Adding dedicated antibiotic stewardship-focused training rounds into the medical education curriculum helped increase adherence to guidelines governing the duration of antibiotic therapy, according to a study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
Researchers examined antibiotic prescribing for three common infections, pneumonia, cellulitis, and urinary tract infections, at a medical center. They studied the prescribing patterns of three medical teams: one composed of family medicine residents, another composed of internal medicine residents and a hospitalist group.
All three medical teams received identical baseline antibiotic stewardship education and daily prescribing audit with feedback via clinical pharmacists. The family medicine resident group received additional targeted antibiotic stewardship training, which included biweekly stewardship-focused rounds with an antibiotic stewardship physician and a clinical pharmacist leader.
Of 1,572 patients admitted to the hospital between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017, 295 were eligible for inclusion in the study.
The percentage of patients receiving antibiotics selected in adherence with the medical center's guidelines was similar across all three groups for all three infections. However, the family medicine group prescribed antibiotics in adherence with facility guidelines on duration for 74 percent of patients, as compared to the internal medicine group that did the same for 56.6 percent of patients and the hospitalist group for 44.6 percent.