Antibiotic Prescribing for Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia at Children’s Hospitals and General Hospitals Following National Guideline Release

Abstract

Background. The 2011 IDSA/PIDS guidelines for pediatric community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) recommend penicillin, amoxicillin, or ampicillin (penicillins) as first-line therapy for most children. The use of penicillins increased at children's hos-pitals after guideline publication, but trends in antibiotic choice for CAP at general hospitals have not been evaluated.Retrospective analysis of children 1-17 years admitted from January 2009 through September 2015 to 522 hospitals, captured via the Pediatric Health Information -idated ICD-9 code algorithm, excluding those with complicated pneumonia, complex chronic conditions, receipt of intensive care, or MRSA infection or colonization. Receipt of segmented logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex, and insurance provider. Standardized probability of antibiotic receipt was compared between children's and general hospitals.Results. Of 120,238 children hospitalized with CAP, 54% were admitted to 51 children's hospitals. After adjustment, penicillin use increased and both ceph-alosporin and macrolide use decreased in both children's and general hospitals (Figure). However, in the final study year, children in general hospitals were less likely to receive penicillins (standardized probability 0.23, 95% CI [0.17, 0.29] vs. 0.57 [0.52, 0.62]) and more likely to receive cephalosporins (0.78 [0.73, 0.82] vs. 0.51 [0.45, 0.57]) and macrolides (0.43 [0.38, 0.47] vs. 0.28 [0.25, 0.32]) than children in children's hospitals.Conclusion. Publication of national guidelines was associated with improved antibiotic selection for CAP at both children's and general hospitals. However, persist.