Antibiotic Timing as a Quality-of-Care Metric in ICU Pneumonia: Association With In-Hospital Mortality and Microbiological Confirmation.

After adjustment for illness severity, comorbidity burden, microbiological confirmation, organ support, and empirical antibiotic therapy, antibiotic timing was not independently associated with in-hospital mortality.

Antibiotic timing alone should not be considered a comprehensive quality-of-care metric in critically ill patients with pneumonia.