Emergency planned re-infusion therapy and hospitalisation for community-acquired pneumonia: a retrospective case-control study.

Background: Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a frequent reason for emergency department visits and leads to increased direct medical costs, particularly due to hospitalisation. This study aims to examine the differences between emergency planned re-infusion therapy and hospitalisation in patients with CAP.

Methods: This retrospective case-control study involved 1889 CAP patients treated at the Emergency Internal Medicine Department of Class A tertiary Hospital in China from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022. Patients were divided into groups receiving either emergency planned re-infusion therapy or hospitalisation. Independent sample t tests and χ² tests were used to compare the clinical outcomes and economic impacts between the two groups across different pneumonia severity index (PSI) classifications.

Results: The study enrolled 1889 CAP patients. For PSI I-II patients, the improvement rates were 99.51% in the emergency planned re-infusion therapy group and 99.69% in the hospitalisation group, showing no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05). Similarly, no significant difference was observed for PSI III patients (84.16 vs. 89.82%). However, significant differences emerged for PSI IV patients, with improvement rates of 50% in the emergency planned re-infusion therapy group and 90.59% in the hospitalisation group (P < 0.001). Statistically significant differences were also noted in treatment duration (5.13 ± 1.65 days vs. 7.60 ± 3.93 days, P < 0.001) and total treatment costs (1921.57 Chinese Yuan (CNY) ± 923.16 vs. 9083.80 CNY ± 3583.55, P < 0.001) between the two groups.

Conclusions: Emergency planned re-infusion therapy for CAP is an effective and cost-efficient alternative that can reduce both treatment duration and costs, particularly for patients with PSI I-III. It is recommended that emergency physicians give priority to emergency re-infusion therapy for patients with PSI I-III. In addition, it is recommended that hospitals strengthen the classification and treatment training programmes for emergency department physicians to recognise the patients with PSI I-IV.

Registration: The hospital^'s ethics committee (XMCGIRB2024034-01).