Antibiotic stewardship to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in integrated academic health-system urgent care clinics

Dharmesh Patel, Teresa Ng, Lubna S. Madani, Stephen D. Persell, Mark Greg, Phillip E. Roemer, Sonali K. Oberoi, Jeffrey A. Linder*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: To develop and implement antibiotic stewardship activities in urgent care targeting non-antibiotic-appropriate acute respiratory tract infections (ARIs) that also reduces overall antibiotic prescribing and maintains patientsatisfaction. Patients and setting: Patients and clinicians at the urgent care clinics of an integrated academic health system. Intervention and methods: The stewardship activities started in fiscal 2020 and included measure development, comparative feedback, and clinician and patient education. We measured antibiotic prescribing in fiscal years 2019, 2020, and 2021 for the stewardship targets, potential diagnosis-shifting visits, and overall. We also collected patient satisfaction data for ARI visits. Results: From FY19 to FY21, 576,609 patients made 1,358,816 visits to 17 urgent care clinics, including 105,781 visits for which stewardship measures were applied and 149,691 visits for which diagnosis shifting measures were applied. The antibiotic prescribing rate decreased for stewardship-measure visits from 34% in FY19 to 12% in FY21 (absolute change, -22%; 95% confidence interval [CI], -23% to -22%). The antibiotic prescribing rate decreased for diagnosis-shifting visits from 63% to 35% (-28%; 95% CI, -28% to -27%), and the antibiotic prescribing rate decreased overall from 30% to 10% (-20%; 95% CI, -20% to -20%). The patient satisfaction rate increased from 83% in FY19 to 89% in FY20 and FY21. There was no significant association between antibiotic prescribing rates of individual clinicians and ARI visit patient satisfaction. Conclusions: Although it was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, an ambulatory antimicrobial stewardship program that focused on improving non-antibiotic-appropriate ARI prescribing was associated with decreased prescribing for (1) the stewardship target, (2) a diagnosis shifting measure, and (3) overall antibiotic prescribing. Patient satisfaction at ARI visits increased over time and was not associated with clinicians' antibiotic prescribing rates.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)736-745
Number of pages10
JournalInfection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
Volume44
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 13 2023

Funding

No funding specifically supported this work. Dr. Linder is supported by a contract from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (grant no. HHSP233201500020I) and grants from the National Institute on Aging (grant nos. R33AG057383, R33AG057395, P30AG059988, and R01AG069762), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (grant nos. R01HS026506 and R01HS028127), and the Peterson Center on Healthcare.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Epidemiology
  • Microbiology (medical)
  • Infectious Diseases

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