Pneumonia Quality Measures
Timing of Antibiotic Administration
At Highland Hospital, the first dose of antibiotic therapy is administered within 8 hours or less of hospital admission for 94% of eligible pneumonia patients.
Fever and chills are common in persons who develop pneumonia, with the temperature rising to as high as 106 degrees. Other symptoms, such as rust-colored sputum, pain associated with breathing, weakness, and shortness of breath, are also common with pneumonia. With antibiotic therapy, fever and related symptoms usually begin to subside in 2 to 3 days, as the pneumonia-causing bacteria are reduced in number. Careful antibiotic selection is vital in order to penetrate the specific bacteria that caused the pneumonia. (Porth, C. M. (Ed.). (2005). Pathophysiology: Concepts of Altered Health States. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins).
Multiple studies have demonstrated improved survival in persons with pneumonia who receive antibiotics in a timely manner. A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine (March 2002: 162 (6); 682-688) indicates that starting antibiotics in the emergency room, after careful consideration of which antibiotic to use, can also reduce the number of days a person is hospitalized.
A later study of 18,209 Medicare patients with community acquired pneumonia, which was reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine (March 2004:164 (6); 637-644), demonstrates shorter length of stay, reduced death and lower Hospitals cost for patients who receive antibiotics within 4 hours.
