Outcomes of the PIRASOA programme, an antimicrobial stewardship programme implemented in hospitals of the Public Health System of Andalusia, Spain: an ecologic study of time-trend analysis.

OBJECTIVES: Inappropriate antimicrobial use favours the spread of resistance, and multidrug-resistant microorganisms (MDR) are currently of major concern. Antimicrobial stewardship programmes (ASPs) are essential for improving antibiotic use in hospitals. However, their impact on entire healthcare systems has not been thoroughly assessed. Our objective was to provide the results of an institutionally supported ASP involving 31 public hospitals in Andalusia, Spain. METHODS: We designed an ecologic time-series study from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2017. Quarterly, data on indicators were collected prospectively, and feedback reports were provided. PIRASOA is an ongoing clinically based quality-improvement programme whose key intervention is the educational interview, regular peer-to-peer interventions between advisors and prescribers to reinforce the appropriate use of antibiotics. Seventy-two indicators were monitored to measure prescribing quality (inappropriate treatments), antimicrobial consumption (defined daily doses per 1000 occupied bed-days), incidence density of MDR per 1000 occupied bed-days and crude mortality rate associated with bloodstream infections. We used Joinpoint regression software to analyse the trends. RESULTS: The quality of antimicrobial prescribing improved markedly, and the inappropriate treatment rate was significantly lower, with quarterly percentage change (QPC) = -3.0%, p < 0.001. Total antimicrobial consumption decreased (QPC = -0.9%, p < 0.001), specifically carbapenems, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, quinolones and antifungal agents, whereas antipseudomonal cephalosporin use increased. While the incidence of MDR showed a sustained decreasing trend (QPC = -1.8%; p 0.002), the mortality of patients with bloodstream infections remained stable (QPC = -0.2%, p 0.605). CONCLUSIONS: To date, the PIRASOA programme has succeeded in optimizing the use of antimicrobial agents and has had a positive ecologic result on bacterial resistance at level of an entire healthcare system.

Adaptation of antibiotic treatment to clinical practice guidelines in patients aged ⩾65 years hospitalised due to community-acquired pneumonia.

Early, conforming antibiotic treatment in elderly patients hospitalised for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a key factor in the prognosis and mortality. The objective was to examine whether empirical antibiotic treatment was conforming according to the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery guidelines in these patients. Multicentre study in patients aged ⩾65 years hospitalised due to CAP in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 influenza seasons. We collected socio-demographic information, comorbidities, influenza/pneumococcal vaccination history and antibiotics administered using a questionnaire and medical records. Bivariate analyses and multilevel logistic regression were made. In total, 1857 hospitalised patients were included, 82 of whom required intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Treatment was conforming in 51.4% (95% confidence interval (CI) 49.1-53.8%) of patients without ICU admission and was associated with absence of renal failure without haemodialysis (odds ratio (OR) 1.49, 95% CI 1.15-1.95) and no cognitive dysfunction (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.25-2.35), when the effect of the autonomous community was controlled for. In patients with ICU admission, treatment was conforming in 45.1% (95% CI 34.1-56.1%) of patients and was associated with the hospital visits in the last year (<3 vs. ⩾3, OR 2.70, 95% CI 1.03-7.12) and there was some evidence that this was associated with season. Although the reference guidelines are national, wide variability between autonomous communities was found. In patients hospitalised due to CAP, health services should guarantee the administration of antibiotics in a consensual manner that is conforming according to clinical practice guidelines.

[Medical history in the assessment of quality of care in ischemic cardiopathy: is it a valid information source?]. / La historia clínica en la evaluación de la calidad asistencial de la cardiopatía isquémica: es una fuente de información válida?

OBJECTIVE: To examine the availability of information in the clinical records (CR) to evaluate care quality in ischemic heart disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 722 clinical records of patients admitted because of ischemic heart disease were evaluated. Based upon a bibliographic review and the criteria of an expert panel necessary data to evaluate care quality were selected. A CR was considered adequate when at least 80% of data considered necessary by the expert panel were available. RESULTS: 78.5% of CR had adequate data. The elderly, clinical presentation as ischemic equivalent and one of the hospitals studied had most deficient CR. CONCLUSIONS: The CR is valid to retrospectively evaluate medical care. Differences between hospitals were important and should be taken into consideration before studies on clinical quality are performed.

[A reproducibility and validity study of a systematic review on ischemic cardiopathy. The Study Group of the Quality of Care (GRECA)]. / Estudio de la reproducibilidad y validez de una revisión sistemática sobre cardiopatía isquémica. Grupo de Estudio de la Calidad Asistencial (GRECA).

BACKGROUND: The systematic literature reviews have been proposed as a method of scientific evidence identification since they protect the final product from the subjectivity of each primary source reviewer. However, it is not known whether the different ways of evidence synthesis accomplish suitable criteria of objectivity, reliability and biases protection so as to be considered scientifically valid. An experiment of reliability and validity of a systematic literature review about coronary heart disease was carried out. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Study of blind concordance between two independent reviewers for the identification, selection, retrieval and quality evaluation of the articles by using the same protocol. The concordance was analysed by the kappa index for two observers in different categories. The validity was evaluated throughout the acceptability of the review users. RESULTS: The concordance for their identification capacity was poor although they used the same key words (869 versus 476). But the concordance improved when considering selection (26.6% versus 29.2%), retrieval (agreement = 76%) classification by kind of article (kappa = 0.60) and scoring by strength of the evidence (kappa = 0.87). The acceptability was high among review users. CONCLUSIONS: It would be assumed that, even under tight rules of performance, the systematic literature reviews are not completely protected against some biases which could damage their validity in a non easily controllable form. The implication of reviewers, experts in documentation and users of the literature, together with pilot studies performed previous to the review, seems to be the best way to yield better results.

Prospective serological study of leptospirosis in southern Spain.

This article reports data concerning a serosurvey carried out in Southern Spain to assess the current epidemiological status of a population exposed to risk of leptospirosis. Microagglutination and IgM-EIA tests were carried out on sera from a sample of workers in agriculture-related occupations, exposed to marsh waters. A cohort of 197 workers were followed for a year in an active surveillance program to evaluate seroconversion (laboratory confirmed leptospirosis). The results have shown for the cohort a density of incidence: 6.4 x 100 persons per year, and for the reference population an accumulated incidence of 41.25/100,000. Prevalence rates (P) were 21.3 x 100 and 144 x 10(5) for the cohort and population respectively. Rates were higher in cray-fishers (P: 62.7%), rice-workers, and butchers. This is the first report identifying cray-fishers as a high risk group for leptospirosis, and the reporting of human contamination by Australis serogroup in Spain.