Meeting the challenge of managing vaso-occlusive crisis.

Quality improvement efforts in patient care are most successful when the entire healthcare team is involved in care planning. This article discusses a multidisciplinary approach to the development of a protocol for patients with sickle cell disease experiencing vaso-occlusive crisis. The protocol's goal was to improve the quality and consistency of care for these patients. Outcomes, which were based on data from the 6 months before and after the protocol initiation, demonstrated an increased treat-and-release rate from the emergency department, a decreased average length of stay, and a decrease in the percentage of patient days down-graded by payers.