Is High ICU Utilization a Quality Measure for Pneumonia Care?

Data from a large sample of Medicare patients with pneumonia suggest that in hospitals with high pneumonia ICU admission rates, treatment quality and patient outcomes are poorer.

Admission rates to the intensive care unit (ICU) for patients with pneumonia differ widely among hospitals. Such variance is related to patient characteristics but may also be a quality-of-care indicator.

To investigate this issue, researchers reviewed discharge records for all acute care hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥65 with either a principal diagnosis of pneumonia or a principal diagnosis of sepsis or respiratory failure with secondary diagnosis of pneumonia in 2008 (551,873 patients — about half of all patients diagnosed with pneumonia in the U.S. that year).

The pneumonia ICU admission rate among the 2812 hospitals involved ranged from 2% to 86% (median, 23%). Grouping the hospitals according to ICU admission rates …

Reviewing Author

Thomas Glück, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsConsilium Infectiorum by InfectoPharm, Infection

Thomas Glück, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsConsilium Infectiorum by InfectoPharm, Infection

Is High ICU Utilization a Quality Measure for Pneumonia Care?

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Reviewing Author