Inpatient Pneumonia

Overview

The National Pneumonia Project aims to improve the care of patients with community-acquired pneumonia. The effort is especially important in Arkansas, where almost 11,000 patients were discharged with this diagnosis in 2001. As a part of the project, AFMC promotes influenza and pneumococcal immunization to improve the mortality rates of inpatients with pneumonia and to help prevent new cases of the disease.

Hospital performance on selected inpatient pneumonia measures is now being reported as an “appropriate care measure,” or ACM. ACMs reflect the percentage of patients who received all the recognized components of care for a specific condition. High performance on several components of care, combined with low performance on a single element, can result in a low score on that ACM.

Indicators

• Pneumococcal vaccination
• Blood cultures performed within 24 hours prior to or after hospital arrival
• Blood culture performed in the emergency department prior to initial antibiotic received in hospital
• Adult smoking cessation advice/counseling
• Median antibiotic timing
• Initial antibiotic received within 6 hours of hospital arrival
• Initial antibiotic selection for community-acquired pneumonia in immunocompetent patients
• Influenza vaccination

Specifications manual (QualityNet Website)

Contact AFMC's Quality Improvement Team