Document Type
Letter to the Editor
Date of Original Version
2017
Department
Pharmacy Practice
Abstract
A recent study led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed at least 30% of antibiotic prescriptions in the outpatient setting were inappropriate. In this study of all ages, among adult patients, results were similar to the overall population, with the majority of inappropriate prescribing relating to respiratory infections. We applied the same methodology to investigate rates of antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections in outpatient primary care clinics at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The results of our evaluation reflected comparable rates of inappropriate prescribing, but when stratified by teaching versus nonteaching primary care clinics, inappropriate prescribing was significantly higher in non-teaching clinics (17.6% vs 44.0%, p < .0001). Respiratory infection visits in non-teaching outpatient clinics may be a pragmatic target for antimicrobial stewardship programs.
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Parente, D. M., Timbrook, T. T., Caffrey, A. R., & LaPlante, K. L. (2017). Inappropriate prescribing in outpatient healthcare: an evaluation of respiratory infection visits among veterans in teaching versus non-teaching primary care clinics. Journal Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control 2017 6:33. doi: 10.1186/s13756-017-0190-3
Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13756-017-0190-3
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.