CLINICAL NEWS
Literature Scan
New and noteworthy research from the
medical literature landscape
Can Shorter Time to Antibiotic Administration Improve
Outcomes in Febrile Neutropenia?
ment triage desk to alert personnel
June 2012 and June 2013 were included
A new protocol consisting of “relatively
a median of 81 minutes – nine minutes
in the study. Study participants’ time to
simple interventions” speeds time to inishorter than the target TTA of 90 minutes
• Creation of a FN chief complaint catantibiotic therapy and outcomes were
tial receipt of antibiotic therapy for cancer
– compared with historical and direct
egory and a standardized order set in
compared with a historical cohort of
patients experiencing febrile neutropenia
admission cohorts (235 minutes and 169
the emergency medical record (EMR) minutes, respectively; p<0.0001).
patients who presented to the Cleveland
(FN), according to results from a report
to eliminate variability in treatment
Clinic emergency department between
recently published in the Journal of OncolMore than half (57%) of the FNP
February 2010 and May 2012, as well as
ogy Practice. Patients treated through this
patients received antibiotics within 90
• Antibiotic administration before
with patients who were directly admitted
new protocol also had a shorter time to
minutes and almost one-third (32%)
co