Paul Hain, MD

Although bronchiolitis is the leading cause of hospitalization for US infants,[1] there is a lack of basic prospective data about the expected inpatient clinical course and ongoing uncertainty about when a hospitalized child is ready for discharge to home.[2] This lack of data about children's readiness for discharge may result in variable hospital length‐of‐stay (LOS).[3, 4, 5]

One specific source of variability in discharge readiness and LOS variability may be the lack of consensus about safe threshold oxygen saturation values for discharge in children hospitalized with bronchiolitis.[6, 7] In 2006, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network recommended a discharge room air oxygen (RAO2) saturation threshold of 95%.[8] The same year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) bronchiolitis clinical practice guideline stated that oxygen is not needed for children with RAO2 saturations 90% who are feeding well and have minimal respiratory distress.[9] There is a need for prospective studies to help clinicians make evidenced‐based discharge decisions for this common condition.

We performed a prospective, multicenter, multiyear study[10, 11, 12] to examine the typical inpatient clinical course of and to develop hospital discharge guidelines for children age <2 years hospitalized with bronchiolitis. We hypothesized that children would not worsen clinically and would be safe to discharge home once their respiratory status improved and they were able to remain hydrated.

METHODS

RESULTS

There were 1916 children hospitalized with bronchiolitis with data on all factors used to define clinical improvement and clinical worsening. The median number of days from the beginning of difficulty breathing until admission was 2 days (IQR, 15.5 days; range, 18 days) and from the beginning of difficulty breathing until clinical improvement was 4 days (IQR, 37.5 days; range, 133 days) (Figure 1). The variance for days to admission was significantly less than the variance for days to clinical improvement (P<0.001).

Figure 1

In this observational study, clinicians discharged 214 (11%) of the 1916 children before meeting the definition of clinical improvement. Thus, 1702 (89%; 95% CI: 87%‐90%) children reached the clinical improvement criteria, had a LOS >1 day, and had data on all factors (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Of the 1702 children who met the clinical improvement criteria, there were 76 children (4%; 95% CI: 3%5%) who worsened (Figure 2). The worsening occurred within a median of 1 day (IQR, 13 days) of clinical improvement. Forty‐six (3%) of the children required transfer to the ICU (1 required intubation, 1 required continuous positive airway pressure, and 4 had apnea), 23 (1%) required oxygen, and 17 (1%) required IV fluids. Eight percent of children met multiple criteria for worsening. A comparison between children who did and did not worsen is shown in Table 1. In general, children who worsened after improvement were younger and born earlier. These children also presented in more severe respiratory distress, had moderate or severe retractions, oxygen saturation <85% at hospitalization, inadequate oral intake, and apnea documented during the hospitalization. Neither viral etiology nor site of care influenced whether the children worsened after improving. However, stratified analysis of children based on initial location of admission (ie, ICU or ward) showed that among the children admitted to the ICU from the emergency department (ED), 89% met the improvement criteria and 19% clinically worsened. In contrast, among children admitted to the ward from the ED, 89% met the improvement criteria, and only 2% clinically worsened. Stratified multivariable models based on the initial location of admission from the ED (ie, ICU or ward) were not possible due to small sample sizes after stratification. None of these children had relapse events requiring rehospitalization within either 24 hours or 7 days of discharge.

On multivariable analysis (Table 2), independent risk factors for worsening after reaching the clinical improvement criteria were young age, preterm birth, and presenting to care with more severe bronchiolitis represented by severe retractions, inadequate oral intake, or apnea. To further evaluate the improvement criteria in the current analysis, multiple sensitivity analyses were conducted. The frequency of clinical worsening after reaching the improvement criteria was stable when we examined different RA02 criteria in sensitivity analyses: (1) excluding RA02 as a criterion for improvement: 90% met improvement criteria and 4% experienced clinical worsening, (2) changing the average RA02 threshold for clinical improvement to 94%: 62% met improvement criteria and 6% experienced clinical worsening, and (3) changing the average RA02 threshold for clinical improvement to 95%: 47% met improvement criteria and 5% experienced clinical worsening. Furthermore, stratifying by age <2 months and restricting to more stringent definitions of bronchiolitis (ie, age <1 year or age <1 year+no history of wheezing) also did not materially change the results (see Supporting Figure 1 in the online version of this article).

