Pneumonia Pathway’s Effectiveness in Decreasing Length of Stay in an Acute Care

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) can be detrimental to patient outcomes. One major challenge affecting care for CAP is hospital length of stay (HLOS), which is associated with multiple factors, mainly comorbid conditions. One way to improve the efficiency of CAP hospital care is the implementation of pneumonia clinical pathways to ensure effectiveness in application of pneumonia treatment and care. This project evaluated the effectiveness of using pneumonia pathways by evaluating HLOS before and after the health care staff in the project site implemented pneumonia pathways. Use of the pneumonia pathways in the project site started in 2021, but there had not been a post project implementation evaluation to determine its effectiveness in relation to decreasing HLOS for CAP patients. Pre-project implementation and post evaluation de-identified data on HLOS from January 2021 through July 2021 and January 2022 through July 2022 from two chosen medical surgical units were collected and analyzed. Findings revealed a significant reduction in HLOS after the implementation of the pneumonia pathway. Recommendations include compliance and collaboration by health care providers in the use of pneumonia pathways for caring for CAP patients to improve patient outcomes, specifically HLOS.