Physicians' attitudes toward guidelines for the treatment of hospitalized nursing home-acquired pneumonia.

摘要

OBJECTIVES: To assess physician awareness, attitudes, and barriers toward the 2005 American Thoracic Society (ATS)/Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines for the treatment of hospitalized nursing home-acquired pneumonia (NHAP). METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 522 health care providers. The survey assessed the practice setting characteristics, physicians' attitudes, and reported awareness of the 2005 ATS/IDSA guidelines. Factor analysis was conducted to identify scales of variables, and a reliability analysis was performed to verify the reliability of the identified scales. RESULTS: Three hundred and ten completed the survey. Most responders (88%) reported familiarity with the practice guidelines in their field, but less than half were familiar with the ATS/IDSA NHAP guidelines. Although attitude scores regarding clinical practice guidelines did not differ significantly among various disciplines (P = .63), there were 2 characteristics that correlated with positive attitudes toward the 2005 ATS/IDSA guidelines in a multivariate analysis: being a pulmonary specialist (P