Pneumonia patient with blood cultures in emergency department before antibiotic administered (percent)

Numerator

Pneumonia patients whose initial emergency room blood culture was performed prior to the administration of the first hospital dose of antibiotics

Denominator

Pneumonia patients > 17 years of age who have an initial blood culture collected as an emergency department patient

Methodology

Hospital Compare sample rates were downloaded from the CMS web site: http://www.medicare.gov/Download/DownloadDB.asp

Hospital population weights were computed based on estimates imputed from the denominators for Hospital Compare readmissions. Hospital referral region (HRR) rates were computed as the weighted average of the hospital sample rates within the HRR using the population weights.

State rates were computed as weighted averages of the hospital sample rates within the state.

References

Hospital Compare process measures documentation posted at http://www.qualitynet.org/dcs/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=QnetPublic%2FPage%2FQnetTier4&cid=1203781887871

HRR documentation is posted at http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/downloads/methods/geogappdx.pdf • SSA state and county code documentation is posted at County to CBSA crosswalk file