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Saturday, 11/01/2008
Adherence to ATS Guidelines Reduces Hospital Stay Times and Improves Patient Mortality
Clinical guidelines are an essential tool for good clinical practice and the reduction of patients’ length of stay in hospital.
Clinical guidelines are an essential tool for good clinical practice and the reduction of patients’ length of stay in hospital. The guidelines published by the American Thoracic Society are an international gold standard for patients with pneumonia, yet their impact on patient mortality and length of stay in hospital has not been described objectively. A study published by our group in the European Respiratory Journal (32: 892–901), with Dr. Póvilas Dambrava as the primary author, examines how the correct adherence to these guidelines affects patient outcome.
The study analyzed data from 780 consecutive patients admitted to Hospital Clínic due to community-acquired pneumonia. Patients who acquired the disease in a residential institution were excluded. Of the patients included in the study, 84% received treatment based on the clinical guidelines. These patients had a lower mortality rate than patients who received treatment that did not adhere to the recommendations in the ATS guidelines. Length of stay was also significantly shorter among patients who received treatment that adhered to the guidelines (7.6 days) than among those who did not (10.4 days).