[Guidelines for the probabilistic treatment of community-acquired pneumonia: compared experience between internal medicine and emergency departments in the University Hospital of Besançon, France].

Introduction: The objective of this study was to assess the application of local and national recommendations in the management of community-acquired pneumonia in an internal medicine department with an antibiotic referent physician and in an emergency department.

Patients And Methods: This was a retrospective single-center study including patients admitted with community-acquired pneumonia in the internal medicine department of the University Hospital of Besançon after an initial admission in the emergency department.

Results: One hundred patients (58 women and 42 men) were included. The mean age was 79 ± 11 years. The prescriptions done in the emergency department were in accordance with local recommendations or Société de pathologie infectieuse de langue française (SPILF) recommendations in 62% of cases. The prescriptions followed the recommendations in 94% of cases in internal medicine department (P<0.05). The lack of initial antibiotic treatment had no influence on morbidity and mortality.

Conclusion: The guidelines for infectious diseases treatment were significantly more often applied in a department where a referent physician was designated for this.