates (aged 0-30 days), infants (aged 31 days-1 year), children (aged 1-12 years), and adolescents (aged 12-18 years). Infants receiving care in the neonatal intensive care unit or special care nursery were excluded. Other specialized populations addressed based on setting or diagnosis were general hospitalized patients and patients with congenital cardiac disease, critical illness, oncologic and hematologic conditions, and long-term VAD-dependent conditions.³

A total of 133 studies or clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) met the eligibility criteria for the systematic review.⁴ Although the systematic review was conducted per the RAND/UCLA method using two independent reviewers who evaluated the methodologic quality, transparency, and relevancy of each article, there was no formal assessment of evidence quality. The recommendations were based primarily on observational studies and CPGs because there were few randomized controlled trials or systematic reviews on VAD selection for pediatric patients in the literature. Pediatric evidence was limited for certain scenarios or populations (eg, term neonates, midline catheters, difficult venous access, long-term VAD), so adult and/or neonatal evidence was included when applicable.

The panel included 14 pediatric clinical experts from cardiology, vascular access, critical care, hematology/oncology, emergency medicine, general surgery, hospital medicine, anesthesia, interventional radiology, pharmacology, and infectious diseases. The panel also included nonvoting panel members such as the panel facilitators, a methodologist, and a patient representative.

We review four common clinical scenarios encountered by pediatric hospitalists and summarize key recommendations (Table).

Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter

Patients may require peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) to facilitate a longer duration of intravenous (IV) therapy, such as delivery of antibiotics, or frequent blood draws. The need for prolonged vascular access is decreasing, as studies show many infections in children previously treated with prolonged IV antibiotics can be safely and equally effectively managed with early transition to oral therapy.^5-8 These studies highlight the higher rate of complications and risks associated with PICCs, including thrombosis, infection, and mechanical issues, as well as the added healthcare utilization needed to evaluate and manage the complications. PICC-associated complication rates also increase with duration.⁴

However, there are some clinical scenarios that still warrant prolonged therapy and/or access; PICC recommendations are summarized in the Appendix Figure. The miniMAGIC panel deemed PICC lines appropriate for any nonperipheral therapy of any length. For peripherally compatible therapy, the panel rated PICC placement as inappropriate for therapy lasting less than 8 days, regardless of patient age. PICC placement in infants, children, and adolescents was rated appropriate for therapy with a duration exceeding 14 days, but the panel was uncertain about therapy expected to last between 8 and 14 days. Recognizing the additional challenges with maintaining peripheral IV catheter access in neonates, PICCs were deemed appropriate for neonates needing peripheral therapy lasting longer than 7 days.

The panel rated PICC placement appropriate for frequent blood draws (defined as more than one time per day) for more than 7 days in neonates or infants and more than 14 days in children and adolescents. But regardless of patient age, the PICC caliber must be at least 3F.

The miniMAGIC panel found that a single lumen is appropriate in most cases, highlighting that multilumen catheters increase the risk for infection, occlusion, and venous thrombosis.⁴ Multilumen catheters were rated as inappropriate in the case of reserving a lumen for blood products and blood sampling. When reserving a lumen for lipids and parenteral nutrition (PN), the panel was uncertain given the lack of evidence regarding the risks/benefits of the complications associated with the infusions themselves versus those of the device. Regardless, collaboration with a pharmacist and vascular access specialist is recommended to aid in choosing the most appropriate device characteristics.

Midline Catheters

Midline catheters are inserted in a peripheral vein, but the catheter tip terminates in the proximal extremity. Compared with peripheral IV catheters, midline catheters last longer and have lower rates of phlebitis. In addition, midline catheter placement does not require sedation or fluoroscopy and has lower rates of infection compared with PICC lines.⁹ Although there is good evidence in adults, and multiple panelists reported success in using midline catheters in various age groups, the evidence for their safe and efficacious use in pediatrics is limited, particularly for infants. Midline catheters were rated as appropriate for peripheral therapy lasting less than 8 days in neonates and less than 15 days in children and adolescents. Use in infants was deemed uncertain based on lack of published evidence. Midline catheters were also rated as appropriate for frequent blood draws of less than 8 days in neonates and less than 15 days in adolescents, but uncertain for children and infants.

Difficult Access and Insertion Procedure

The panel rated three or more attempts for peripheral IV catheter insertion by a single clinician as inappropriate and recommended early escalation to a more experienced inserter after 0 to 2 attempts by a single provider. The goal is to preserve insertion sites and reduce patient discomfort. If a patient loses access when only 1 day of therapy remains, the provider should transition to oral or intramuscular therapy when appropriate, particularly if there are no advanced insertion staff available or after two or more attempts at re-insertion are unsuccessful. There is high-quality evidence that supports vessel visualization (primarily ultrasound) with peripheral IV catheter and PICC placement.² In the case of two or more unsuccessful attempts at peripheral IV catheter placement by an advanced inserter using technology assistance (ultrasound), PICC placement is considered appropriate by the panel to avoid delays in treatment and limit patient discomfort associated with repeat attempts.

