Duration Of Therapy For Community-acquired Pneumonia Research Articles

Reducing the rate of guideline-discordant therapy for inpatients with community-acquired pneumonia

Background: Despite guidelines recommending shorter durations of therapy and empiric coverage of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) only for patients with certain risk factors, optimizing therapy for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remains a challenge for antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) teams. We investigated the impact of a multimodal AMS initiative on the rate of guideline-discordant empiric antibiotic selection and total duration of therapy for CAP. Methods: A quality improvement initiative was implemented at 9 community hospitals in 2022 to optimize CAP therapy. Education was provided to pharmacists and providers. Alerts were implemented within the electronic medical record to prompt the AMS team to review fluoroquinolones, antipseudomonal β-lactams, and anti-MRSA agents ordered for CAP. Clinical pharmacists reviewed antibiotic orders for CAP at hospital discharge and encouraged providers to prescribe a total antibiotic duration of 5–7 days. For the preintervention period (July– September 2021) and the postintervention period (July to September 2022), a random sample of 320 patients with an antibiotic order for CAP were evaluated retrospectively via chart review. Patients treated for an indication other than CAP were excluded. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with a total duration of therapy >7 days. Secondary outcomes included average duration of therapy, rate of guideline-discordant empiric therapy, and type of guideline discordance. Results: In total, 317 patients were included. The proportion of patients with a total duration of therapy >7 days decreased from 29% to 14% (P < .01). Average duration of therapy and guideline-discordant empiric therapy also decreased significantly (Table 1). Conclusions: This multifaceted AMS initiative was associated with decreased guideline-discordant empiric therapy and decreased total duration of therapy for CAP.Disclosures: None

1803. Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship: Beyond the Core Elements

Abstract Background Facility treatment guidelines for antibiotic choice and duration are a priority in the CDC Core Elements of hospital antimicrobial stewardship (AMS). Urinary tract infection (UTI) and community acquired pneumonia (CAP) are common pediatric diagnoses with potential for AMS impact in both inpatient and outpatient settings. We describe a project at a free-standing children’s hospital that was implemented through a collaboration of multidisciplinary providers who participated in the national Value in Inpatient Pediatrics (VIP) program. One aim of this project is to evaluate baseline and improve antibiotic duration for CAP and UTI. Methods This is a retrospective/prospective chart review study that compares baseline and post-intervention duration of antibiotic prescribing for UTI and CAP cases from July 2019-December 2021 based on data collected through the VIP program. Figure 1 describes the timeline of events and results. Patients included were identified by diagnosis code for CAP and UTI. Each case was randomized for inclusion and manually reviewed to ensure it met the diagnosis clinical definition. Cases with underlying chronic medical conditions were excluded from this analysis. Duration of antibiotics prescribed was compared for each group using Wilcoxon rank-sum testing. Figure 1.Timeline of guideline implementation and evaluation Results Among the 351 patients included, 163 had a diagnosis of CAP (98 pre-, 65 post- implementation); 188 with UTI (121 pre-, 67 post- implementation). Post Implementation, there was a significant decrease in median duration of antibiotic prescribing from 10 to 7 days in both groups (p< 0.001). Figure 2.Median duration of antibiotics pre and post program implementation (p<0.001) Conclusion Institutional implementation of guidelines is an important step in local AMS. Guideline implementation alone is not enough to ensure practice change and going beyond the CDC core elements has become important. In our case, participation in a national project with local multidisciplinary involvement was successful in improving duration of therapy for CAP and UTI not previously achieved by the local guidelines. Changes were made to the electronic medical record in the ED to ensure sustainability of this change. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures.

146. Predictors of Long Duration Antibiotic Therapy for Urinary Tract Infections and Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Pediatric Ambulatory Care Settings

