Table 1.

Patient and site characteristics (independent variables) collected from patient charts

Type of data collected	Pre-specified as clinically relevant (always included in models)	Considered in models only if marginally statistically significant (p < 0.1)
Patient baseline characteristics	• Age (later removed), Country,	• Patient living arrangements (for IV-only, IV-to-oral, ES models),
	• Patient living arrangements (for LOS, ED models)	• Employment status
	• Charlson comorbidity index	• History of diabetes
	• IV drug abuse	• History of diabetes with end organ damage
		• History of peripheral vascular disease
		• History of dementia
		• Any MRSA colonization before admission
Infection/treatment characteristics	• cSSTI type	• Days from admission to cSSTI index date
	• cSSTI location	• Initial antibiotic therapy was MRSA active
	• cSSTI source	• Time to initiating MRSA-active therapy
	• Days to first MRSA culture
	• Any surgical procedures for cSSTI
	• IV-to-oral antibiotic switch (vs IV-only; except for IV-to-oral antibiotic switch model)
Complications		• Superinfection
		• Serious adverse event
		• Severe sepsis
		• Developed IV line infection
Hospital characteristics		• Discharge physician specialty, Type of hospital
		• Overall hospital beds,
		• Hospital has an ED protocol (IV-to-oral antibiotic switch or OPAT),
		• Hospital has an IV-to-oral antibiotic switch protocol

Abbreviations: cSSTI, complicated skin and soft tissue infection; IV, intravenous; ED, early discharge; ES, early switch; LOS, length of hospital stay; MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; OPAT, outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy. Add OPAT?