Pneumonia

Quality Indicator: Timing of Antibiotic Administration (within six hours)

In general, the sooner antibiotics can be given, the faster patients get better. It is a worthy goal to try to get these important medications administered to a patient within four hours. It is important to understand that for this quality measure, the timer starts when a patient walks through the door, not when the diagnosis is made. At Reid most of our patients receive the drugs within 2 ½ hours of sign-in to the hospital or emergency department (ED).

The scores below reflect what percentage of patients received antibiotics within six hours of arrival at Reid.

Quality Indicator: Choosing Appropriate Antibiotic

Choosing the right medications is critical to treatment of pneumonia or other infections. Most of the time the exact cause of a pneumonia is not known, so the choice of medication is based on patient characteristics. For instance, a person who lives in the community may not have the same pneumonia-causing bacteria as someone living in a nursing home, so the antibiotic choice might be different.

The scores below measure how often our doctors choose appropriate medications based on published guidelines.

Quality Indicator: Blood Culture Done Before First Dose of Antibiotics

This parameter can be challenging for hospitals because many people with pneumonia will not benefit from a blood culture because nothing grows. In addition, blood cultures are more likely to be positive when a person is actively experiencing a fever and shaking chill. Therefore, cultures may be obtained after a patient has received his/her first dose of antibiotic. For example, patients with suspected atypical pneumonias ("walking pneumonia") or viral pneumonias would never benefit from a blood culture.

Quality Indicator: Administering Pneumococcal Vaccination

Traditionally people receive vaccinations from their family doctor. However, studies have shown that most older Americans are not up to date on these important preventive measures. Studies also have shown that the people at the highest risk for life-threatening (pneumoncoccal) pneumonia or influenza are those who have already been hospitalized with pneumonia.

This parameter can be challenging for a number of reasons. Because vaccinations have typically been performed in a doctor's office, hospitals have had to develop a new process to vaccinate their patients during their stay. Second, it can be difficult to determine if the patient has already received the vaccine since these records may be in an doctor's office and not with the patient. Reid is continuously working to increase vaccination rates among patients who can benefit from receiving them. 

Quality Indicator: Providing Smoking Cessation Advice

We offer basic smoking cessation materials for patients who have smoked within the past year. For those who are interested in quitting, one-on-one discussion about options is available before discharge.

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