We compared the 214 children who were discharged prior to reaching clinical improvement with the 1702 children who reached the clinical improvement criteria. The 214 children were less likely to be age <2 months (22% vs 30%; P=0.02). These 2 groups (214 vs 1702) were similar with respect to severe retractions (2% vs 4%; P=0.13), median respiratory rate (48 vs 48; P=0.42), oxygen saturation <90% (15% vs 11%; P=0.07), inadequate oral intake (50% vs 43%; P=0.13), and rates of relapse events requiring rehospitalization within both 24 hours (0.6% vs 0.6%; P=0.88) and 7 days (1% vs 1%; P=0.90) of discharge.

DISCUSSION

In this large, multicenter, multiyear study of children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, we found that children present to a hospital in a relatively narrow time frame, but their time to recovery in the hospital is highly variable. Nonetheless, 96% of children continued to improve once they had: (1) improving or stable retractions rated as none/mild, (2) a decreasing or stable RR by age, (3) estimated average RAO2 saturation 90% and lowest RAO2 saturation of 88%, and (4) were hydrated. The 4% of children who worsened after clinically improving were more likely to be age <2 months, born <37 weeks, and present with more severe distress (ie, severe retractions, inadequate oral intake, or apnea). Based on the low risk of worsening after clinical improvement, especially among children admitted to the regular ward (2%), we believe these 4 clinical criteria could be used as discharge criteria for this common pediatric illness with a predominantly monophasic clinical course.

Variability in hospital LOS for children with bronchiolitis exists in the United States[3] and internationally.[4, 5] Cheung and colleagues analyzed administrative data from over 75,000 children admitted for bronchiolitis in England between April 2007 and March 2010 and found sixfold variation in LOS between sites. They concluded that this LOS variability was due in part to providers' clinical decision making.[5] Srivastava and colleagues[23] addressed variable clinician decision making in bronchiolitis and 10 other common pediatric conditions by embedding discharge criteria developed by expert consensus into admission order sets. They found that for children with bronchiolitis, the embedded discharge criteria reduced the median LOS from 1.91 to 1.87 days. In contrast to the single‐center data presented by White and colleagues,[24] the prospective, multicenter MARC‐30 data provide a clear understanding of the normal clinical course for children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, determine if children clinically worsen after clinical improvement, and provide data about discharge criteria for children hospitalized with bronchiolitis. Although there is a lack of rigorous published data, the lower tract symptoms of bronchiolitis (eg, cough, retractions) are said to peak on days 5 to 7 of illness and then gradually resolve.[25] In the present study, we found that the time from the onset of difficulty breathing until hospital admission is less variable than the time from the onset of difficulty breathing until either clinical improvement or discharge. Although 75% of children have clinically improved within 7.5 days of difficulty breathing based on the IQR results, the remaining 25% may have a more prolonged recovery in the hospital of up to 3 weeks. Interestingly, prolonged recovery times from bronchiolitis have also been noted in children presenting to the ED[26] and in an outpatient population.[27] It is unclear why 20% to 25% of children at different levels of severity of illness have prolonged recovery from bronchiolitis, but this group of children requires further investigation.

