Table 1.
Patient-level processes of care and empiric antibiotic treatment of children hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia.
| Age Category (years) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall (%) | 1–5 (%) | 6–12 (%) | 13–18 (%)a | |
| N=21,213 | N=15,295 | N=4,770 | N=1,148 | |
| Chest Radiograph | 15,900 (75.0) | 11,588 (75.8) | 3,497 (73.3) | 815 (71.0) |
| Laboratory Testing | ||||
| Complete blood count | 13,030 (61.4) | 9,324 (61.0) | 2,940 (61.6) | 766 (66.7) |
| Blood culture | 10,356 (48.8) | 7,639 (49.9) | 2,156 (45.2) | 561 (48.9) |
| Serum electrolytes | 7,016 (33.1) | 4,921 (32.2) | 1,610 (33.8) | 485 (42.3) |
| Viral studies | 6,042 (28.5) | 4,748 (31.0) | 1,023 (21.5) | 271 (23.6) |
| C-reactive protein | 4,025 (19.0) | 2,797 (18.3) | 951 (19.9) | 277 (24.1) |
| Arterial blood gas | 1,569 (7.4) | 1,092 (7.1) | 358 (7.5) | 119 (10.4) |
| Erythrocyte sedimentation rate | 972 (4.6) | 555 (3.6) | 285 (6.0) | 132 (11.5) |
| Initial Antibiotic Therapy | ||||
| Cephalosporin alone | 8,572 (40.4) | 7,211 (47.2) | 1,189 (24.9) | 172 (15.0) |
| Cephalosporin + macrolide | 4,429 (20.9) | 2,704 (17.7) | 1,389 (29.1) | 336 (29.3) |
| Cephalosporin + vancomycin/clindamycin | 3,027 (14.3) | 2,135 (14.0) | 714 (15.0) | 178 (15.5) |
| Cephalosporin + vancomycin/clindamycin + macrolide | 1,396 (6.6) | 718 (4.7) | 492 (10.3) | 186 (16.2) |
| Macrolide alone | 1,148 (5.4) | 637 (4.2) | 417 (8.7) | 94 (8.2) |
| Other | 1,124 (5.3) | 633 (4.1) | 340 (7.1) | 151 (13.2) |
| Penicillin/aminopenicillin alone | 1,033 (4.9) | 934 (6.1) | 89 (1.9) | 10 (0.9) |
| Penicillin/aminopenicillin + macrolide | 484 (2.3) | 323 (2.1) | 140 (2.9) | 21 (1.8) |
a
p-value <0.001 for all comparisons across age categories