Long-term Vascular Access

Children with medical complexity or chronic illness may require long-term (>2 months) or very-long-term (>1 year) vascular access. Common themes for VAD selection in this heterogeneous population include a focus on vessel preservation and complication prevention.² The panel strongly recommended that clinicians partner with the patient and caregivers in the decision-making process. Shared decision-making is necessary to meet both the short-term and evolving needs of the of the patient and family. The panel also believed the frequency of hospitalization should not be used as a criterion for VAD selection since acute hospitalization is an unreliable proxy for disease severity in pediatric chronic disease conditions.² Rather, the infusate characteristics and length/intermittency of therapy should be primary influencers of VAD selection. In general, the panel rated cuffed tunneled central VADs (CVADs) as appropriate for all age groups for long-term PN, long-term continuous infusions, and long-term intermittent therapies. For continuous non-PN infusions, appropriate ratings were given to PICCs for infants and children and total implanted venous devices (TIVDs) in children and adolescents. For intermittent (but at least daily) access, TIVDs and PICC lines were both rated as appropriate for children and adolescents but uncertain for neonates and infants. Peripheral devices were deemed inappropriate for all long-term complex therapies. For children and adolescents needing intermittent, regular peripheral treatments (eg, steroids or antibiotics), peripheral IVs and TIVDs were rated appropriate for short duration (<7 days) therapies. PICCs and midlines for this indication were uncertain because of the lack of evidence. For medium-duration intermittent therapies (8-14 days), PICCs, tunneled cuffed CVADs, and TIVDs were rated as appropriate. A recently released mobile application can help guide the clinician through many varied clinical scenarios and indications.¹⁰

The guideline recommendations were more often reliant on clinical practice guidelines and expert panel opinion given the lack of high-quality pediatric evidence for most scenarios. The panel members were from the United States and Australia, so the recommendations may not be generalizable to care systems in other countries. Although the panel included experts from many specialties that care for patient populations needing VADs, not all subspecialty populations were considered, particularly those with long-term vascular access–dependent conditions who may be commonly hospitalized. Scenarios with disagreement or uncertainty highlight gaps in need of future study (eg, midline catheter use and device selection for blood draws).

miniMAGIC is the first appropriateness guideline to help standardize the safe use of VADs in children. Although some gaps remain, the authors intend it to be a living document that will need revisions as new evidence is published. A mobile health application facilitates use of the recommendations, providing quick, point-of-care decision support based on clinical features.¹⁰ Pediatric hospitalists should collaborate with their institutions to examine their current VAD use in hospitalized children and identify opportunities for practice change and standardization. Use of these recommendations may help hospitalists improve the care of hospitalized children by decreasing unnecessary PICC placement and better partner with patients and caregivers to limit discomfort surrounding VAD placement.

Hospitalized pediatric patients often require vascular access for necessary therapies, such as antibiotics. However, vascular access devices (VADs) are also associated with harm, ranging from insertion complications to life-threatening bloodstream infections or thrombosis.¹ Pediatric hospitalists often guide VAD placement. There is a paucity of evidence to guide VAD selection based on the relative benefits and risks.² The Michigan Appropriateness Guide for Intravenous Catheters in Pediatrics (miniMAGIC)² offers the first set of standards. Like its adult predecessor guideline (MAGIC) published in 2015, it provides guidance on appropriate VAD selection based on current evidence and expertise from a multidisciplinary panel.² The guideline informs device selection, device characteristics, and insertion technique for the pediatric population (term neonates to adolescents) and across a wide range of clinical indications.² This review highlights key recommendations for pediatric hospitalists to help their decision-making.

miniMAGIC was developed using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method, a method proven to reduce inappropriate (ie, overused or underused) healthcare interventions.³ It combines rigorous evidence review with multidisciplinary expert opinion on real-world clinical scenarios to provide recommendations about an intervention’s appropriateness.³ This is particularly useful for clinical scenarios that lack high-quality evidence to guide decision-making. The RAND/UCLA method deems an intervention appropriate if the benefits outweigh the risks by a wide enough margin that proceeding is worthwhile, and it does not take cost into account.² The method design consists of five phases: (1) defining the scope and key terms, (2) reviewing and synthesizing the literature, (3) selecting an expert panel, (4) developing case scenarios, and (5) conducting two rounds of appropriateness ratings by the expert panel for each clinical scenario.³ The guideline’s scope included term neonates (aged 0-30 days), infants (aged 31 days-1 year), children (aged 1-12 years), and adolescents (aged 12-18 years). Infants receiving care in the neonatal intensive care unit or special care nursery were excluded. Other specialized populations addressed based on setting or diagnosis were general hospitalized patients and patients with congenital cardiac disease, critical illness, oncologic and hematologic conditions, and long-term VAD-dependent conditions.³

A total of 133 studies or clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) met the eligibility criteria for the systematic review.⁴ Although the systematic review was conducted per the RAND/UCLA method using two independent reviewers who evaluated the methodologic quality, transparency, and relevancy of each article, there was no formal assessment of evidence quality. The recommendations were based primarily on observational studies and CPGs because there were few randomized controlled trials or systematic reviews on VAD selection for pediatric patients in the literature. Pediatric evidence was limited for certain scenarios or populations (eg, term neonates, midline catheters, difficult venous access, long-term VAD), so adult and/or neonatal evidence was included when applicable.

The panel included 14 pediatric clinical experts from cardiology, vascular access, critical care, hematology/oncology, emergency medicine, general surgery, hospital medicine, anesthesia, interventional radiology, pharmacology, and infectious diseases. The panel also included nonvoting panel members such as the panel facilitators, a methodologist, and a patient representative.

We review four common clinical scenarios encountered by pediatric hospitalists and summarize key recommendations (Table).

Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter

Patients may require peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) to facilitate a longer duration of intravenous (IV) therapy, such as delivery of antibiotics, or frequent blood draws. The need for prolonged vascular access is decreasing, as studies show many infections in children previously treated with prolonged IV antibiotics can be safely and equally effectively managed with early transition to oral therapy.^5-8 These studies highlight the higher rate of complications and risks associated with PICCs, including thrombosis, infection, and mechanical issues, as well as the added healthcare utilization needed to evaluate and manage the complications. PICC-associated complication rates also increase with duration.⁴

However, there are some clinical scenarios that still warrant prolonged therapy and/or access; PICC recommendations are summarized in the Appendix Figure. The miniMAGIC panel deemed PICC lines appropriate for any nonperipheral therapy of any length. For peripherally compatible therapy, the panel rated PICC placement as inappropriate for therapy lasting less than 8 days, regardless of patient age. PICC placement in infants, children, and adolescents was rated appropriate for therapy with a duration exceeding 14 days, but the panel was uncertain about therapy expected to last between 8 and 14 days. Recognizing the additional challenges with maintaining peripheral IV catheter access in neonates, PICCs were deemed appropriate for neonates needing peripheral therapy lasting longer than 7 days.

The panel rated PICC placement appropriate for frequent blood draws (defined as more than one time per day) for more than 7 days in neonates or infants and more than 14 days in children and adolescents. But regardless of patient age, the PICC caliber must be at least 3F.

The miniMAGIC panel found that a single lumen is appropriate in most cases, highlighting that multilumen catheters increase the risk for infection, occlusion, and venous thrombosis.⁴ Multilumen catheters were rated as inappropriate in the case of reserving a lumen for blood products and blood sampling. When reserving a lumen for lipids and parenteral nutrition (PN), the panel was uncertain given the lack of evidence regarding the risks/benefits of the complications associated with the infusions themselves versus those of the device. Regardless, collaboration with a pharmacist and vascular access specialist is recommended to aid in choosing the most appropriate device characteristics.

Midline Catheters

Midline catheters are inserted in a peripheral vein, but the catheter tip terminates in the proximal extremity. Compared with peripheral IV catheters, midline catheters last longer and have lower rates of phlebitis. In addition, midline catheter placement does not require sedation or fluoroscopy and has lower rates of infection compared with PICC lines.⁹ Although there is good evidence in adults, and multiple panelists reported success in using midline catheters in various age groups, the evidence for their safe and efficacious use in pediatrics is limited, particularly for infants. Midline catheters were rated as appropriate for peripheral therapy lasting less than 8 days in neonates and less than 15 days in children and adolescents. Use in infants was deemed uncertain based on lack of published evidence. Midline catheters were also rated as appropriate for frequent blood draws of less than 8 days in neonates and less than 15 days in adolescents, but uncertain for children and infants.

Difficult Access and Insertion Procedure

The panel rated three or more attempts for peripheral IV catheter insertion by a single clinician as inappropriate and recommended early escalation to a more experienced inserter after 0 to 2 attempts by a single provider. The goal is to preserve insertion sites and reduce patient discomfort. If a patient loses access when only 1 day of therapy remains, the provider should transition to oral or intramuscular therapy when appropriate, particularly if there are no advanced insertion staff available or after two or more attempts at re-insertion are unsuccessful. There is high-quality evidence that supports vessel visualization (primarily ultrasound) with peripheral IV catheter and PICC placement.² In the case of two or more unsuccessful attempts at peripheral IV catheter placement by an advanced inserter using technology assistance (ultrasound), PICC placement is considered appropriate by the panel to avoid delays in treatment and limit patient discomfort associated with repeat attempts.

Long-term Vascular Access

Children with medical complexity or chronic illness may require long-term (>2 months) or very-long-term (>1 year) vascular access. Common themes for VAD selection in this heterogeneous population include a focus on vessel preservation and complication prevention.² The panel strongly recommended that clinicians partner with the patient and caregivers in the decision-making process. Shared decision-making is necessary to meet both the short-term and evolving needs of the of the patient and family. The panel also believed the frequency of hospitalization should not be used as a criterion for VAD selection since acute hospitalization is an unreliable proxy for disease severity in pediatric chronic disease conditions.² Rather, the infusate characteristics and length/intermittency of therapy should be primary influencers of VAD selection. In general, the panel rated cuffed tunneled central VADs (CVADs) as appropriate for all age groups for long-term PN, long-term continuous infusions, and long-term intermittent therapies. For continuous non-PN infusions, appropriate ratings were given to PICCs for infants and children and total implanted venous devices (TIVDs) in children and adolescents. For intermittent (but at least daily) access, TIVDs and PICC lines were both rated as appropriate for children and adolescents but uncertain for neonates and infants. Peripheral devices were deemed inappropriate for all long-term complex therapies. For children and adolescents needing intermittent, regular peripheral treatments (eg, steroids or antibiotics), peripheral IVs and TIVDs were rated appropriate for short duration (<7 days) therapies. PICCs and midlines for this indication were uncertain because of the lack of evidence. For medium-duration intermittent therapies (8-14 days), PICCs, tunneled cuffed CVADs, and TIVDs were rated as appropriate. A recently released mobile application can help guide the clinician through many varied clinical scenarios and indications.¹⁰