Given the variability of recovery times, clinicians may have difficulty knowing when a child is ready for hospital discharge. One of the main stumbling blocks for discharge readiness in children with bronchiolitis is the interpretation of the oxygen saturation value.[6, 8, 9, 20, 28] However, it should be considered that interpreting the oxygen saturation in a child who is clinically improving in the hospital setting is different than interpreting the oxygen saturation of a child in the ED or the clinic whose clinical course is less certain.[22] In the hospital setting, using the oxygen saturation value in in the AAP guideline,[9] 4% of children clinically worsened after they met the improvement criteria, a clinical pattern observed previously with supplemental oxygen.[28] This unpredictability may explain some of the variation in providers' clinical decision making.[5] The children who worsened, and therefore deserve more cautious discharge planning, were young (<2 months), premature (<37 weeks gestational age), and presented in more severe distress. Those children admitted to the ICU from the ED worsened more commonly than children admitted to the ward (19% vs 2%). Interestingly, the viral etiology of the child's bronchiolitis did not influence whether a child worsened after reaching the improvement criteria. Therefore, although children with RV bronchiolitis have a shorter hospital LOS than children with RSV bronchiolitis,[11] the pattern of recovery did not differ by viral etiology.

In addition to unsafe discharges, clinicians may be concerned about the possibility of readmissions. Although somewhat controversial, hospital readmission is being used as a quality of care metric.[29, 30, 31] One response to minimize readmissions would be for clinicians to observe children for longer than clinically indicated.[32] However, shorter LOS is not necessarily associated with increased readmission rates.[33] Given that the geometric mean of hospital charges per child with bronchiolitis increased from $6380 in 2000 to $8530 in 2009,[34] the potential for safely reducing hospital LOS by using the discharge criteria proposed in the current study instead of other criteria[8] may net substantial cost savings. Furthermore, reducing LOS would decrease the time children expose others to these respiratory viruses and possibly reduce medical errors.[35]

Our study has some potential limitations. Because the study participants were all hospitalized, these data do not inform admission or discharge decisions from either the ED or the clinic; but other data address those clinical scenarios.[22] Also, the 16 sites that participated in this study were large, urban teaching hospitals. Consequently, these results are not necessarily generalizable to smaller community hospitals. Although numerous data points were required to enter the analytic cohort, only 9% of the sample was excluded for missing data. There were 214 children who did not meet our improvement criteria by the time of discharge. Although the inability to include these children in the analysis may be seen as a limitation, this practice variability underscores the need for more data about discharging hospitalized children with bronchiolitis. Last, site teams reviewed medical records daily. More frequent recording of the clinical course would have yielded more granular data, but the current methodology replicates how data are generally presented during patient care rounds, when decisions about suitability for discharge are often considered.

CONCLUSION

We documented in this large multicenter study that most children hospitalized with bronchiolitis had a wide range of time to recovery, but the vast majority continued to improve once they reached the identified clinical criteria that predict a safe discharge to home. The children who worsened after clinical improvement were more likely to be younger, premature infants presenting in more severe distress. Although additional prospective validation of these hospital discharge criteria is warranted, these data may help clinicians make more evidence‐based discharge decisions for a common pediatric illness with high practice variation, both in the United States[3] and in other countries.[4, 5]

Although bronchiolitis is the leading cause of hospitalization for US infants,[1] there is a lack of basic prospective data about the expected inpatient clinical course and ongoing uncertainty about when a hospitalized child is ready for discharge to home.[2] This lack of data about children's readiness for discharge may result in variable hospital length‐of‐stay (LOS).[3, 4, 5]

One specific source of variability in discharge readiness and LOS variability may be the lack of consensus about safe threshold oxygen saturation values for discharge in children hospitalized with bronchiolitis.[6, 7] In 2006, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network recommended a discharge room air oxygen (RAO2) saturation threshold of 95%.[8] The same year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) bronchiolitis clinical practice guideline stated that oxygen is not needed for children with RAO2 saturations 90% who are feeding well and have minimal respiratory distress.[9] There is a need for prospective studies to help clinicians make evidenced‐based discharge decisions for this common condition.

We performed a prospective, multicenter, multiyear study[10, 11, 12] to examine the typical inpatient clinical course of and to develop hospital discharge guidelines for children age <2 years hospitalized with bronchiolitis. We hypothesized that children would not worsen clinically and would be safe to discharge home once their respiratory status improved and they were able to remain hydrated.

