SNHAP
Adherence to Standards for Treating Nursing Home Acquired Pneumonia
(Nursing Home Acquired Pneumonia)

Funded by: Academic Medicine & Managed Care Forum Quality Care Research Fund
Project Period: 12/99 - 6/01

A modified Delphi approach involving local and national experts in pneumonia and nursing home care will be used to develop standards for management of nursing home acquired pneumonia. The proposed standards will be compared to current practice, as described in a group of 138 nursing home patients who developed incident NHAP, drawn from a national random sample of 2279 admissions to 58 nursing facilities in 1997. The data set includes demographics, facility characteristics, advance care directives, vital signs, comorbidity, disease severity, diagnostic management, type, route and duration of antibiotic therapy. It is unique among studies of NHAP in that it begins with a national random sample of nursing home patients, identifies incident pneumonia, and follows its clinical course in great detail even if the individual was not hospitalized. Associations between standards adherence and patient and facility characteristics will be examined for each individual standard. Using multivariate methods, associations between the individual standards and outcomes will be explored, adjusting for selected risk factors.

Key Staff: Hutt, Frederickson

Journal Articles:

Hutt E, Frederickson EB, Ecord MK, Kramer AM. "Processes of Care Predict Survival Following Nursing Home-Acquired Pneumonia." Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management 9(5):249-256, 2002.

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