Reducing diarrhoea in an adult surgical intensive care unit: A quality improvement study.

Background: Although diarrhoea is a real source of morbidity for critically ill patients, this issue has been little studied, making it difficult to understand its mechanisms and management. Aims: We conducted a quality improvement study in an adult surgical intensive care unit before/after the implementation of a specific protocol to firstly improve diarrhoea management for patient benefit and secondly to understand the impact on caregivers. Study design: The first part of this before/after study consisted in assessing the proportion of patients receiving an anti‐diarrheal treatment before (phase I)/after (phase II) the implementation of the protocol. The second part of the study was to survey the caregivers on this topic. Results: Sixty four adults were included (33 in phase I; 31 in phase II) with 280 diarrheal episodes (129 in phase I; 151 in phase II). The proportion of patients who received at least one anti‐diarrheal treatment was similar between the two phases (79% (26/33) vs. 68% (21/31), p =.40). Diarrhoea incidence was also similar (9% (33 patients/368 admissions) vs. 11% (31 patients/275 admissions), p =.35). The delay to initiate at least one treatment was significantly shorter in phase II (2 days [1–7] vs. 0 day [0–2]; p <.001). The patients' rehabilitation was no longer impacted by the occurrence of a diarrheal episode in phase II (39% (13/33) vs. 0% (0/31), p <.001). Eighty team members completed the surveys in phase I and 70 in phase II. Caregivers perceived diarrhoea like a burden and its economic impact remained high. Conclusions: The implementation of a protocol for the management of ICU diarrhoea did not increase the proportion of patients treated, but it did significantly improve the delay to initiate a treatment. The patients' rehabilitation was no longer affected by diarrhoea. Relevance to clinical practice: The use of specific anti‐diarrhoea guidelines may help to reduce the burden of diarrhoea in an ICU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]