METHODS

RESULTS

There were 1916 children hospitalized with bronchiolitis with data on all factors used to define clinical improvement and clinical worsening. The median number of days from the beginning of difficulty breathing until admission was 2 days (IQR, 15.5 days; range, 18 days) and from the beginning of difficulty breathing until clinical improvement was 4 days (IQR, 37.5 days; range, 133 days) (Figure 1). The variance for days to admission was significantly less than the variance for days to clinical improvement (P<0.001).

Figure 1

In this observational study, clinicians discharged 214 (11%) of the 1916 children before meeting the definition of clinical improvement. Thus, 1702 (89%; 95% CI: 87%‐90%) children reached the clinical improvement criteria, had a LOS >1 day, and had data on all factors (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Of the 1702 children who met the clinical improvement criteria, there were 76 children (4%; 95% CI: 3%5%) who worsened (Figure 2). The worsening occurred within a median of 1 day (IQR, 13 days) of clinical improvement. Forty‐six (3%) of the children required transfer to the ICU (1 required intubation, 1 required continuous positive airway pressure, and 4 had apnea), 23 (1%) required oxygen, and 17 (1%) required IV fluids. Eight percent of children met multiple criteria for worsening. A comparison between children who did and did not worsen is shown in Table 1. In general, children who worsened after improvement were younger and born earlier. These children also presented in more severe respiratory distress, had moderate or severe retractions, oxygen saturation <85% at hospitalization, inadequate oral intake, and apnea documented during the hospitalization. Neither viral etiology nor site of care influenced whether the children worsened after improving. However, stratified analysis of children based on initial location of admission (ie, ICU or ward) showed that among the children admitted to the ICU from the emergency department (ED), 89% met the improvement criteria and 19% clinically worsened. In contrast, among children admitted to the ward from the ED, 89% met the improvement criteria, and only 2% clinically worsened. Stratified multivariable models based on the initial location of admission from the ED (ie, ICU or ward) were not possible due to small sample sizes after stratification. None of these children had relapse events requiring rehospitalization within either 24 hours or 7 days of discharge.

On multivariable analysis (Table 2), independent risk factors for worsening after reaching the clinical improvement criteria were young age, preterm birth, and presenting to care with more severe bronchiolitis represented by severe retractions, inadequate oral intake, or apnea. To further evaluate the improvement criteria in the current analysis, multiple sensitivity analyses were conducted. The frequency of clinical worsening after reaching the improvement criteria was stable when we examined different RA02 criteria in sensitivity analyses: (1) excluding RA02 as a criterion for improvement: 90% met improvement criteria and 4% experienced clinical worsening, (2) changing the average RA02 threshold for clinical improvement to 94%: 62% met improvement criteria and 6% experienced clinical worsening, and (3) changing the average RA02 threshold for clinical improvement to 95%: 47% met improvement criteria and 5% experienced clinical worsening. Furthermore, stratifying by age <2 months and restricting to more stringent definitions of bronchiolitis (ie, age <1 year or age <1 year+no history of wheezing) also did not materially change the results (see Supporting Figure 1 in the online version of this article).

We compared the 214 children who were discharged prior to reaching clinical improvement with the 1702 children who reached the clinical improvement criteria. The 214 children were less likely to be age <2 months (22% vs 30%; P=0.02). These 2 groups (214 vs 1702) were similar with respect to severe retractions (2% vs 4%; P=0.13), median respiratory rate (48 vs 48; P=0.42), oxygen saturation <90% (15% vs 11%; P=0.07), inadequate oral intake (50% vs 43%; P=0.13), and rates of relapse events requiring rehospitalization within both 24 hours (0.6% vs 0.6%; P=0.88) and 7 days (1% vs 1%; P=0.90) of discharge.

