The NICE (2014) guidance publication ‘Pneumonia in Adult: Diagnosis & Management’ covers diagnosing and managing Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) in adults. Its aim is to improve the accurate assessment and diagnosis of pneumonia to help guide antibiotic prescription and ensure that people receive the right care. It estimates a mortality rate between 5% and 14% for patients admitted to hospital with CAP.
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was established in October 2019, bringing together Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen Hospitals NHS Trust. The Royal Liverpool site took the decision in February 2019 to begin a programme of work to improve the delivery of care to patients diagnosed with CAP. A review of 2018 discharges in Secondary User Service (SUS) data showed that of the 2,827 patients diagnosed and coded as CAP, 451 died in hospital, a crude mortality rate of 16%. This was considerably above the overall north-west rate of 14.9%.
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust currently participate in the Advancing Quality (AQ) programme which aims to ensure high reliability and reduce variation through a structured approach to embedding evidenced-based care, enabling the highest quality of care to be provided to every patient, every time. The AQ pneumonia measure set supports the NICE (2014) publication, monitoring five interventions to improve clinical outcomes.
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