The amount of parenteral antibiotic prescriptions in the emergency department could potentially be reduced if blood cultures were administered with more regularity, according to a new study published in BMC Infectious Diseases.
For the study, researchers analyzed the electronic health records of patients seen in the emergency department at University Hospital of Birmingham (Ala.) in 2014.
Researchers found that six percent of emergency department patients and 20 percent of those patients that were eventually admitted to hospital were prescribed a parenteral antibiotic. Blood cultures — which can inform the decision whether to continue, alter or stop antibiotic treatment — were obtained in less than one-third of those patients prescribed parenteral antibiotics.
The study's authors conclude that blood cultures may have increased opportunities for antimicrobial stewardship in the care of the patients examined in the study.
The authors write, "Decisions to review antimicrobial prescribing should combine clinical assessment with a range of diagnostic information which includes, but is not limited to, culture-based microbiology."
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