DISCUSSION

In this large, multicenter, multiyear study of children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, we found that children present to a hospital in a relatively narrow time frame, but their time to recovery in the hospital is highly variable. Nonetheless, 96% of children continued to improve once they had: (1) improving or stable retractions rated as none/mild, (2) a decreasing or stable RR by age, (3) estimated average RAO2 saturation 90% and lowest RAO2 saturation of 88%, and (4) were hydrated. The 4% of children who worsened after clinically improving were more likely to be age <2 months, born <37 weeks, and present with more severe distress (ie, severe retractions, inadequate oral intake, or apnea). Based on the low risk of worsening after clinical improvement, especially among children admitted to the regular ward (2%), we believe these 4 clinical criteria could be used as discharge criteria for this common pediatric illness with a predominantly monophasic clinical course.

Variability in hospital LOS for children with bronchiolitis exists in the United States[3] and internationally.[4, 5] Cheung and colleagues analyzed administrative data from over 75,000 children admitted for bronchiolitis in England between April 2007 and March 2010 and found sixfold variation in LOS between sites. They concluded that this LOS variability was due in part to providers' clinical decision making.[5] Srivastava and colleagues[23] addressed variable clinician decision making in bronchiolitis and 10 other common pediatric conditions by embedding discharge criteria developed by expert consensus into admission order sets. They found that for children with bronchiolitis, the embedded discharge criteria reduced the median LOS from 1.91 to 1.87 days. In contrast to the single‐center data presented by White and colleagues,[24] the prospective, multicenter MARC‐30 data provide a clear understanding of the normal clinical course for children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, determine if children clinically worsen after clinical improvement, and provide data about discharge criteria for children hospitalized with bronchiolitis. Although there is a lack of rigorous published data, the lower tract symptoms of bronchiolitis (eg, cough, retractions) are said to peak on days 5 to 7 of illness and then gradually resolve.[25] In the present study, we found that the time from the onset of difficulty breathing until hospital admission is less variable than the time from the onset of difficulty breathing until either clinical improvement or discharge. Although 75% of children have clinically improved within 7.5 days of difficulty breathing based on the IQR results, the remaining 25% may have a more prolonged recovery in the hospital of up to 3 weeks. Interestingly, prolonged recovery times from bronchiolitis have also been noted in children presenting to the ED[26] and in an outpatient population.[27] It is unclear why 20% to 25% of children at different levels of severity of illness have prolonged recovery from bronchiolitis, but this group of children requires further investigation.

Given the variability of recovery times, clinicians may have difficulty knowing when a child is ready for hospital discharge. One of the main stumbling blocks for discharge readiness in children with bronchiolitis is the interpretation of the oxygen saturation value.[6, 8, 9, 20, 28] However, it should be considered that interpreting the oxygen saturation in a child who is clinically improving in the hospital setting is different than interpreting the oxygen saturation of a child in the ED or the clinic whose clinical course is less certain.[22] In the hospital setting, using the oxygen saturation value in in the AAP guideline,[9] 4% of children clinically worsened after they met the improvement criteria, a clinical pattern observed previously with supplemental oxygen.[28] This unpredictability may explain some of the variation in providers' clinical decision making.[5] The children who worsened, and therefore deserve more cautious discharge planning, were young (<2 months), premature (<37 weeks gestational age), and presented in more severe distress. Those children admitted to the ICU from the ED worsened more commonly than children admitted to the ward (19% vs 2%). Interestingly, the viral etiology of the child's bronchiolitis did not influence whether a child worsened after reaching the improvement criteria. Therefore, although children with RV bronchiolitis have a shorter hospital LOS than children with RSV bronchiolitis,[11] the pattern of recovery did not differ by viral etiology.

In addition to unsafe discharges, clinicians may be concerned about the possibility of readmissions. Although somewhat controversial, hospital readmission is being used as a quality of care metric.[29, 30, 31] One response to minimize readmissions would be for clinicians to observe children for longer than clinically indicated.[32] However, shorter LOS is not necessarily associated with increased readmission rates.[33] Given that the geometric mean of hospital charges per child with bronchiolitis increased from $6380 in 2000 to $8530 in 2009,[34] the potential for safely reducing hospital LOS by using the discharge criteria proposed in the current study instead of other criteria[8] may net substantial cost savings. Furthermore, reducing LOS would decrease the time children expose others to these respiratory viruses and possibly reduce medical errors.[35]

