Arch Intern Med
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Multicenter Study
The hospital discharge decision for patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Results from the Pneumonia Patient Outcomes Research Team cohort study.
The hospital discharge decision directly influences the length of stay in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, yet no information exists on how physicians make this decision. ⋯ Physicians believed that diagnostic evaluation or treatment of comorbid illness, completion of a standard course of antimicrobial therapy, and delays with arrangements for long-term care delayed hospital discharge in clinically stable patients. Addressing the efficiency of these aspects of inpatient medical care, as well as providing home treatment programs, could decrease the length of hospital stay in patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
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Multicenter Study
The hospital admission decision for patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Results from the pneumonia Patient Outcomes Research Team cohort study.
The hospital admission decision directly influences the magnitude of resource use in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, yet little information exists on how medical practitioners make this decision. ⋯ Practitioners' survey responses suggest that the availability of outpatient intravenous antimicrobial therapy and home nursing care would allow outpatient care for a large proportion of low-risk patients who are hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia. These data also suggest that methods to improve practitioners' identification of low-risk patients with community-acquired pneumonia could decrease the hospitalization of such patients. Future studies are required to help physicians identify which low-risk patients could safely be treated in the outpatient setting on the basis of clinical information readily available at presentation.