Abstract
Background: Pneumonia is a serious infection and major killer in children under 5 years of age. Despite the guidelines availability, the pediatricians have variable practice patterns in treating community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) including use of broad-spectrum antibiotics & concurrent asthma medications with ensuing risks. We worked jointly with American Academy of Pediatrics initiative of Value in inpatient pediatrics (VIP) Improving Community Acquired Pneumonia (ICAP) Quality improvement project to change the practices.
Objectives: To measure the rate of asthma medications use in treatment of uncomplicated pneumonia and to reduce its use to less than 10%.
Methods: We applied sequence of interventions like information propagation, webinars, didactic discussions over 9 months, to execute and test strategies of pediatric CAP care. The rates of concurrent asthma medication use in CAP were calculated by individual chart review at baseline and then over 5 quarterly cycles. The baseline percentages were compared with the final cycle using Fisher’s exact test.
Results: Rates of concurrent asthma inpatient treatment in uncomplicated pneumonia was 60% in first cycle that reduced gradually to achieve our goal.
Conclusion: Using IDSA guidelines we can improve the practices of treating uncomplicated pneumonia. This will reduce the use of concomitant asthma medications, financial costs and workload of health care.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2019; 54: Suppl. 63, PA997.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2019