Our study has some potential limitations. Because the study participants were all hospitalized, these data do not inform admission or discharge decisions from either the ED or the clinic; but other data address those clinical scenarios.[22] Also, the 16 sites that participated in this study were large, urban teaching hospitals. Consequently, these results are not necessarily generalizable to smaller community hospitals. Although numerous data points were required to enter the analytic cohort, only 9% of the sample was excluded for missing data. There were 214 children who did not meet our improvement criteria by the time of discharge. Although the inability to include these children in the analysis may be seen as a limitation, this practice variability underscores the need for more data about discharging hospitalized children with bronchiolitis. Last, site teams reviewed medical records daily. More frequent recording of the clinical course would have yielded more granular data, but the current methodology replicates how data are generally presented during patient care rounds, when decisions about suitability for discharge are often considered.

CONCLUSION

We documented in this large multicenter study that most children hospitalized with bronchiolitis had a wide range of time to recovery, but the vast majority continued to improve once they reached the identified clinical criteria that predict a safe discharge to home. The children who worsened after clinical improvement were more likely to be younger, premature infants presenting in more severe distress. Although additional prospective validation of these hospital discharge criteria is warranted, these data may help clinicians make more evidence‐based discharge decisions for a common pediatric illness with high practice variation, both in the United States[3] and in other countries.[4, 5]

Although bronchiolitis is the leading cause of hospitalization for US infants,[1] there is a lack of basic prospective data about the expected inpatient clinical course and ongoing uncertainty about when a hospitalized child is ready for discharge to home.[2] This lack of data about children's readiness for discharge may result in variable hospital length‐of‐stay (LOS).[3, 4, 5]

One specific source of variability in discharge readiness and LOS variability may be the lack of consensus about safe threshold oxygen saturation values for discharge in children hospitalized with bronchiolitis.[6, 7] In 2006, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network recommended a discharge room air oxygen (RAO2) saturation threshold of 95%.[8] The same year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) bronchiolitis clinical practice guideline stated that oxygen is not needed for children with RAO2 saturations 90% who are feeding well and have minimal respiratory distress.[9] There is a need for prospective studies to help clinicians make evidenced‐based discharge decisions for this common condition.

We performed a prospective, multicenter, multiyear study[10, 11, 12] to examine the typical inpatient clinical course of and to develop hospital discharge guidelines for children age <2 years hospitalized with bronchiolitis. We hypothesized that children would not worsen clinically and would be safe to discharge home once their respiratory status improved and they were able to remain hydrated.

METHODS

RESULTS

There were 1916 children hospitalized with bronchiolitis with data on all factors used to define clinical improvement and clinical worsening. The median number of days from the beginning of difficulty breathing until admission was 2 days (IQR, 15.5 days; range, 18 days) and from the beginning of difficulty breathing until clinical improvement was 4 days (IQR, 37.5 days; range, 133 days) (Figure 1). The variance for days to admission was significantly less than the variance for days to clinical improvement (P<0.001).

Figure 1

In this observational study, clinicians discharged 214 (11%) of the 1916 children before meeting the definition of clinical improvement. Thus, 1702 (89%; 95% CI: 87%‐90%) children reached the clinical improvement criteria, had a LOS >1 day, and had data on all factors (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Of the 1702 children who met the clinical improvement criteria, there were 76 children (4%; 95% CI: 3%5%) who worsened (Figure 2). The worsening occurred within a median of 1 day (IQR, 13 days) of clinical improvement. Forty‐six (3%) of the children required transfer to the ICU (1 required intubation, 1 required continuous positive airway pressure, and 4 had apnea), 23 (1%) required oxygen, and 17 (1%) required IV fluids. Eight percent of children met multiple criteria for worsening. A comparison between children who did and did not worsen is shown in Table 1. In general, children who worsened after improvement were younger and born earlier. These children also presented in more severe respiratory distress, had moderate or severe retractions, oxygen saturation <85% at hospitalization, inadequate oral intake, and apnea documented during the hospitalization. Neither viral etiology nor site of care influenced whether the children worsened after improving. However, stratified analysis of children based on initial location of admission (ie, ICU or ward) showed that among the children admitted to the ICU from the emergency department (ED), 89% met the improvement criteria and 19% clinically worsened. In contrast, among children admitted to the ward from the ED, 89% met the improvement criteria, and only 2% clinically worsened. Stratified multivariable models based on the initial location of admission from the ED (ie, ICU or ward) were not possible due to small sample sizes after stratification. None of these children had relapse events requiring rehospitalization within either 24 hours or 7 days of discharge.

