Pneumonia patients get too many antibiotics — especially as they leave the hospital

A million times a year, pneumonia sends American adults to the hospital. And while antibiotics help save lives, a new study shows two-thirds receive more antibiotics than they probably need. It’s not the care that happens in the hospital that leads to over-treatment, the study finds. Rather, it’s the prescriptions that patients receive as they head home from the hospital. In all, 93% of the overly long antibiotic prescriptions given to pneumonia patients were written at hospital discharge.