Table 3.

Differences in Pneumonia Practice Beliefs Between Generalist and Specialist Physicians

Clinical Practice Statement	Pulm/ID*(n = 29)	Generalists (n = 270)	Other Specialists (n = 44)	P value†
Patients should be afebrile for 24 hours before being converted to oral antibiotics, % agree.	45	59	57	.46
Patients should receive a standard duration of intravenous antibiotics, % agree.	10	18	30	.09‡
It is very important that the white blood cell count return to normal prior to conversion to oral antibiotics, % agree.	3	17	29	.02b
It is very important that the infiltrate on chest x-ray resolves prior to conversion to oral antibiotics, % agree.	0	7	23	.0001b,c
Temperature should be ≤99°F before switching to oral antibiotics, % agree.	3	19	25	.08a,b

^*Pulm/ID indicates pulmonary medicine and infectious diseases specialists.

^†P values presented are for overall comparisons between the 3 groups. Statistically significant pairwise comparisons are indicated by the superscripts as follows: ^apulmonary/ID versus generalists (P ≤ .05); ^bpulmonary/ID versus other specialists (P ≤ .05); ^cgeneralists versus other specialists (P ≤ .05).

^‡Pulmonary/ID versus other specialists P = .06 and generalists versus other specialists P = .06.