UK investigators call entire concept of HCAP "controversial"

In a prospective observational study of hospitalized patients with pneumonia, 20% met criteria for HCAP. Those with health care associated pneumonia were sicker of course, but it was impossible to tease out attributable mortality due to the multitude of interrelated confounders present. Antibiotic resistant organisms per se were not shown to cause death often enough to stand out from other variables in the analysis. Clin Infect Dis 2011;53:107-113.