Improving Use of Antibiotics for Pediatric Pneumonia in Community Hospital Emergency Departments

The majority of pediatric patients present to community-hospital emergency departments (EDs). Pneumonia is among the most common reasons for ED visits; however, prescribing narrow-spectrum antibiotics occurs at rates below established best practices. We sought to increase prescription of narrow-spectrum antibiotics for pediatric pneumonia in 5 community hospital EDs using an interdisciplinary learning collaborative. We aimed to increase use of narrow spectrum antibiotics from 60% to 80% by December 2018.

An interdisciplinary community hospital learning collaborative increased prescribing narrow-spectrum antibiotics by both general and pediatric ED providers.