Rescue seizure therapy for children with epilepsy
Measure Purpose: Decrease emergency department utilization and decrease episodes of treatment-resistant seizures
The numerator: Patients who receive or have received a prescription for an appropriately dosed rescue seizure therapy in pre-hospital setting
is divided by
The denominator: Patients aged 6 months and older with documented prolonged convulsive* seizure > 5 minutes
*See full specifications for additional details
Exceptions are removed from the denominator for:
- Patient contraindication documented for all rescue medications
- Patient/caregiver refuse
- IV access established
- Undocumented seizure duration recorded
- Documentation that supports patient has self-resolving seizures that last more than 5 minutes
Key Phrases
Key phrases you should use to meet this measure include:
- Prescribed rescue seizure therapy
- Prescribed midazolam
- Prescribed diazepam
Measure Calculation Example
Dr. Barbosa had 60 patients older than 6 months of age with documented prolonged convulsive seizure > 5 minutes from January 1 to December 31 in the measurement year. This is the denominator. Two patients had a contraindication for all rescue medications, four had undocumented seizure duration recorded, and five had documentation that the patient had self-resolving seizures that last more than 5 minutes. These patients are removed from the denominator.
Of the remaining 49 patients, 33 were prescribed an appropriate dosed rescue seizure therapy for the pre-hospital setting.
Quality of care = 33/(60-11). Dr. Barbosa has a score of 67% for this measure.