Hospital-level factors associated with death during pneumonia-associated hospitalization among adults—New York City, 2010–2014

BACKGROUND: In New York City (NYC), pneumonia is a leading cause of death and most pneumonia deaths occur in hospitals. Whether the pneumonia death rate in NYC reflects reporting artifact or is associated with factors during pneumonia-associated hospitalization (PAH) is unknown. We aimed to identify hospital-level factors associated with higher than expected in-hospital pneumonia death rates among adults in NYC. METHODS: Data from January 1, 2010–December 31, 2014 were obtained from the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System and the American Hospital Association Database. In-hospital pneumonia standardized mortality ratio (SMR) was calculated for each hospital as observed PAH death rate divided by expected PAH death rate. To determine hospital-level factors associated with higher in-hospital pneumonia SMR, we fit a hospital-level multivariable negative binomial regression model. RESULTS: Of 148,172 PAH among adult NYC residents in 39 hospitals during 2010–2014, 20,820 (14.06%) resulted in in-hospital death. In-hospital pneumonia SMRs varied across NYC hospitals (0.77–1.23) after controlling for patient-level factors. An increase in average daily occupancy and membership in the Council of Teaching Hospitals were associated with increased in-hospital pneumonia SMR. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in in-hospital pneumonia SMRs between hospitals might reflect differences in disease severity, quality of care, or coding practices. More research is needed to understand the association between average daily occupancy and in-hospital pneumonia SMR. Additional pneumonia-specific training at teaching hospitals can be considered to address higher in-hospital pneumonia SMR in teaching hospitals.