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Percent of Patients with Pneumonia Who Have a Blood Culture In the Emergency Department Before Receiving Antibiotics

Bacteria or a virus can cause pneumonia. Pneumonia that is caused by bacteria can be treated with antibiotics. Different antibiotics are used to treat different bacteria.

A blood test is used to identify whether pneumonia is caused by a bacteria, and if so, which type of bacteria. This allows the doctor to decide which antibiotic will be most effective in treating the patient's pneumonia.

This measure reports the percent of pneumonia patients who receive such a test in the Emergency Department before antibiotics are given.

A high score is better than a low score.

The chart above shows how Cedars-Sinai's performance on this measure compared with the top 10% of hospitals in the United States, the national average for hospitals, the top 10% of hospitals in California and the California average. These data reflect care given to patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from January through March 2008. The national and California data reflect care given to patients from January 2007 through December 2007.