Quality of care for elderly patients hospitalized for pneumonia in the United States, 2006 to 2010.

IMPORTANCE

Nearly every US acute care hospital reports publicly on adherence to recommended processes of care for patients hospitalized with pneumonia. However, it remains uncertain how much performance of these process measures has improved over time or whether performance is associated with superior patient outcomes.

OBJECTIVES

To describe trends in processes of care, mortality, and readmission for elderly patients hospitalized for pneumonia and to assess the independent associations between processes and outcomes of care.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective cohort study conducted from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2010, at 4740 US acute care hospitals. The cohort included 1 818 979 cases of pneumonia in elderly (≥65 years), Medicare fee-for-service patients who were eligible for at least 1 of 7 pneumonia inpatient processes of care tracked by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Annual performance rates for 7 pneumonia processes of care and an all-or-none composite of these measures; and 30-day, all-cause mortality and hospital readmission, adjusted for patient and hospital characteristics.

RESULTS

Adjusted annual performance rates for all 7 CMS processes of care (expressed in percentage points per year) increased significantly from 2006 to 2010, ranging from 1.02 for antibiotic initiation within 6 hours to 5.30 for influenza vaccination (P < .001). All 7 measures were performed in more than 92% of eligible cases in 2010. The all-or-none composite demonstrated the largest adjusted relative increase over time (6.87 percentage points per year; P < .001) and was achieved in 87.4% of cases in 2010. Adjusted annual mortality decreased by 0.09 percentage points per year (P < .001), driven primarily by decreasing mortality in the subgroup not treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) (-0.18 percentage points per year; P < .001). Adjusted annual readmission rates decreased significantly by 0.25 percentage points per year (P < .001). All 7 processes of care were independently associated with reduced 30-day mortality, and 5 were associated with reduced 30-day readmission.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Performance of processes of care for elderly patients hospitalized for pneumonia improved substantially from 2006 to 2010. Adjusted 30-day mortality declined slightly over time primarily owing to improved survival among non-ICU patients, and all individual processes of care were independently associated with reduced mortality.