Validation of a Community Acquired Pneumonia Score to Improve Empiric Antibiotic Selection at an Academic Medical Center.

The 2019 American Thoracic Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) Guidelines recommend drug resistant pathogens (DRP) be empirically covered if locally validated risk factors are present. This retrospective case-control validation study evaluated the performance of the Drug-Resistance in Pneumonia (DRIP) clinical prediction score.Two hundred 17 adult patients with ICD-10 pneumonia diagnosis, positive confirmed microbiologic data, and clinical signs and symptoms were included. A DRIP score of ≥ 4 was used to assess model performance. Logistic regression was used to select for significant predictors and create a modified DRIP score, which was evaluated to define clinical application.The DRIP score predicted pneumonia due to a DRP with a sensitivity of 67% and specificity of 73%. The AUROC curve was 0.76 (95% CI, 0.69-0.82). From regression analysis, prior infection with a DRP and antibiotics in the last 60 days, yielding score of 2 and 1 points respectively, remained local risk factors in predicting drug-resistant pneumonia. Sensitivity (47%) and specificity (94%) were maximized at a threshold of ≥ 2 in the modified DRIP model. Therefore, prior infection with a DRP remained the only clinically relevant predictor for drug-resistant pneumonia.The original DRIP score demonstrates a decreased performance in our patient population and behaves similar to other clinical prediction models. Empiric CAP therapy without anti-MRSA and anti-pseudomonal coverage should be considered for non-critically ill patients without a drug resistant pathogen infection in the past year. Our data support the necessity of local validation to authenticate clinical risk predictors for drug-resistant pneumonia.