Skip to main content

Quality Improvement Program Aids Antibiotic Duration for Common Infections in Children

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on May 7, 2025.

via HealthDay

WEDNESDAY, May 7, 2025 -- A quality improvement program can improve recommended antibiotic duration in children for both acute otitis media (AOM) and community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) across multiple care delivery settings, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, held from April 24 to 28 in Honolulu.

Elysha Pifko, M.D., from Nemours Children's Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware, and colleagues scaled a quality improvement initiative aimed at creating clinical pathways for treatment of AOM and CAP throughout a health care system that included two emergency departments, 67 primary care sites, and three urgent care sites in three states (26,896 patients).

The researchers reported that adherence to recommended antibiotic treatment duration for AOM and CAP combined increased from 51 to 83 percent, with no change in the proportion of patients requiring a second prescription. The goal of 80 percent was exceeded in the emergency department and primary care sites, with an upward trend in urgent care. For CAP, systemwide adherence to treatment duration increased from 39 to 72 percent and from 59 to 81 percent for AOM, with center-line shifts. For CAP (mean 7.6 days to six days) and AOM (mean 8.5 days to 6.8 days in patients 2 years and older), the average durations for prescribed antibiotics decreased.

"Scaling from one department to an entire health care system across the continuum proved to be an effective strategy," the authors write.

Press Release

More Information

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read this next

Unfavorable Mental Health Outcomes Reported With THC Product Use

TUESDAY, Aug. 26, 2025 -- High-concentration delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cannabis products are associated with unfavorable mental health outcomes, according to a review...

New Guideline Developed for Management of High Blood Pressure

TUESDAY, Aug. 26, 2025 -- In a new 2025 joint guideline issued by the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, published online Aug. 14 in Circulation...

Many Women Have Preexisting Modifiable Risk Factors for Birth Defects

TUESDAY, Aug. 26, 2025 -- About two-thirds of reproductive-aged women in the United States have preexisting modifiable risk factors for birth defects, according to a study...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.