On multivariable analysis (Table 2), independent risk factors for worsening after reaching the clinical improvement criteria were young age, preterm birth, and presenting to care with more severe bronchiolitis represented by severe retractions, inadequate oral intake, or apnea. To further evaluate the improvement criteria in the current analysis, multiple sensitivity analyses were conducted. The frequency of clinical worsening after reaching the improvement criteria was stable when we examined different RA02 criteria in sensitivity analyses: (1) excluding RA02 as a criterion for improvement: 90% met improvement criteria and 4% experienced clinical worsening, (2) changing the average RA02 threshold for clinical improvement to 94%: 62% met improvement criteria and 6% experienced clinical worsening, and (3) changing the average RA02 threshold for clinical improvement to 95%: 47% met improvement criteria and 5% experienced clinical worsening. Furthermore, stratifying by age <2 months and restricting to more stringent definitions of bronchiolitis (ie, age <1 year or age <1 year+no history of wheezing) also did not materially change the results (see Supporting Figure 1 in the online version of this article).

We compared the 214 children who were discharged prior to reaching clinical improvement with the 1702 children who reached the clinical improvement criteria. The 214 children were less likely to be age <2 months (22% vs 30%; P=0.02). These 2 groups (214 vs 1702) were similar with respect to severe retractions (2% vs 4%; P=0.13), median respiratory rate (48 vs 48; P=0.42), oxygen saturation <90% (15% vs 11%; P=0.07), inadequate oral intake (50% vs 43%; P=0.13), and rates of relapse events requiring rehospitalization within both 24 hours (0.6% vs 0.6%; P=0.88) and 7 days (1% vs 1%; P=0.90) of discharge.

DISCUSSION

In this large, multicenter, multiyear study of children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, we found that children present to a hospital in a relatively narrow time frame, but their time to recovery in the hospital is highly variable. Nonetheless, 96% of children continued to improve once they had: (1) improving or stable retractions rated as none/mild, (2) a decreasing or stable RR by age, (3) estimated average RAO2 saturation 90% and lowest RAO2 saturation of 88%, and (4) were hydrated. The 4% of children who worsened after clinically improving were more likely to be age <2 months, born <37 weeks, and present with more severe distress (ie, severe retractions, inadequate oral intake, or apnea). Based on the low risk of worsening after clinical improvement, especially among children admitted to the regular ward (2%), we believe these 4 clinical criteria could be used as discharge criteria for this common pediatric illness with a predominantly monophasic clinical course.

Variability in hospital LOS for children with bronchiolitis exists in the United States[3] and internationally.[4, 5] Cheung and colleagues analyzed administrative data from over 75,000 children admitted for bronchiolitis in England between April 2007 and March 2010 and found sixfold variation in LOS between sites. They concluded that this LOS variability was due in part to providers' clinical decision making.[5] Srivastava and colleagues[23] addressed variable clinician decision making in bronchiolitis and 10 other common pediatric conditions by embedding discharge criteria developed by expert consensus into admission order sets. They found that for children with bronchiolitis, the embedded discharge criteria reduced the median LOS from 1.91 to 1.87 days. In contrast to the single‐center data presented by White and colleagues,[24] the prospective, multicenter MARC‐30 data provide a clear understanding of the normal clinical course for children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, determine if children clinically worsen after clinical improvement, and provide data about discharge criteria for children hospitalized with bronchiolitis. Although there is a lack of rigorous published data, the lower tract symptoms of bronchiolitis (eg, cough, retractions) are said to peak on days 5 to 7 of illness and then gradually resolve.[25] In the present study, we found that the time from the onset of difficulty breathing until hospital admission is less variable than the time from the onset of difficulty breathing until either clinical improvement or discharge. Although 75% of children have clinically improved within 7.5 days of difficulty breathing based on the IQR results, the remaining 25% may have a more prolonged recovery in the hospital of up to 3 weeks. Interestingly, prolonged recovery times from bronchiolitis have also been noted in children presenting to the ED[26] and in an outpatient population.[27] It is unclear why 20% to 25% of children at different levels of severity of illness have prolonged recovery from bronchiolitis, but this group of children requires further investigation.

