An innovative mobile application to improve the efficiency of common procedures in the paediatric intensive care unit: a pilot study

Background/Aims Procedures performed in the paediatric intensive care unit require optimal efficiency. This study evaluated the feasibility of a mobile app for paediatric critical care trainees to help improve the efficiency of three common procedures: central line placement, arterial line insertion and chest tube insertion. Methods Data regarding frequency of forgotten items were collected during the pre-intervention stage. A mobile app was developed with a checklist to help users to gather all the correct equipment. Data regarding the number of forgotten items were collected from the app in the period following initial implementation (March–August 2019) and after a software update (August–October 2019). Results Once the mobile application was introduced, all 13 (100%) fellows and 2 (20%) of the 10 advanced practice registered nurses accessed the application's checklist to record their procedures. From March–August 2019, 19 users submitted post-completion assessments, of which four included records of forgotten items (21%). After a software update, from August–October 2019, there were eight post-procedure assessments submitted with zero forgotten items. After using the mobile application, over half (13/24) of users surveyed agreed that the mobile application was useful for helping select items. Conclusions A considerable decrease in the proportion of procedures with forgotten items was recorded after the implementation of the app and after the software update. However, there was also a decrease in use of the app during the study period, so more research is required into the use of mobile apps for this purpose.