The guideline recommendations were more often reliant on clinical practice guidelines and expert panel opinion given the lack of high-quality pediatric evidence for most scenarios. The panel members were from the United States and Australia, so the recommendations may not be generalizable to care systems in other countries. Although the panel included experts from many specialties that care for patient populations needing VADs, not all subspecialty populations were considered, particularly those with long-term vascular access–dependent conditions who may be commonly hospitalized. Scenarios with disagreement or uncertainty highlight gaps in need of future study (eg, midline catheter use and device selection for blood draws).

miniMAGIC is the first appropriateness guideline to help standardize the safe use of VADs in children. Although some gaps remain, the authors intend it to be a living document that will need revisions as new evidence is published. A mobile health application facilitates use of the recommendations, providing quick, point-of-care decision support based on clinical features.¹⁰ Pediatric hospitalists should collaborate with their institutions to examine their current VAD use in hospitalized children and identify opportunities for practice change and standardization. Use of these recommendations may help hospitalists improve the care of hospitalized children by decreasing unnecessary PICC placement and better partner with patients and caregivers to limit discomfort surrounding VAD placement.

In recent years, mounting evidence has emerged questioning the practice of using prolonged intravenous antibiotic therapy to treat certain serious bacterial infections in children, including complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia. Historically, treatment of these conditions was often completed intravenously after hospital discharge using peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs). Line infections, clots, mechanical problems, and general discomfort complicate PICCs, which led to their removal in more than 20% of children in one study.¹ Oral antibiotics avoid these complications and are less burdensome to families.² Recently, a series of multicenter studies showed no difference in outcomes between oral and postdischarge intravenous antibiotic therapy (PD-IV) for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia.^3-5

Despite a growing body of evidence suggesting that oral therapy ought to be the default treatment strategy rather than PD-IV, the extent to which practices have changed is unknown. In this study, we measured national trends in PD-IV use and variation by hospital for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia.

We performed a retrospective cohort study of children discharged from hospitals that contributed data to the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database from January 2000 through December 2018. PHIS is an administrative database of children’s hospitals managed by the Children’s Hospital Association (Lenexa, Kansas) and contains deidentified patient-­level demographic data, discharge diagnosis and procedure codes, and detailed billing information, including medical supply charges.

The cohorts were defined using International Classification of Diseases, 9th and 10th Revisions (ICD-9 and ICD-10) discharge diagnosis and procedure codes. Patients admitted through September 2015 were identified using ICD-9 codes and patients admitted from October 2015 through December 2018 were identified using ICD-10 codes. The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services crosswalk was used to align ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes.⁶ Inclusion and exclusion criteria identifying cohorts of children hospitalized for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, or complicated pneumonia were based on prior studies using the PHIS database.^3-5 These studies augmented the PHIS administrative dataset with local chart review to identify patients from 2009-2012 with the following inclusion and exclusion criteria: Patients with complicated appendicitis were defined by a diagnosis code for acute appendicitis and a procedure code for appendectomy, with postoperative length of stay lasting between 3 and 7 days. Patients with osteomyelitis had a diagnosis code of acute or unspecified osteomyelitis with a hospital length of stay between 2 and 14 days. Patients with complicated pneumonia were defined by a diagnosis code for both pneumonia and pleural effusion with one of these as the primary diagnosis. Patients were excluded if they were older than 18 years or if they were younger than 2 months for osteomyelitis and complicated pneumonia or younger than 3 years for appendicitis. For all three conditions, children with a complex chronic condition⁷ were excluded. Only the index encounter meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria for each patient was included. PD-IV therapy was defined using procedure codes and hospital charges during the index hospitalization. This definition for PD-IV therapy has been validated among children with complicated pneumonia, demonstrating positive and negative predictive values for PICC exposure of 85% and 99%, respectively.⁸

Trends in the percentage of patients receiving PD-IV were adjusted for age, race, insurance type, intensive care unit days, and hospital-level case mix index with use of Poisson regression. Calculated risk ratios represent the change in PD-IV across the entire 19-year study period for each condition (as opposed to an annual rate of change). An inflection point for each condition was identified using piecewise linear regression in which the line slope has one value up to a point in time and a second value after that point. The transition point is determined by maximizing model fit.

Some hospitals were added to the database throughout the time period and therefore did not have data for all years of the study. To account for the possibility of a group of high– or low–PD-IV use hospitals entering the cohort and biasing the overall trend, we performed a sensitivity analysis restricted to hospitals continuously contributing data to PHIS every year between 2004 (when a majority of hospitals joined PHIS) and 2018. Significance testing for individual hospital trends was conducted among continuously contributing hospitals, with each hospital tested in the above Poisson model independently.

For the most recent year of 2018, we reported the distribution of adjusted percentages of PD-IV at the individual hospital level. Only hospitals with at least five patients for a given condition are included in the percent PD-IV calculations for 2018. To examine the extent to which an individual hospital might be a low– or high–PD-IV user across conditions, we divided hospitals into quartiles based on PD-IV use for each condition in 2017-2018 and calculated the percent of hospitals in the lowest- and highest-use quartiles for all three conditions. All statistics were performed using Stata 15 (StataCorp).

