OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of a length of stay practice guideline on @entity1 outcomes. DESIGN: A prospective, nonrandomized, interventional trial. SETTING: Six geographically distributed hospitals. @entity1 : Two hundred forty-two consecutively hospitalized "low-risk" @entity1 with @entity55 . MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: One hundred fifty-two @entity1 (63%) completed the mailed postdischarge survey and were included in the analysis. Data were prospectively collected for 85 @entity1 from the baseline observation period (B) and 67 @entity1 from the intervention period (I). During the I, case managers provided physicians with @entity1 risk information based on guideline recommendations. There was no significant change in guideline compliance (B vs I: 76.5% vs 83.6%; p=0.32) or length of stay (B vs I: 3.5 days [95% confidence interval, 3.2 to 3.8] vs 3.6 days [95% confidence interval, 3.3 to 4.0]). Also, there were no statistically significant effects of the intervention on @entity1 outcomes, care following hospital discharge, and @entity1 satisfaction scores. CONCLUSION: @entity1 in this study often had shorter lengths of stay than recommended by the practice guideline. This suggests that the external environment may have had a greater effect on physician behavior and length of stay than the practice guideline itself. Moreover, it demonstrates the importance of continuous assessment of physician practices immediately prior to, during, and after application of the clinical practice guideline.

A prospective, multicenter study of a XXXX practice guideline.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['Patients', 'patients', 'patient', 'PATIENTS'] @entity55 :: ('MESH:D011014', 'Disease') :: ['pneumonia']
@entity55 :: (MESH:D011014,Disease) :: ['pneumonia']
