Predicting severe pneumonia in the emergency department: A global study of the Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN)-study protocol

Abstract

Introduction Pneumonia is a frequent and costly cause of emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalisations in children. There are no evidence-based, validated tools to assist physicians in management and disposition decisions for children presenting to the ED with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The objective of this study is to develop a clinical prediction model to accurately stratify children with CAP who are at risk for low, moderate and severe disease across a global network of EDs. Methods and analysis This study is a prospective cohort study enrolling up to 4700 children with CAP at EDs at ∼80 member sites of the Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN; https:// pern- glob..