Objectives: The majority of children with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are primarily evaluated in community hospital emergency departments (EDs); however, studies on the management of pediatric CAP have largely targeted care provided in freestanding children's hospital EDs or inpatient settings. The objectives of this study were to examine whether implementation of a CAP pathway within three community hospital EDs and inpatient units improved process measures related to appropriate laboratory testing and antibiotic prescribing and to compare performance on these measures between the community hospitals and a freestanding children's hospital.
Methods: Through a multidisciplinary approach (including general emergency medicine [EM] providers, pediatric fellowship-trained EM providers, and pediatric hospitalists), a CAP pathway was designed and implemented at three community hospitals in January and February 2016. Diagnostic and therapeutic process measures were collected using administrative data and medical record abstraction 1 year pre- and postintervention. Chi-square statistics and statistical process control P-charts were used to examine adherence to these process measures.
Results: Across the community hospitals, 544 patients preintervention and 321 patients postintervention met inclusion criteria, with 290 children's hospital patients meeting criteria in the postintervention period. Adherence to process measures increased postintervention for appropriate laboratory testing, narrow-spectrum antibiotic stewardship and macrolide stewardship by 10.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.7% to 16.9%), 8.3% (95% CI = 21.5% to 15.2%), and 3.1% (95% CI = -4.3% to 10.4%), respectively. Statistical process control P-charts demonstrated special cause variation immediately after implementation of the intervention in regards to appropriate laboratory testing.
Conclusion: Implementation of a CAP pathway through a multisite community hospital intervention improved adherence to evidence-based recommendations for laboratory testing and antibiotic stewardship. Similar interventions may improve the quality of care for children with CAP on a population level, as community hospitals are where these patients are seen most frequently.
© 2018 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.