The Impact of Implementing a 'Pain, Agitation, and Delirium Bundle' in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: Improved Delirium Diagnosis

Delirium is associated with significant negative outcomes, yet it remains underdiagnosed in children. We describe the impact of implementing a pain, agitation, and delirium (PAD) bundle on the rate of delirium detection in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). This represents a single-center, pre-/post-intervention retrospective and prospective cohort study. The study was conducted at a PICU in a quaternary university-affiliated pediatric hospital. All patients consecutively admitted to the PICU in October and November 2017 and 2018. Purpose of the study was describe the impact of the implementation of a PAD bundle. The rate of delirium detection and the utilization of sedative and analgesics in the pre- and post-implementation phases were measured. A total of 176 and 138 patients were admitted during the pre- and post-implementation phases, respectively. Of them, 7 (4%) and 44 (31.9%) were diagnosed with delirium (p