Pediatric Bronchiolitis Clinical Pathways

Children’s Hospital Colorado’s bronchiolitis clinical pathways provide guidance on the management of patients with acute viral bronchiolitis. The pathways:

• Facilitate the avoidance of unnecessary interventions
• Optimize communication among care team members
• Offer a standardized approach to escalating or de-escalating support based on illness severity

Access our pediatric bronchiolitis clinical pathways

Use the links below to access the pathways on AgileMD

• Bronchiolitis | ED/UC
• Bronchiolitis | Inpatient
• Bronchiolitis | Hydration for Patients with Bronchiolitis
• Bronchiolitis | Heated High Flow Nasal Canula Weaning for Patients with Bronchiolitis
• Bronchiolitis | Primary Care
• Pediatric Care Network (PCN): Home Oxygen in Primary Care Setting for Patient with Bronchiolitis
• Pediatric Care Network (PCN): Home Oxygen Weaning or Discontinuation in Primary Care Setting for Patients with Bronchiolitis

About our pediatric bronchiolitis clinical pathways

The bronchiolitis pathways offer best practice recommendations for patients with acute viral bronchiolitis. They were created by our multidisciplinary team of content experts, including primary care, emergency and pediatric hospital medicine providers, as well as nurses, respiratory therapists and process improvement professionals. Our teams reviewed available published literature and integrated local expert opinion when necessary.

The pathways use the best available evidence to offer a standardized approach to caring for patients with acute viral bronchiolitis and reducing unnecessary variation.

Highlights include:

• A new ambulatory algorithm
• A new hydration algorithm
• Reminders about non-recommended tests and treatments along with a brief evidence summary
• Reminders to do a diagnostic time-out and consider red flags
• A new inpatient serial assessment tool that can be used to assign a concern level of low, medium or high to patients on the pathway to:
  • Create a shared mental model around illness severity
  • Standardize assessment timing
  • Guide escalation and de-escalation of support
• A new high-flow nasal canula (HFNC) weaning algorithm to standardize a multidisciplinary approach to weaning patients from HFNC

The goal of the Agile MD format for these clinical pathways is to optimize evidence-based care for patients while improving workflow and enhancing the care team dynamic.