Family Assisted Severe Febrile Illness Therapy for Critically-ill Kenyan Children
Family Assisted Severe Febrile Illness Therapy for Critically-ill Kenyan Children
The purpose of this pilot study is to improve inpatient monitoring of severely-ill children
 admitted to the hospital in low resource settings at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi,
 Kenya. Given the high ratio of patients to medical staff in these settings, the lack of
 reliable patient monitoring tools, and the high rate of early inpatient mortality, we will
 prospectively train parents as monitoring aids of their hospitalized children. Early
 recognition and intervention in critical illness is important to avoid (further) organ
 failure. Parents will be taught how to assess their child's mental status, work of breathing
 and capillary refill time which will inform a 3-point severity of illness scale. The severity
 of illness will be conveyed by the parents to the medical staff via color-coded flag system.
 The goal is to increase the healthcare provider patient reassessment rate according to
 patients' level of severity to assist in early recognition and treatment of patients'
 deterioration.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital with severe febrile illness which includes
 presumed malaria, sepsis or septic shock, pneumonia, meningitis or encephalitis

 -  Available adult caregiver

 -  Enrollment within the first 8 hours of admission to the pediatric ward (modified to 16
 hrs later)

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Primary cause of admission is major bleed or hemorrhagic shock, severe trauma or burn,
 major surgery, known congenital heart disease

 -  Previous study enrollment

 -  No available adult caregiver

 -  Caregiver unable to give informed consent

 -  Caregiver not proficient in English or Swahili