New calculator helps determine pneumonia treatment

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed an interactive, clinical decision support tool for use with personal digital assistants (PDAs) that will help clinicians make evidence-based treatment decisions at the point of care, according to a March 1, 2004, news release from the AHRQ. The tool, known as the Pneumonia Severity Index Calculator, can help physicians determine whether patients with community-acquired pneumonia need to be treated in a hospital or if they can be treated at home.

Each year, approximately four million Americans develop community-acquired pneumonia that is not contracted in a hospital or nursing home environment. Treatment costs for this illness are approximately $10 billion annually. Ninety-two percent of these costs are spent treating patients who are hospitalized for care. A number of these patients, who are at low risk, could be treated as outpatients, but they need to be accurately identified before such treatment is recommended.

The Pneumonia Severity Index Calculator was designed based on a clinical algorithm that was developed in 1997 by the multidisciplinary, AHRQ-funded Pneumonia Patient Outcomes Research Team. The Pneumonia Severity Index algorithm has been validated in a broad, randomized, controlled trial and was shown to be safe and cost effective. In addition, patient satisfaction was improved because patients were treated at home when this was appropriate, rather than being treated in the hospital.

This tool, which is available in several formats compatible with different PDA operating systems, can be downloaded at http://pda.ahrq.gov. Additional applications for PDAs are being developed by the AHRQ.

New AHRQ Tool for PDAs Helps Clinicians Treat Community-Acquired Pneumonia (news release, Rockville, Md: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, March 1, 2004).

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