Among 52 hospitals over a 19-year study period, there were 60,575 hospitalizations for complicated appendicitis, 24,753 hospitalizations for osteomyelitis, and 13,700 hospitalizations for complicated pneumonia. From 2000 to 2018, PD-IV decreased from 13% to 2% (RR, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.14-0.16) for complicated appendicitis, from 61% to 22% (RR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.39-0.43) for osteomyelitis, and from 29% to 19% (RR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.58-0.69) for complicated pneumonia (Figure 1). The inflection points occurred in 2009 for complicated appendicitis, 2009 for complicated pneumonia, and 2010 for osteomyelitis. The sensitivity analysis included 31 hospitals that contributed data to PHIS for every year between 2004-2018 and revealed similar findings for all three conditions: Complicated appendicitis had an RR of 0.15 (95% CI, 0.14-0.17), osteomyelitis had an RR of 0.34 (95% CI, 0.32-0.36), and complicated pneumonia had an RR of 0.55 (95% CI, 0.49-0.61). Most individual hospitals decreased PD-IV use (complicated appendicitis: 21 decreased, 8 no change, 2 increased; osteomyelitis: 25 decreased, 6 no change; complicated pneumonia: 14 decreased, 16 no change, 1 increased). While overall decreases in PD-IV were observed for all three conditions, considerable variation remained in 2018 for use of PD-IV (Figure 2), particularly for osteomyelitis (median, 18%; interquartile range [IQR] 9%-40%) and complicated pneumonia (median, 13%; IQR, 3%-30%). In 2017-2018, 1 out of 52 hospitals was in the lowest PD-IV–use quartile for all three conditions, and three hospitals were in the highest-use quartile for all three conditions.

Over a 19-year period, we observed a national decline in use of PD-IV for three serious and common bacterial infections. The decline in PD-IV is notable given that it has occurred largely in the absence of nationally coordinated guidelines or improvement efforts. Despite the overall declines, substantial variation in the use of PD-IV for these conditions persists across children’s hospitals.

The observed decrease in PD-IV use is a natural example of deimplementation, the abandonment of medical practices found to be harmful or ineffective.⁹ What is most compelling about the deimplementation of PD-IV for these infectious conditions is the seemingly organic motivation that propelled it. Studies of physician practice patterns for interventions that have undergone evidence reversals demonstrate that physicians might readily implement new interventions with an early evidence base but be less willing to deimplement them when more definitive evidence later questions their efficacy.¹⁰ Therefore, concerted improvement efforts backed by national guidelines are often needed to reduce the use of a widely accepted medical practice. For example, as evidence questioning the efficacy of steroid use in bronchiolitis mounted,¹¹ bronchiolitis guidelines recommended against steroid use¹² and a national quality improvement effort led to reductions in exposure to steroids among patients hospitalized with bronchiolitis.¹³ Complicated intra-abdominal infection guidelines acknowledge oral antibiotic therapy as an option,¹⁴ but no such national guidelines or improvement projects exist for osteomyelitis or complicated pneumonia PD-IV.

What is it about PD-IV for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia that fostered the observed organic deimplementation? Our findings that few hospitals were in the top or bottom quartile of PD-IV across all three conditions suggest that the impetus to decrease PD-IV was not likely the product of a broad hospital-wide practice shift. Most deimplementation frameworks suggest that successful deimplementation must be supported by high-quality evidence that the intervention is not only ineffective, but also harmful.¹⁵ In this case, the inflection point for osteomyelitis occurred in 2009, the same year that the first large multicenter study suggesting efficacy and decreased complications of early oral therapy for osteomyelitis was published.¹⁶ A direct link between a publication and inflection points for complicated pneumonia and appendicitis is less clear. It is possible that growth of the field of pediatric hospital medicine,¹⁷ with a stated emphasis on healthcare value,¹⁸ played a role. Greater understanding of the drivers and barriers to deimplementation in this and similar contexts will be important.

Our study has some important limitations. While inclusion and exclusion criteria were consistent over the study period, practice patterns (ie, length of stay in uncomplicated patients) change and could alter the case-mix of patients over time. Additionally, the PHIS database largely comprises children’s hospitals, and the trends we observed in PD-IV may not generalize to community settings.

The degree of deimplementation of PD-IV observed across children’s hospitals is impressive, but opportunity for further improvement likely remains. We found that marked hospital-­level variation in use of PD-IV still exists, with some hospitals almost never using PD-IV and others using it for most patients. While the ideal amount of PD-IV is probably not zero, a portion of the observed variation likely represents overuse of PD-IV. To reduce costs and complications associated with antibiotic therapy, national guidelines and a targeted national improvement collaborative may be necessary to achieve further reductions in PD-IV.

In recent years, mounting evidence has emerged questioning the practice of using prolonged intravenous antibiotic therapy to treat certain serious bacterial infections in children, including complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia. Historically, treatment of these conditions was often completed intravenously after hospital discharge using peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs). Line infections, clots, mechanical problems, and general discomfort complicate PICCs, which led to their removal in more than 20% of children in one study.¹ Oral antibiotics avoid these complications and are less burdensome to families.² Recently, a series of multicenter studies showed no difference in outcomes between oral and postdischarge intravenous antibiotic therapy (PD-IV) for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia.^3-5

Despite a growing body of evidence suggesting that oral therapy ought to be the default treatment strategy rather than PD-IV, the extent to which practices have changed is unknown. In this study, we measured national trends in PD-IV use and variation by hospital for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia.

We performed a retrospective cohort study of children discharged from hospitals that contributed data to the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database from January 2000 through December 2018. PHIS is an administrative database of children’s hospitals managed by the Children’s Hospital Association (Lenexa, Kansas) and contains deidentified patient-­level demographic data, discharge diagnosis and procedure codes, and detailed billing information, including medical supply charges.

