Comparison of active and passive reporting of patients with community acquired pneumonia

Introduction: Since 2002, the German competence network CAPNETZ collects data from inpatients and outpatients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) by eight local clinical centres. Compared to the literature the proportion of outpatients in CAPNETZ was low with 28%. Therefore this study determines whether an active reporting system can increase the number of reported cases of private practices. Method: In ten private practices in Lübeck the passive reporting system was changed in an active reporting system including a) a weekly report of CAP-cases including null reports when appropriate, b) the determination o…