The Impact of Same Day Infusion Treatment Protocols for Uncomplicated Vaso-Occlusive Crises within an Embedded Sickle Cell Care Model

Background: Infusion Center (IC) based care of uncomplicated sickle cell disease (SCD) vaso occlusive crises (VOCs) is very effective and results in better outcomes. At low volume sickle cell programs, it is challenging to acquire resources for a dedicated infusion program. Our goal was to create an embedded infusion program within our cancer center infusion services utilizing existing resources to improve the quality of care for our SCD patients.

Methods: A multi-disciplinary team consisting of a Nurse Case Manager, Advanced Practice Provider, MD, IC scheduler and IC charge nurse was assembled. An agreement was made between the SCD team and IC leadership that at least one time slot would be made available for a SCD VOC visit every day. A workflow was created and all team members were educated regarding the workflow. Visit numbers for IC visits, emergency department (ED) and inpatient (IP) hospitalizations were collected from the EMR and compared for pre IC development (Jan 1, 2017- Dec 31, 2018) and post IC (January 1, 2019 - Dec 31, 2020).

Results: Between 2017-2020, 182 patients with SCD were seen in the emergency room and 163 patients in our outpatient clinics. After the institution of an IC based care plan in January 2019, IC visit volume increased (270 visits pre IC vs.1076 visits post IC). ED treat and release (not requiring admissions) visits decreased from 373 visits pre IC to 286 visits post IC. The number of inpatient admissions did not change significantly during this time frame. However, the percentage of admissions from the ED increased (43% pre IC to 50% post IC), indicating a higher complexity of patients seeking care from the ED. 10 of 35 patients who used the IC in 2020 had no acute visits (ED or IP) in 2020, while these individual patients had a total of 37 ED visits in the pre IC timeframe, of which 20 were inpatient admissions with a total length of stay of 137 days and 17 treat and release episodes at the ED.

Conclusions: Our project successfully utilized existing infusion based resources to facilitate outpatient management of acute uncomplicated SCD VOCs. This project presents an effective strategy that can be utilized by smaller volume sickle cell programs who do not have a stand alone infusion program to improve the quality of care for their SCD patients.