Children's Hospitals More Likely to Give Recommended Antibiotics for Pneumonia

Kids with pneumonia may be more likely to receive recommended antibiotics when they're treated at a children's hospital than when they're seen elsewhere, suggests new study from Dr. Jeffrey Gerber and colleagues. This research, recently published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that only 27% of children admitted to non-children’s hospitals received guideline-concordant therapy compared with 61% in children’s hospitals. Since 2011, U.S. guidelines have recommended narrow spectrum antibiotics for kids hospitalized for pneumonia. "Narrow-spectrum antibiotics are recommended over broad-spectrum antibiotics because narrow-spectrum antibiotics provide similar (and sometime better) clinical cure rates, are less likely to cause antibiotic-resistance, typically have fewer side effects (like diarrhea), and are less expensive," said senior study author Dr. Jeffrey Gerber. This discrepancy in antibiotic prescribing practices may represent an important target for antimicrobial stewardship efforts.

KFGO | January 4, 2019

Upcoming Events

Using Behavioral Economics and Digital Health to Address Teen Vaping and Smoking: Preliminary Findings and Lessons Learned

Date: Friday, February 8, 2019 

Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm 

Location: Roberts Center for Pediatric Research, 1st Floor, Room 1-120A

Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness, PolicyLab & the mHealth Research Affinity Group (RAG) will be hosting a seminar, "Using Behavioral Economics and Digital Health to Address Teen Vaping and Smoking: Preliminary Findings and Lessons Learned," presented by Brian Jenssen, MD, MSHP. Additional information is available here. Please RSVP to CPCE@email.chop.edu.

CPCE & PolicyLab Visiting Speaker Series: Dr. Gabriel Escobar 

Date: February 22, 2019 

Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm 

Location: Roberts Center for Pediatric Research, 1-120 A&B 

Gabriel J. Escobar, MD, is a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, director of the Division of Research Systems Research Initiative; and Regional Director for Hospital Operations Research for Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Dr. Escobar's research interests include risk adjustment, predictive modeling, severity-of-illness scoring, the use of comprehensive inpatient and outpatient electronic medical records for health services research, and the use of real-time decision support tools that are embedded in the electronic record.  

Recent Publications

What Parents Think About the Risks and Benefits of Antibiotics for Their Child's Acute Respiratory Tract Infection.

Parental pressure is often cited as a reason for why pediatricians overuse antibiotics for children with acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI). Here, CPCE researchers including Associate Directors Dr. Jeffrey Gerber and Dr. Alexander Fiks examined parent perceptions of antibiotics at the time of their child's presentation with an ARTI. Parents involved in the study expressed a sense of caution about antibiotics and an awareness that they should be used judiciously, indicating that parents are aware of the downsides of antibiotics and might be willing to partner with healthcare providers to improve appropriate use.

A Multicenter Consortium to Define the Epidemiology and Outcomes of Inpatient Respiratory Viral Infections in Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients.

Respiratory virus infections (RVIs) pose a threat to children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). In this era of sensitive molecular diagnostics, the incidence and outcome of HSCT recipients who are hospitalized with RVI (H-RVI) are not well described. Dr. Brian Fisher and colleagues assembled a retrospective observational cohort of pediatric HSCT recipients and reviewed their medical charts for H-RVI events within 1 year after their transplant to calculate the incidence of H-RVI. Results of this suggest that H-RVIs are relatively common in pediatric HSCT recipients and contribute to significant morbidity and death. These data should help inform interventional studies specific to each viral pathogen.

Imaging of central lymphatic abnormalities in Noonan syndrome.

Noonan syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects many areas of the body. It is characterized by mildly unusual facial features, short stature, heart defects, bleeding problems, skeletal malformations, and many other signs and symptoms. Children with Noonan syndrome are known to have increased risk for lymphatic disorders, the extent and nature of which are poorly understood. The objective of this study, from CPCE’s Dr. Andrew Glatz, Dr. Hansel Otero, and colleagues, was to describe the imaging findings of the central lymphatic abnormalities in children with Noonan syndrome who underwent central lymphatic imaging.

Attributable length of stay and cost for pediatric and neonatal central line-associated bloodstream infections in Greece.

Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) are the most frequent pediatric hospital-acquired infections and are associated with significant morbidity and healthcare costs. The aim of this study, from CPCE Director Dr. Theoklis Zaoutis and colleagues, was to determine the attributable length of stay and cost for CLABSIs in pediatric patients in Greece, for which there is currently a paucity of data.

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