This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (2)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in JAMA

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Dr Marrie and colleagues¹ concluded that "the implementation of a critical pathway [for treating community-acquired pneumonia in Canada] reduced the institutional resources without causing adverse effects on the well-being of the patients." However, several issues should be evaluated before this recommendation is widely adopted.

First, the average length of stay (LOS) for the institutions using a pathway was 8.2 days, almost 3 days longer than the national average in the United States.² The large difference between the mean and median implies a skewed distribution in the LOS. This calls into question whether some patients were being treated for complications of pneumonia or an unrelated event. On average, patients stayed more than 3 additional days in the hospital after being converted from intravenous antibiotics to oral therapy regardless of type of institution. This is inconsistent with data from the United States, where patients are discharged approximately 1 day . . . [Full Text of this Article]

RELATED ARTICLE

A Controlled Trial of a Critical Pathway for Treatment of Community-Acquired Pneumonia
Thomas J. Marrie, Catherine Y. Lau, Susan L. Wheeler, Cindy J. Wong, Margaret K. Vandervoort, Brian G. Feagan, and for the CAPITAL Study Investigators
JAMA. 2000;283(6):749-755.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Cost and Incidence of Social Comorbidities in Low-Risk Patients With Community-Acquired Pneumonia Admitted to a Public Hospital
Goss et al.
Chest 2003;124:2148-2155.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT