Relationship between carbapenem use and major diagnostic category in curative care beds: Analysis of a 2020 Japanese national administrative database.

Excessive carbapenem use has contributed to the spread of carbapenem-resistant bacteria. In response, Japan's revised National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) 2023-2027 set the goal of a 20 % reduction in carbapenem use. The aim of this study is to reveal the circumstances associated with carbapenem use in diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) community hospitals and fee-for-service hospitals, which account for the majority of the hospitals in Japan. We analyzed publicly available data from the Survey of Discharged Patients conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2020. We used multiple regression analysis to identify the factors associated with carbapenem use in small- to medium-sized hospitals. Considerable carbapenem use was observed in small- to medium-sized hospitals. There was a large difference in carbapenem use among curative care beds in both DPC community hospitals and non-DPC hospitals. Linear regression models showed the significant association of several major diagnostic categories (MDCs) with carbapenem use. In particular, rates of MDC No.02 (eye) and 05 (circulatory system) were potentially associated with excessive or inappropriate carbapenem use. A notable and novel study finding was that there was a large difference in carbapenem consumption as the number of curative care beds increased in both DPC community hospitals and non-DPC hospitals. This may contribute to the identification of carbapenem overuse and toward achieving the goal of the National Action Plan on AMR 2023-2027. Furthermore, identifying factors associated with carbapenem use helps in understanding disease-specific prescribing practices and detecting potential overuse.

Days of Antibiotic Spectrum Coverage Trends and Assessment in Patients with Bloodstream Infections: A Japanese University Hospital Pilot Study.

The antibiotic spectrum is not reflected in conventional antimicrobial metrics. Days of antibiotic spectrum coverage (DASC) is a novel quantitative metric for antimicrobial consumption developed with consideration of the antibiotic spectrum. However, there were no data regarding disease and pathogen-specific DASC. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the DASC trend in patients with bloodstream infections (BSIs). DASC and days of therapy (DOT) of in-patients with positive blood culture results during a 2-year interval were evaluated. Data were aggregated to calculate the DASC, DOT, and DASC/DOT per patient stratified by pathogens. During the 2-year study period, 1443 positive blood culture cases were identified, including 265 suspected cases of contamination. The overall DASC, DASC/patient, DOT, DOT/patient, and DASC/DOT metrics were 226,626; 157.1; 28,778; 19.9; and 7.9, respectively. A strong correlation was observed between DASC and DOT, as well as DASC/patient and DOT/patient. Conversely, DASC/DOT had no correlation with other metrics. The combination of DASC and DOT would be a useful benchmark for the overuse and misuse evaluation of antimicrobial therapy in BSIs. Notably, DASC/DOT would be a robust metric to evaluate the antibiotic spectrum that was selected for patients with BSIs.

Association between Carbapenem Consumption and Clinical Outcomes in an In-Hospital Setting: Analysis of a Japanese Nationwide Administrative Database in 2020.

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between carbapenem consumption and clinical outcome using the diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) payment system database (2020) published by the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare of Japan. This study divided 5316 medical facilities subject to aggregation into five facilities and calculated the median values, including facility characteristics, clinical outcomes, and carbapenem consumption. Next, a correlation analysis was performed between carbapenem consumption and clinical outcome, as well as a multiple regression analysis between carbapenem consumption as the dependent variable and clinical outcome, bed size, and proportion of patients by disease as independent variables. Additionally, three clinical outcomes available from the DPC payment system database were selected, including cure, readmission within 4 weeks, and the average length of stay. This study revealed no relationship between carbapenem consumption and clinical outcome in university hospitals and university hospital-equivalent community hospitals; however, a relationship was suggested in the community, DPC-prepared, and non-DPC hospitals. University hospitals and university hospital-equivalent community hospitals with a high consumption of carbapenems may need to reconsider the classification because of the limited number of facilities in this classification.