PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Paul Van der Linden
AU  - Stephanie Natsch
AU  - Ewoudt Van de Garde
TI  - Comparative evaluation of timing of antibiotic intravenous-to-oral switch in pneumonia
DP  - 2014 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P4692
VI  - 44
IP  - Suppl 58
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4692.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4692.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44
AB  - An early iv-to-oral switch of antibiotic treatment has proven safe and cost-effective in many infectious conditions. The aim of this study is to benchmark iv-to-oral switching rates for pneumonia between hospitals.In the PHARMO Database Network we constructed a cohort of 5566 patients admitted for pneumonia in seven hospitals in the Netherlands (2005-2010) who started with intravenous antibiotics. For each patient the time to full oral antibiotic treatment or end of antibiotic treatment was assessed, whatever came first. Kaplan Meier curves were fitted to analyse in hospital iv-to-oral switching kinetics.The overall median time to oral treatment was 5 days and 19% of the patients did receive intravenous treatment until discharge. The percentage of patients who were switched to oral treatment per day 4 (early switch) varied between 11% and 27% (p<0.001). There was no large inter-hospital variation in patient characteristics, length of hospital stay and readmission within 30 days.View this table:Patient characteristics and main study parametersThis benchmark provided insight in variation in iv-to-oral switch rates between hospitals and can be applied to follow-up outcome of strategies to improve timely switching discipline.