The cohorts were defined using International Classification of Diseases, 9th and 10th Revisions (ICD-9 and ICD-10) discharge diagnosis and procedure codes. Patients admitted through September 2015 were identified using ICD-9 codes and patients admitted from October 2015 through December 2018 were identified using ICD-10 codes. The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services crosswalk was used to align ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes.⁶ Inclusion and exclusion criteria identifying cohorts of children hospitalized for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, or complicated pneumonia were based on prior studies using the PHIS database.^3-5 These studies augmented the PHIS administrative dataset with local chart review to identify patients from 2009-2012 with the following inclusion and exclusion criteria: Patients with complicated appendicitis were defined by a diagnosis code for acute appendicitis and a procedure code for appendectomy, with postoperative length of stay lasting between 3 and 7 days. Patients with osteomyelitis had a diagnosis code of acute or unspecified osteomyelitis with a hospital length of stay between 2 and 14 days. Patients with complicated pneumonia were defined by a diagnosis code for both pneumonia and pleural effusion with one of these as the primary diagnosis. Patients were excluded if they were older than 18 years or if they were younger than 2 months for osteomyelitis and complicated pneumonia or younger than 3 years for appendicitis. For all three conditions, children with a complex chronic condition⁷ were excluded. Only the index encounter meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria for each patient was included. PD-IV therapy was defined using procedure codes and hospital charges during the index hospitalization. This definition for PD-IV therapy has been validated among children with complicated pneumonia, demonstrating positive and negative predictive values for PICC exposure of 85% and 99%, respectively.⁸

Trends in the percentage of patients receiving PD-IV were adjusted for age, race, insurance type, intensive care unit days, and hospital-level case mix index with use of Poisson regression. Calculated risk ratios represent the change in PD-IV across the entire 19-year study period for each condition (as opposed to an annual rate of change). An inflection point for each condition was identified using piecewise linear regression in which the line slope has one value up to a point in time and a second value after that point. The transition point is determined by maximizing model fit.

Some hospitals were added to the database throughout the time period and therefore did not have data for all years of the study. To account for the possibility of a group of high– or low–PD-IV use hospitals entering the cohort and biasing the overall trend, we performed a sensitivity analysis restricted to hospitals continuously contributing data to PHIS every year between 2004 (when a majority of hospitals joined PHIS) and 2018. Significance testing for individual hospital trends was conducted among continuously contributing hospitals, with each hospital tested in the above Poisson model independently.

For the most recent year of 2018, we reported the distribution of adjusted percentages of PD-IV at the individual hospital level. Only hospitals with at least five patients for a given condition are included in the percent PD-IV calculations for 2018. To examine the extent to which an individual hospital might be a low– or high–PD-IV user across conditions, we divided hospitals into quartiles based on PD-IV use for each condition in 2017-2018 and calculated the percent of hospitals in the lowest- and highest-use quartiles for all three conditions. All statistics were performed using Stata 15 (StataCorp).

Among 52 hospitals over a 19-year study period, there were 60,575 hospitalizations for complicated appendicitis, 24,753 hospitalizations for osteomyelitis, and 13,700 hospitalizations for complicated pneumonia. From 2000 to 2018, PD-IV decreased from 13% to 2% (RR, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.14-0.16) for complicated appendicitis, from 61% to 22% (RR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.39-0.43) for osteomyelitis, and from 29% to 19% (RR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.58-0.69) for complicated pneumonia (Figure 1). The inflection points occurred in 2009 for complicated appendicitis, 2009 for complicated pneumonia, and 2010 for osteomyelitis. The sensitivity analysis included 31 hospitals that contributed data to PHIS for every year between 2004-2018 and revealed similar findings for all three conditions: Complicated appendicitis had an RR of 0.15 (95% CI, 0.14-0.17), osteomyelitis had an RR of 0.34 (95% CI, 0.32-0.36), and complicated pneumonia had an RR of 0.55 (95% CI, 0.49-0.61). Most individual hospitals decreased PD-IV use (complicated appendicitis: 21 decreased, 8 no change, 2 increased; osteomyelitis: 25 decreased, 6 no change; complicated pneumonia: 14 decreased, 16 no change, 1 increased). While overall decreases in PD-IV were observed for all three conditions, considerable variation remained in 2018 for use of PD-IV (Figure 2), particularly for osteomyelitis (median, 18%; interquartile range [IQR] 9%-40%) and complicated pneumonia (median, 13%; IQR, 3%-30%). In 2017-2018, 1 out of 52 hospitals was in the lowest PD-IV–use quartile for all three conditions, and three hospitals were in the highest-use quartile for all three conditions.

Over a 19-year period, we observed a national decline in use of PD-IV for three serious and common bacterial infections. The decline in PD-IV is notable given that it has occurred largely in the absence of nationally coordinated guidelines or improvement efforts. Despite the overall declines, substantial variation in the use of PD-IV for these conditions persists across children’s hospitals.

The observed decrease in PD-IV use is a natural example of deimplementation, the abandonment of medical practices found to be harmful or ineffective.⁹ What is most compelling about the deimplementation of PD-IV for these infectious conditions is the seemingly organic motivation that propelled it. Studies of physician practice patterns for interventions that have undergone evidence reversals demonstrate that physicians might readily implement new interventions with an early evidence base but be less willing to deimplement them when more definitive evidence later questions their efficacy.¹⁰ Therefore, concerted improvement efforts backed by national guidelines are often needed to reduce the use of a widely accepted medical practice. For example, as evidence questioning the efficacy of steroid use in bronchiolitis mounted,¹¹ bronchiolitis guidelines recommended against steroid use¹² and a national quality improvement effort led to reductions in exposure to steroids among patients hospitalized with bronchiolitis.¹³ Complicated intra-abdominal infection guidelines acknowledge oral antibiotic therapy as an option,¹⁴ but no such national guidelines or improvement projects exist for osteomyelitis or complicated pneumonia PD-IV.

