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Quality Improvement in Hospital Management of Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Focus on New Strategies and Current Challenges

  • Respiratory Infections (F Arnold, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Community-acquired pneumonia is a common reason for hospitalization and leads to significant morbidity and mortality. There are published evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of community-acquired pneumonia. Many countries, including the US, have developed national, publically reported quality measures related to the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia. This review highlights recent published innovations aimed at improving the quality of care for patients hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia. Interventions include standardized protocols and pathways, education and feedback from antimicrobial stewardship teams, and automated pharmacy technology. The importance of multidisciplinary collaboration and multidimensional interventions are discussed. Insight into local context and institutional support are essential to understanding the implementation of improvement efforts and these factors should be reported in future publications related to quality improvement.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Conflicts of Interest

Elizabeth A. Richey, Lauren Dudley, and Stephen K. Liu declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA

    Elizabeth A. Richey

  2. Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency Program, Section of Rheumatology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Lauren Dudley

  3. Section of Hospital Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH, 03756, USA

    Stephen K. Liu

Authors
  1. Elizabeth A. Richey
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  2. Lauren Dudley
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  3. Stephen K. Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephen K. Liu.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Respiratory Infections

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Richey, E.A., Dudley, L. & Liu, S.K. Quality Improvement in Hospital Management of Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Focus on New Strategies and Current Challenges. Curr Infect Dis Rep 16, 395 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-014-0395-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-014-0395-z

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