We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress
Sign In
Advertise with Us

Download Mobile App




Hospital Antibiotic Policies Improve Prescription Practices

By HospiMedica International staff writers
Posted on 21 Feb 2017
Print article
An updated review of studies identifies effective guidelines and policies to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics in hospitals.

Researchers at the University of Dundee, University College London, and other institutions searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, and Embase for studies examining the effectiveness and safety of interventions designed to improve antibiotic prescribing to hospital inpatients, and to investigate the effect of different intervention functions. In all, the researchers found 221 studies from the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia.

The researchers found that interventions broadly fell into two categories; 'restrictive' techniques applied rules to make physicians prescribe properly, whilst 'enabling' techniques provided advice or feedback to help physicians make more informed prescribing decisions. In both cases, the aim of the intervention was to increase the number of appropriate prescribing decisions so that patients who were unlikely to benefit from antibiotics did not get them, whilst they were still used for patients who stood to benefit from them.

The results showed that interventions that included enabling or restrictive techniques were consistently more effective than interventions that relied on simple education alone. Moreover, a synergistic effect existed, with enabling techniques increasing the effectiveness of restrictive techniques. In addition, the interventions shortened duration of antibiotic use from 11 to 9 days per patient, and reduced hospital stay from an average of 13 days to 12 per patient. The review was published on February 9, 2017, in The Cochrane Library.

“We do not need more studies to answer the question of whether these interventions reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, but we do need more research to understand why the most effective behavior change techniques are not more widely adopted within hospital settings,” concluded lead author Peter Davey, PhD, of the UD department of population health sciences. “Appropriate antibiotic use in hospitals should ensure effective treatment of patients with infection, and reduce unnecessary prescriptions.”

For the study, the researchers defined restriction as using rules to reduce the opportunity to engage in the target behavior, or increase the target behavior by reducing the opportunity to engage in competing behaviors. Enablement was defined as increasing the means and reducing the barriers in order to increase capability or opportunity.

Gold Member
POC Blood Gas Analyzer
Stat Profile Prime Plus
Gold Member
Solid State Kv/Dose Multi-Sensor
AGMS-DM+
Silver Member
Wireless Mobile ECG Recorder
NR-1207-3/NR-1207-E
New
Multipurpose Gynecological Table
Dixion Grace 8400

Print article

Channels

Critical Care

view channel
Image: Researchers have developed a novel risk score for cardiovascular complications after bone marrow transplant (Photo courtesy of 123RF)

Novel Tool Predicts Cardiovascular Risks after Bone Marrow Transplantation

Every year, thousands of people undergo bone marrow transplants to potentially cure serious diseases like leukemia, lymphoma, and immune deficiency disorders. While these transplants can be lifesaving,... Read more

Surgical Techniques

view channel
Image: The Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System provides visual and audible indicators of the onset and progression of bleeding events (Photo courtesy of Saranas)

Novel Technology Monitors and Lowers Bleeding Complications in Patients Undergoing Heart Procedures

Bleeding complications at the femoral access site can significantly hamper recovery, affecting the success of procedures, patient satisfaction, and overall healthcare costs. It is crucial for surgeons... Read more

Patient Care

view channel
Image: The newly-launched solution can transform operating room scheduling and boost utilization rates (Photo courtesy of Fujitsu)

Surgical Capacity Optimization Solution Helps Hospitals Boost OR Utilization

An innovative solution has the capability to transform surgical capacity utilization by targeting the root cause of surgical block time inefficiencies. Fujitsu Limited’s (Tokyo, Japan) Surgical Capacity... Read more

Health IT

view channel
Image: First ever institution-specific model provides significant performance advantage over current population-derived models (Photo courtesy of Mount Sinai)

Machine Learning Model Improves Mortality Risk Prediction for Cardiac Surgery Patients

Machine learning algorithms have been deployed to create predictive models in various medical fields, with some demonstrating improved outcomes compared to their standard-of-care counterparts.... Read more

Point of Care

view channel
Image: The new eye-safe laser technology can diagnose traumatic brain injury (Photo courtesy of 123RF)

Novel Diagnostic Hand-Held Device Detects Known Biomarkers for Traumatic Brain Injury

The growing need for prompt and efficient diagnosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI), a major cause of mortality globally, has spurred the development of innovative diagnostic technologies.... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2024 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.