Published pneumonia treatment guidelines from ATS/IDSA recommend performance of blood cultures for all inpatients with severe pneumonia to optimize therapy. Improved survival has been associated with optimal therapy. In addition, the yield of clinically useful information is greater if the culture is collected before antibiotics are administered. The actual performance of a culture has been added to this measure because restricting measurement to culture collection prior to antibiotics provides an incentive for hospitals not to perform a culture in any patient who has already received antibiotics.

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• American Lung Association
• National Institue of Allergy and Infectious Diseases - National Institutes of Health

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• Bartlett JG, Dowell SF, Mandell LA, et al. Practice guidelines for the management of community-acquired pneumonia in adults. Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clin Infect Dis. 2000;31:347-382.
• Heffelfinger JD, Dowell SF, Jorgensen JH, Klugman KP, et al. Management of community-acquired pneumonia in the era of pneumococcal resistance: a report from the Drug-Resistant Streptococcus Pneumoniae Therapeutic Working Group. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2000, 160:1399-1408.
• Mandell LA, Bartlett JG, Dowell SF, et al. Update of practice guidelines for the management of community-acquired pneumonia in adults. Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clin Infect Dis. 2003;37:1405-1433.
• Mandell LA, Marrie TJ, Grossman RF, et al. Canadian guidelines for the initial management of community-acquired pneumonia: an evidence-based update by the Canadian Infectious Disease Society and the Canadian Thoracic Society. Clin Infect Dis 2000;31:383-421.
• Metersky ML, Ma A, Bratzler DW, et al. Predicting bacteremia in patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2004; 169: 342-347
• Niederman MS, Mandell LA, Anzueto A, et al. Guidelines for the management of adults with community-acquired pneumonia. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 2001; 163: 1730-1754.

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