Given the variability of recovery times, clinicians may have difficulty knowing when a child is ready for hospital discharge. One of the main stumbling blocks for discharge readiness in children with bronchiolitis is the interpretation of the oxygen saturation value.[6, 8, 9, 20, 28] However, it should be considered that interpreting the oxygen saturation in a child who is clinically improving in the hospital setting is different than interpreting the oxygen saturation of a child in the ED or the clinic whose clinical course is less certain.[22] In the hospital setting, using the oxygen saturation value in in the AAP guideline,[9] 4% of children clinically worsened after they met the improvement criteria, a clinical pattern observed previously with supplemental oxygen.[28] This unpredictability may explain some of the variation in providers' clinical decision making.[5] The children who worsened, and therefore deserve more cautious discharge planning, were young (<2 months), premature (<37 weeks gestational age), and presented in more severe distress. Those children admitted to the ICU from the ED worsened more commonly than children admitted to the ward (19% vs 2%). Interestingly, the viral etiology of the child's bronchiolitis did not influence whether a child worsened after reaching the improvement criteria. Therefore, although children with RV bronchiolitis have a shorter hospital LOS than children with RSV bronchiolitis,[11] the pattern of recovery did not differ by viral etiology.

In addition to unsafe discharges, clinicians may be concerned about the possibility of readmissions. Although somewhat controversial, hospital readmission is being used as a quality of care metric.[29, 30, 31] One response to minimize readmissions would be for clinicians to observe children for longer than clinically indicated.[32] However, shorter LOS is not necessarily associated with increased readmission rates.[33] Given that the geometric mean of hospital charges per child with bronchiolitis increased from $6380 in 2000 to $8530 in 2009,[34] the potential for safely reducing hospital LOS by using the discharge criteria proposed in the current study instead of other criteria[8] may net substantial cost savings. Furthermore, reducing LOS would decrease the time children expose others to these respiratory viruses and possibly reduce medical errors.[35]

Our study has some potential limitations. Because the study participants were all hospitalized, these data do not inform admission or discharge decisions from either the ED or the clinic; but other data address those clinical scenarios.[22] Also, the 16 sites that participated in this study were large, urban teaching hospitals. Consequently, these results are not necessarily generalizable to smaller community hospitals. Although numerous data points were required to enter the analytic cohort, only 9% of the sample was excluded for missing data. There were 214 children who did not meet our improvement criteria by the time of discharge. Although the inability to include these children in the analysis may be seen as a limitation, this practice variability underscores the need for more data about discharging hospitalized children with bronchiolitis. Last, site teams reviewed medical records daily. More frequent recording of the clinical course would have yielded more granular data, but the current methodology replicates how data are generally presented during patient care rounds, when decisions about suitability for discharge are often considered.

CONCLUSION

We documented in this large multicenter study that most children hospitalized with bronchiolitis had a wide range of time to recovery, but the vast majority continued to improve once they reached the identified clinical criteria that predict a safe discharge to home. The children who worsened after clinical improvement were more likely to be younger, premature infants presenting in more severe distress. Although additional prospective validation of these hospital discharge criteria is warranted, these data may help clinicians make more evidence‐based discharge decisions for a common pediatric illness with high practice variation, both in the United States[3] and in other countries.[4, 5]