J. Dedier et al., Processes of care, illness severity, and outcomes in the management of community-acquired pneumonia at academic hospitals, ARCH IN MED, 161(17), 2001, pp. 2099-2104
Citations number
20
Categorie Soggetti
General & Internal Medicine","Medical Research General Topics
Background: Prompt antibiotic administration, oxygenation measurement, and
blood cultures are generally considered markers of high-quality care in the
inpatient management of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, few s
tudies have examined the relationship between prompt achievement of process
-of-care markers and outcomes for patients with CAP. We examined whether an
tibiotic administration within 8 hours of hospital arrival, a blood culture
within 24 hours, an oxygenation measurement within 24 hours, or performing
blood cultures before giving antibiotics was associated with the following
: (1) reaching clinical stability within 48 hours of hospital admission, (2
) a decreased length of hospital stay, or (3) fewer inpatient deaths.
Methods: A retrospective medical record review identified 1062 eligible pat
ients discharged from the hospital with a diagnosis of CAP between December
1, 1997, and February 28, 1998, among 38 US academic hospitals. We assesse
d the independent relationship between each process marker and the 3 clinic
al outcomes, controlling for the Pneumonia Severity Index on admission. We
also examined the relationship of pneumonia severity on admission to proces
s marker achievement and clinical outcomes.
Results: Overall, there was no consistent or statistically significant rela
tionship between achieving process markers and better clinical outcomes (P
> .40 for all). We did observe that performing blood cultures within 24 hou
rs was related to not achieving clinical stability within 48 hours (odds ra
tio, 1.62; 95% confidence interval, 1.13-2.33). However, this finding likel
y reflects residual confounding by severity of illness, since increasing pn
eumonia seventy on admission was associated with blood culture performance
(P=.009) and with shorter times to antibiotic administration (P=.04).
Conclusions: Achieving process-of-care markers was not associated with impr
oved outcomes, but was related to the severity of pneumonia as assessed on
admission. Our results highlight the difficulty in demonstrating a link bet
ween process-of-care markers and outcomes in observational studies of CAP.
Randomized studies are needed to objectively evaluate the impact of process
-of-care markers on CAP outcomes.