What is it about PD-IV for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia that fostered the observed organic deimplementation? Our findings that few hospitals were in the top or bottom quartile of PD-IV across all three conditions suggest that the impetus to decrease PD-IV was not likely the product of a broad hospital-wide practice shift. Most deimplementation frameworks suggest that successful deimplementation must be supported by high-quality evidence that the intervention is not only ineffective, but also harmful.¹⁵ In this case, the inflection point for osteomyelitis occurred in 2009, the same year that the first large multicenter study suggesting efficacy and decreased complications of early oral therapy for osteomyelitis was published.¹⁶ A direct link between a publication and inflection points for complicated pneumonia and appendicitis is less clear. It is possible that growth of the field of pediatric hospital medicine,¹⁷ with a stated emphasis on healthcare value,¹⁸ played a role. Greater understanding of the drivers and barriers to deimplementation in this and similar contexts will be important.

Our study has some important limitations. While inclusion and exclusion criteria were consistent over the study period, practice patterns (ie, length of stay in uncomplicated patients) change and could alter the case-mix of patients over time. Additionally, the PHIS database largely comprises children’s hospitals, and the trends we observed in PD-IV may not generalize to community settings.

The degree of deimplementation of PD-IV observed across children’s hospitals is impressive, but opportunity for further improvement likely remains. We found that marked hospital-­level variation in use of PD-IV still exists, with some hospitals almost never using PD-IV and others using it for most patients. While the ideal amount of PD-IV is probably not zero, a portion of the observed variation likely represents overuse of PD-IV. To reduce costs and complications associated with antibiotic therapy, national guidelines and a targeted national improvement collaborative may be necessary to achieve further reductions in PD-IV.

In recent years, mounting evidence has emerged questioning the practice of using prolonged intravenous antibiotic therapy to treat certain serious bacterial infections in children, including complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia. Historically, treatment of these conditions was often completed intravenously after hospital discharge using peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs). Line infections, clots, mechanical problems, and general discomfort complicate PICCs, which led to their removal in more than 20% of children in one study.¹ Oral antibiotics avoid these complications and are less burdensome to families.² Recently, a series of multicenter studies showed no difference in outcomes between oral and postdischarge intravenous antibiotic therapy (PD-IV) for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia.^3-5

Despite a growing body of evidence suggesting that oral therapy ought to be the default treatment strategy rather than PD-IV, the extent to which practices have changed is unknown. In this study, we measured national trends in PD-IV use and variation by hospital for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia.

We performed a retrospective cohort study of children discharged from hospitals that contributed data to the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database from January 2000 through December 2018. PHIS is an administrative database of children’s hospitals managed by the Children’s Hospital Association (Lenexa, Kansas) and contains deidentified patient-­level demographic data, discharge diagnosis and procedure codes, and detailed billing information, including medical supply charges.

The cohorts were defined using International Classification of Diseases, 9th and 10th Revisions (ICD-9 and ICD-10) discharge diagnosis and procedure codes. Patients admitted through September 2015 were identified using ICD-9 codes and patients admitted from October 2015 through December 2018 were identified using ICD-10 codes. The Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services crosswalk was used to align ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes.⁶ Inclusion and exclusion criteria identifying cohorts of children hospitalized for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, or complicated pneumonia were based on prior studies using the PHIS database.^3-5 These studies augmented the PHIS administrative dataset with local chart review to identify patients from 2009-2012 with the following inclusion and exclusion criteria: Patients with complicated appendicitis were defined by a diagnosis code for acute appendicitis and a procedure code for appendectomy, with postoperative length of stay lasting between 3 and 7 days. Patients with osteomyelitis had a diagnosis code of acute or unspecified osteomyelitis with a hospital length of stay between 2 and 14 days. Patients with complicated pneumonia were defined by a diagnosis code for both pneumonia and pleural effusion with one of these as the primary diagnosis. Patients were excluded if they were older than 18 years or if they were younger than 2 months for osteomyelitis and complicated pneumonia or younger than 3 years for appendicitis. For all three conditions, children with a complex chronic condition⁷ were excluded. Only the index encounter meeting inclusion and exclusion criteria for each patient was included. PD-IV therapy was defined using procedure codes and hospital charges during the index hospitalization. This definition for PD-IV therapy has been validated among children with complicated pneumonia, demonstrating positive and negative predictive values for PICC exposure of 85% and 99%, respectively.⁸

Trends in the percentage of patients receiving PD-IV were adjusted for age, race, insurance type, intensive care unit days, and hospital-level case mix index with use of Poisson regression. Calculated risk ratios represent the change in PD-IV across the entire 19-year study period for each condition (as opposed to an annual rate of change). An inflection point for each condition was identified using piecewise linear regression in which the line slope has one value up to a point in time and a second value after that point. The transition point is determined by maximizing model fit.

Some hospitals were added to the database throughout the time period and therefore did not have data for all years of the study. To account for the possibility of a group of high– or low–PD-IV use hospitals entering the cohort and biasing the overall trend, we performed a sensitivity analysis restricted to hospitals continuously contributing data to PHIS every year between 2004 (when a majority of hospitals joined PHIS) and 2018. Significance testing for individual hospital trends was conducted among continuously contributing hospitals, with each hospital tested in the above Poisson model independently.