BackgroundSignificant variation exists in the duration of antibiotic therapy for children in ambulatory care settings. Understanding drivers of variation for common conditions such as community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and urinary tract infection (UTI) is important to informing antimicrobial stewardship interventions. MethodsA retrospective observational study was conducted of patients with CAP and UTI seen in outpatient clinics or discharged from the emergency room (ER) of a tertiary care children’s hospital network from 2016 – 2019. Diagnoses CAP and UTI were identified via ICD-10 coding. Only oral medications ordered for ≥ 3 and < 28 days were included. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify predictors of long antibiotic duration (defined as ≥ 10 days). Potential non-clinical drivers of longer duration included race, ethnicity, sex, primary language, and insurance status. ResultsA total of 2,104 prescriptions for CAP from 442 prescribers and 1,070 prescriptions for UTI from 314 prescribers were included. Antibiotic durations were ≥ 10 days in 59.9% and 47.6% of prescriptions for CAP and UTI, respectively. Long duration of therapy was more common in children discharged from the ER when compared to clinics for both CAP (OR 1.795, 95% CI: 1.107 - 2.929), and UTI (OR 5.149, 95% CI: 1.933 - 16.373). The proportion of patients with long duration of therapy increased with younger age for both diagnoses and decreased overall in the final year of the study. Race, gender, ethnicity, and primary language were not associated with prolonged duration of therapy. However, patients with Medicaid insurance were more likely to receive long duration of therapy for CAP (OR 1.337, 95% CI: 1.062 - 1.682) and UTI (1.654, 95%, CI: 1.181 - 2.325). ConclusionIn pediatric patients in ambulatory care settings, younger age, care in the ER, and being insured through Medicaid were independently associated with prolonged duration of therapy for both UTI and CAP.Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

175. Impact of Infectious Diseases Pharmacist Interventions on Appropriateness of Antibiotics Prescribed at Hospital Discharge

BackgroundHospital discharge is an important opportunity for antimicrobial stewardship. Despite inpatient stewardship efforts, antibiotics ordered at discharge are frequently prescribed inappropriately. Discharge antibiotic therapy may be too broad or narrow in spectrum, inappropriately dosed, or for an unnecessarily long duration. The purpose of this study was to assess the inappropriateness of antimicrobial prescribing on discharge and to measure the effect of infectious diseases pharmacist (IDP) intervention on antibiotics prescribed at discharge from the inpatient setting.MethodsAnalyses were completed before and after implementation of an IDP intervention at hospital discharge. IDPs were alerted to patients discharged on antimicrobial therapy for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs), and urinary tract infections (UTIs). IDPs reviewed patient and laboratory data and made recommendations for modifications of antibiotics prior to patients leaving the hospital. Prescribing algorithms were created and used to standardize the assessment of discharge antibiotics using local antibiograms and IDSA guidelines. The primary outcome was the composite of appropriateness including antibiotic dose, duration, and spectrum. Secondary outcomes included appropriateness of the individual components of the primary outcome as well as the mean total duration of antibiotic therapy per disease state.ResultsA total of 77 patients were assessed during the study period occurring December 2019 through February 2020. Intervention increased the rate of appropriate prescribing for the composite of antibiotic dose, duration, and spectrum from 48.1% at baseline to 84.4% (P < 0.05). By subset, intervention increased the proportion of patients receiving antibiotics of appropriate duration from 59.7% at baseline to 85.7% (P < 0.001), and proportion of patients receiving antibiotics of appropriate spectrum from 90.9% at baseline to 100% (P < 0.05). The mean duration of therapy for CAP decreased by 0.6 days (6.8 vs 7.4 days, P < 0.05).ConclusionIDP intervention improved appropriateness of prescribing consistent with guideline recommendations and local antibiogram data.Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

A Multicenter Stewardship Initiative to Decrease Excessive Duration of Antibiotic Therapy for the Treatment of Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP)

