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.