For the most recent year of 2018, we reported the distribution of adjusted percentages of PD-IV at the individual hospital level. Only hospitals with at least five patients for a given condition are included in the percent PD-IV calculations for 2018. To examine the extent to which an individual hospital might be a low– or high–PD-IV user across conditions, we divided hospitals into quartiles based on PD-IV use for each condition in 2017-2018 and calculated the percent of hospitals in the lowest- and highest-use quartiles for all three conditions. All statistics were performed using Stata 15 (StataCorp).

Among 52 hospitals over a 19-year study period, there were 60,575 hospitalizations for complicated appendicitis, 24,753 hospitalizations for osteomyelitis, and 13,700 hospitalizations for complicated pneumonia. From 2000 to 2018, PD-IV decreased from 13% to 2% (RR, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.14-0.16) for complicated appendicitis, from 61% to 22% (RR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.39-0.43) for osteomyelitis, and from 29% to 19% (RR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.58-0.69) for complicated pneumonia (Figure 1). The inflection points occurred in 2009 for complicated appendicitis, 2009 for complicated pneumonia, and 2010 for osteomyelitis. The sensitivity analysis included 31 hospitals that contributed data to PHIS for every year between 2004-2018 and revealed similar findings for all three conditions: Complicated appendicitis had an RR of 0.15 (95% CI, 0.14-0.17), osteomyelitis had an RR of 0.34 (95% CI, 0.32-0.36), and complicated pneumonia had an RR of 0.55 (95% CI, 0.49-0.61). Most individual hospitals decreased PD-IV use (complicated appendicitis: 21 decreased, 8 no change, 2 increased; osteomyelitis: 25 decreased, 6 no change; complicated pneumonia: 14 decreased, 16 no change, 1 increased). While overall decreases in PD-IV were observed for all three conditions, considerable variation remained in 2018 for use of PD-IV (Figure 2), particularly for osteomyelitis (median, 18%; interquartile range [IQR] 9%-40%) and complicated pneumonia (median, 13%; IQR, 3%-30%). In 2017-2018, 1 out of 52 hospitals was in the lowest PD-IV–use quartile for all three conditions, and three hospitals were in the highest-use quartile for all three conditions.

Over a 19-year period, we observed a national decline in use of PD-IV for three serious and common bacterial infections. The decline in PD-IV is notable given that it has occurred largely in the absence of nationally coordinated guidelines or improvement efforts. Despite the overall declines, substantial variation in the use of PD-IV for these conditions persists across children’s hospitals.

The observed decrease in PD-IV use is a natural example of deimplementation, the abandonment of medical practices found to be harmful or ineffective.⁹ What is most compelling about the deimplementation of PD-IV for these infectious conditions is the seemingly organic motivation that propelled it. Studies of physician practice patterns for interventions that have undergone evidence reversals demonstrate that physicians might readily implement new interventions with an early evidence base but be less willing to deimplement them when more definitive evidence later questions their efficacy.¹⁰ Therefore, concerted improvement efforts backed by national guidelines are often needed to reduce the use of a widely accepted medical practice. For example, as evidence questioning the efficacy of steroid use in bronchiolitis mounted,¹¹ bronchiolitis guidelines recommended against steroid use¹² and a national quality improvement effort led to reductions in exposure to steroids among patients hospitalized with bronchiolitis.¹³ Complicated intra-abdominal infection guidelines acknowledge oral antibiotic therapy as an option,¹⁴ but no such national guidelines or improvement projects exist for osteomyelitis or complicated pneumonia PD-IV.

What is it about PD-IV for complicated appendicitis, osteomyelitis, and complicated pneumonia that fostered the observed organic deimplementation? Our findings that few hospitals were in the top or bottom quartile of PD-IV across all three conditions suggest that the impetus to decrease PD-IV was not likely the product of a broad hospital-wide practice shift. Most deimplementation frameworks suggest that successful deimplementation must be supported by high-quality evidence that the intervention is not only ineffective, but also harmful.¹⁵ In this case, the inflection point for osteomyelitis occurred in 2009, the same year that the first large multicenter study suggesting efficacy and decreased complications of early oral therapy for osteomyelitis was published.¹⁶ A direct link between a publication and inflection points for complicated pneumonia and appendicitis is less clear. It is possible that growth of the field of pediatric hospital medicine,¹⁷ with a stated emphasis on healthcare value,¹⁸ played a role. Greater understanding of the drivers and barriers to deimplementation in this and similar contexts will be important.

Our study has some important limitations. While inclusion and exclusion criteria were consistent over the study period, practice patterns (ie, length of stay in uncomplicated patients) change and could alter the case-mix of patients over time. Additionally, the PHIS database largely comprises children’s hospitals, and the trends we observed in PD-IV may not generalize to community settings.

The degree of deimplementation of PD-IV observed across children’s hospitals is impressive, but opportunity for further improvement likely remains. We found that marked hospital-­level variation in use of PD-IV still exists, with some hospitals almost never using PD-IV and others using it for most patients. While the ideal amount of PD-IV is probably not zero, a portion of the observed variation likely represents overuse of PD-IV. To reduce costs and complications associated with antibiotic therapy, national guidelines and a targeted national improvement collaborative may be necessary to achieve further reductions in PD-IV.