Assessing distress in children with bronchiolitis admitted to a community hospital ED

What is it about?

Bronchiolitis in children has a broad variation in terms of diagnosis and management, especially in smaller community hospitals. This study aims to describe children admitted for bronchiolitis to a community-based hospital's emergency department (ED) and explore different assessments of illness severity.

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Why is it important?

Our findings showed that a large number of children admitted to a community-based emergency department received unnecessary medicines and chest x-rays. Based on our findings, we suggest that evaluating physical and respiratory distress may be more effective in order to determine illness severity compared to imaging or lab tests. The development of local clinical practice guidelines that consider local culture may help in the optimal management of bronchiolitis in community based ED.