Pediatric Emergency Department Quality Study in Pulmonary Medicine

Pediatric Emergency Department Quality Study in Pulmonary Medicine San Juan de Dios Hospital is a Catholic teaching hospital in Barcelona, Spain that specializes in pediatrics, obstetrics, and gynecology. It receives a substantial number of pediatric emergency visits numbering approximately 200 a week. While enrolled in the Wagner semester abroad program at partner school ESADE, the Capstone student was asked to design and implement a quality study in the pediatric emergency department. The study was based on four quality indicators for pulmonary medicine and was conducted in two phases from October through December 2003. The purpose was to identify areas that were “in need of improvement” as well as areas that scored a “satisfactory” when treating children with breathing difficulty due to bronchial asthma, bronchitis, community acquired pneumonia, and/or laryngitis. The quality study was a pilot study for a continuous quality improvement initiative in the pediatric emergency department.