The bacteriology of pneumonia diagnosed in Western Australian emergency departments

We used Western Australian emergency department data linked to hospital morbidity, death and microbiology data to describe the bacteriology of pneumonia according to age. The 'atypical' organisms and viruses were not assessed. A total of 6908 patients over a 3-year period were given an emergency department diagnosis of pneumonia, 76.9% were admitted and 6.3% died in hospital. Blood was cultured from 52.9% of patients with 6.4% growing potential pathogens. Streptococcus pneumoniae was the most common organism isolated and accounted for 92% of pathogens in those aged