Abstract Background Hospitals have implemented multifaceted approaches to quickly identify CAP, start timely therapy, and reduce hospital readmission, yet there has been minimal focus on providing appropriate duration of therapy. The IDSA CAP guidelines recommend 5 days of antibiotic therapy for patients that are clinically stable and quickly defervesce. However, previous publications suggest duration of therapy for CAP may be unnecessarily prolonged. Methods The objective of this multicenter, quasi-experimental study of hospitalized patients with CAP was to assess the impact of a prospective 6-month stewardship intervention on total duration of antibiotic therapy and associated clinical outcomes. All centers updated institutional CAP guidelines to promote IDSA-concordant durations of therapy and provided education to pharmacists and prescribers. Daily patient-specific prospective audit and feedback was provided by infectious diseases stewardship pharmacists to optimize compliance with guideline recommendations. Results A total of 600 patients were included (307 in the historic control group and 293 in the stewardship intervention group). The stewardship intervention led to significantly increased rates of compliance with IDSA duration of therapy recommendations (5.6% vs. 41.4%, P&amp;lt; &amp;lt; 0.01) and significantly reduced the duration of therapy for CAP (9 vs. 6 days, P &amp;lt; 0.01). Inappropriate days of antibiotic therapy was reduced in the intervention group (4 vs. 1.6 days, P &amp;lt; 0.01), and total avoidance of 720 excessive days of antibiotic therapy. Clinical outcomes, including mortality, length of hospitalization, readmission to hospital with pneumonia, presentation to the ER/clinic with pneumonia within 30 days of discharge, and incidence of C. difficilecolitis, were not different between groups. Conclusion This multicenter evaluation of a prospective stewardship intervention in hospitalized CAP patients reduced the total duration of antibiotic therapy and increased compliance with guideline-concordant duration of therapy without adversely affecting patient outcomes. This project was funded through a competitive stewardship grant provided by Merck &amp; Co. Disclosures A. Huang, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; C. Nguyen, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; J. Grieger, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; S. Revolinski, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; J. Li, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; M. Mack, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; J. N. Wainaina, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; G. Eschenauer, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; T. Patel, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; V. Marshall, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant; J. Nagel, Merck: Grant Investigator, Research grant

Impact of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Intervention on Shortening the Duration of Therapy for Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Initial management of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has been a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services performance measure for a decade. We hypothesized that an intervention directed at management of CAP that assesses areas not covered by the performance measures-treatment duration and antimicrobial selection after additional microbiology data are available--would further improve CAP management. We performed a single-center, prospective study to compare management of adult inpatients with presumed CAP before (from 1 January 2008 through 31 March 2008) and after (from 1 February 2010 through 10 May 2010) an intervention consisting of education and prospective feedback to teams regarding antibiotic choice and duration. The primary outcome measure was duration of antibiotic therapy in the 2 periods. There were 62 patients in the preintervention period and 65 patients in the intervention period. The duration of antibiotic therapy decreased from a median of 10 to 7 days (P < .001), with 148 fewer days of antibiotic therapy. The median lengths of stay were similar in the 2 groups (4 vs 5 days). A causative pathogen was identified less frequently during the intervention period (14% vs 34%); however, antibiotics were more frequently narrowed or modified on the basis of susceptibility results during the intervention period (67% vs 19%). Fewer patients received duplicate therapy within 24 hours in the intervention period (90% vs 55%). The duration of therapy for CAP was excessive at our institution and was decreased with a stewardship intervention. Confirmatory studies at other institutions are needed; efforts to assess and reduce duration of therapy for CAP should be strongly considered.

Community-acquired pneumonia: is it time to shorten the antibiotic treatment?

Evaluation of: Li JZ, Winston LG, Moore DH, Bent S. Efficacy of short-course antibiotic regimens for community-acquired pneumonia: a meta-analysis. Am. J. Med. 120, 783–790 (2007).Guidelines for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) treatment have been published since 1993. Currently, the guidelines developed under the auspices of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Thoracic Society are used. Empirical antibiotic recommendations reported in the current guidelines have not changed significantly from those reported previously concerning the choice of antibiotics, whereas the treatment duration is generic. Actually, in clinical practice, it seems that patients with mild-to-moderate CAP are overtreated for 7–10 days. The concern regarding adverse drug interactions, drug costs and, especially, increasing antimicrobial resistance have led to attempts to shorten the duration of therapy for CAP.

Clinical Efficacy of Newer Agents in Short-Duration Therapy for Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Streptococcus pneumoniae, the most important respiratory tract pathogen implicated in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), is becoming increasingly resistant in vitro to the beta -lactams and macrolides, and fluoroquinolone resistance has been detected. A growing body of evidence suggests that prolonged antimicrobial use may contribute directly and indirectly to increased antimicrobial resistance among common respiratory pathogens. Long-term exposure to antimicrobial agents, especially less-potent agents, directly increases selection pressure for resistance. Indirectly, poor patient compliance, multiple daily dosing, and the increased risk of adverse events further complicate the resistance issue and diminish the efficacy of long-term antimicrobial use. Controlled clinical trials addressing the appropriate duration of therapy for CAP are lacking. However, available data suggest that with appropriate antibiotic selection, based on appropriate spectrum, potency, and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic profile, lower respiratory tract infections in outpatients can be successfully treated in <7 days rather than the 7-14 days currently recommended.