Publication Date:
2020-11-05
Description:
The UAB Pediatric Sickle Cell Clinic cares for patients at both an academic center and satellite clinics. One difference in clinics is that CBC results are not available at the time of patient care during satellite clinics, but are available at the academic center. Therefore, hydroxyurea (HU) dosing adjustments are made within seven days through telehealth; after reviewing faxed CBC results, a sickle cell nurse calls families and educates them on any revised HU dosing plans and reinforces adherence to HU. We hypothesized that this type of telehealth HU dosing adjustments would not impact HU laboratory response. Methods: We performed a one-year retrospective review of 172 HbSS and HbSB0 thalassemia patients prescribed HU during 2019 that were cared for in both the academic center (Birmingham) and satellite clinics (Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Opelika). We excluded patients on HU and a second sickle cell disease modifying therapy. We abstracted from the EMR: age, sex, clinic location, diagnosis, HU dose (mg/kg), WBC, Hb, MCV, Platelets, Absolute Reticulocyte, HbF, and ANC. We recorded the total number of well-clinic visits and categorized clinic visit/year as ≤ 2or 〉2; satellite clinic visits are fixed either monthly to every three months which limited our ability to reschedule patients with missed visits. We also recorded the number of ED visits and admissions to the hospital for a) pain and b) all sickle cell complications except for scheduled procedures. We collected acute visit data from the EMR at the academic center for onsite participants and from patient report from satellite participants. We evaluated dosing adjustment as whether dosing was increased for ANC 〉 4000 per institutional standard of care. We categorized correct dosing adjustments if 〉 65% of visits had a dose adjustment per institutional protocol; we categorized patients as a deviation from protocol if the physician did not increase the dose based on ANC. We performed descriptive statistics, t-test for continuous variables, chi-square for categorical variables, and regression modeling using JMP Pro 14 (Cary, NC). P-values
Print ISSN:
0006-4971
Electronic ISSN:
1528-0020
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
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