Reducing Anesthesia Use for Pediatric Magnetic Resonance Imaging: The Effects of a Patient- and Family-Centered Intervention on Image Quality, Health-care Costs, and Operational Efficiency.

Abstract Children with complex medical problems who require anesthesia are known to be at risk for acute adverse physiologic events related to anesthesia. The risks of anesthesia include short- and long-term psychological and neurobehavioral issues. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has emerged as the standard of care for diagnosis and follow-up of many conditions, and more children are being subjected to anesthesia to ensure acceptable motion-free image quality of the MRI scans. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an anesthesia-free patient- and family-centered intervention through an analysis of MRI quality, health-care costs, and operational efficiency as compared with other approaches. This study retrospectively reviewed patient data extracted from electronic medical records of children aged 3-17 years, who underwent outpatient MRI at an urban academic medical center from 2015 to 2016. A total matched sample size of 500 children, 125 per group, was used to investigate the outcome variables including the quality of magnetic resonance image, health-care cost, and procedural time. The groups included are as follows: (1) intervention group, patient- and family-centered preparation of the child, and no anesthesia given (PFC/NA); (2) comparison group, no structured preparation, and no anesthesia given (SC/NA); (3) comparison group, certified child life specialist preparation, and anesthesia given (CCLS/A); (4) comparison group, no structured preparation, anesthesia given (SC/A). The PFC/NA intervention group was found to have significantly lower costs (p <.0001) and shorter procedure times (p <.0001), and 96.8% of the MRI images were of acceptable or better quality than those of the SC/A and CCLS/A groups. The PFC approach provides a way for children to undergo outpatient diagnostic MRI without the need for anesthesia, thus reducing risk, costs, and procedure time. Highlights • The Intervention dispels the notion children need anesthesia to remain still for MRI. • The Intervention allows children to undergo MRI without the need for anesthesia. • The Intervention group had lower costs than the anesthesia groups (p < 0.001). • The Intervention group had shorter procedure time than anesthesia groups (p < 0.001). • In the Intervention group, 96.8% of MRIs were of acceptable quality or better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]