Quality, availability and suitability of antimicrobial stewardship guidance: a multinational qualitative study.

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes are established across the world to treat infections efficiently, prioritize patient safety, and reduce the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. One of the core elements of AMS programmes is guidance to support and direct physicians in making efficient, safe and optimal decisions when prescribing antibiotics. To optimize and tailor AMS, we need a better understanding of prescribing physicians' experience with AMS guidance. Objectives: To explore the prescribing physicians' user experience, needs and targeted improvements of AMS guidance in hospital settings. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 36 prescribing physicians/AMS guidance users from hospital settings in Canada, Germany, Israel, Latvia, Norway and Sweden as a part of the international PILGRIM trial. A socioecological model was applied as an overarching conceptual framework for the study. Results: Research participants were seeking more AMS guidance than is currently available to them. The most important aspects and targets for improvement of AMS guidance were: (i) quality of guidelines; (ii) availability of infectious diseases specialists; and (iii) suitability of AMS guidance to department context. Conclusions: Achieving prudent antibiotic use not only depends on individual and collective levels of commitment to follow AMS guidance but also on the quality, availability and suitability of the guidance itself. More substantial commitment from stakeholders is needed to allocate the required resources for delivering high-quality, available and relevant AMS guidance to make sure that the prescribers' AMS needs are met.

Identifying targets for antibiotic stewardship interventions through analysis of the antibiotic prescribing process in hospitals - a multicentre observational cohort study.

BACKGROUND: In order to change antibiotic prescribing behaviour, we need to understand the prescribing process. The aim of this study was to identify targets for antibiotic stewardship interventions in hospitals through analysis of the antibiotic prescribing process from admission to discharge across five groups of infectious diseases. METHODS: We conducted a multi-centre, observational cohort study, including patients with lower respiratory tract infections, exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, skin- and soft tissue infections, urinary tract infections or sepsis, admitted to wards of infectious diseases, pulmonary medicine and gastroenterology at three teaching hospitals in Western Norway. Data was collected over a 5-month period and included antibiotics prescribed and administered during admission, antibiotics prescribed at discharge, length of antibiotic therapy, indication for treatment and discharge diagnoses, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) on admission, antibiotic allergies, place of initiation of therapy, admittance from an institution, patient demographics and outcome data. Primary outcome measure was antibiotic use throughout the hospital stay, analysed by WHO AWaRe-categories and adherence to guideline. Secondary outcome measures were a) antibiotic prescribing patterns by groups of diagnoses, which were analysed using descriptive statistics and b) non-adherence to the national antibiotic guidelines, analysed using multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Through analysis of 1235 patient admissions, we identified five key targets for antibiotic stewardship interventions in our population of hospital inpatients; 1) adherence to guideline on initiation of treatment, as this increases the use of WHO Access-group antibiotics, 2) antibiotic prescribing in the emergency room (ER), as 83.6% of antibiotic therapy was initiated there, 3) understanding prescribing for patients admitted from other institutions, as this was significantly associated with non-adherence to guideline (OR = 1.44 95% CI 1.04, 2.00), 4) understanding cultural and contextual drives of antibiotic prescribing, as non-adherent prescribing differed significantly between the sites of initiation of therapy (between hospitals and ER versus ward) and 5) length of therapy, as days of antibiotic therapy was similar across a wide range of diagnoses and with prolonged therapy after discharge. CONCLUSIONS: Analysing the process of antibiotic prescribing in hospitals with patient-level data identified important targets for antibiotic stewardship interventions in hospitals.

The association between adherence to national antibiotic guidelines and mortality, readmission and length of stay in hospital inpatients: results from a Norwegian multicentre, observational cohort study.

Background: Clinical antibiotic prescribing guidelines are essential in defining responsible use in the local context. Our objective was to investigate the association between adherence to national antibiotic prescribing guidelines and patient outcomes across a wide range of infectious diseases in hospital inpatients. Methods: Over five months in 2014, inpatients receiving antibiotics under the care of pulmonary medicine, infectious diseases and gastroenterology specialties across three university hospitals in Western Norway were included in this observational cohort study. Patient and antibiotic prescribing data gathered from electronic medical records included indication for antibiotics, microbiology test results, discharge diagnoses, length of stay (LOS), comorbidity, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) on admission and patient outcomes (primary: 30-day mortality; secondary: in-hospital mortality, 30-day readmission and LOS). Antibiotic prescriptions were classified as adherent or non-adherent to national guidelines according to documented indication for treatment. Patient outcomes were analysed according to status for adherence to guidelines using multivariate logistic, linear and competing risk regression analysis with adjustments made for comorbidity, age, sex, indication for treatment, seasonality and whether the patient was admitted from an institution or not. Results: In total, 1756 patients were included in the study. 30-day-mortality and in-hospital mortality were lower (OR = 0.48, p = 0.003 and OR = 0.46, p = 0.001) in the guideline adherent group, compared to the non-adherent group. Adherence to guideline did not affect 30-day readmission. In linear regression analysis there was a trend towards shorter LOS when LOS was analysed for patients discharged alive (predicted mean difference - 0.47, 95% CI (- 1.02, 0.07), p = 0.081). In competing risk analysis of LOS, the adherent group had a subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR) of 1.17 95% CI (1.02, 1.34), p = 0.025 for discharge compared to the non-adherent group. Conclusions: Adhering to antibiotic guidelines when treating infections in hospital inpatients was associated with favourable patient outcomes in terms of mortality and LOS.

The effect of antibiotic stewardship interventions with stakeholder involvement in hospital settings: a multicentre, cluster randomized controlled intervention study.

Background: There is limited evidence from multicenter, randomized controlled studies to inform planning and implementation of antibiotic stewardship interventions in hospitals. Methods: A cluster randomized, controlled, intervention study was performed in selected specialities (infectious diseases, pulmonary medicine and gastroenterology) at three emergency care hospitals in Western Norway. Interventions applied were audit with feedback and academic detailing. Implementation strategies included co-design of interventions with stakeholders in local intervention teams and prescribers setting local targets for change in antibiotic prescribing behaviour. Primary outcome measures were adherence to national guidelines, use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and change in locally defined targets of change in prescribing behaviour. Secondary outcome measures were length of stay, 30-day readmission, in-hospital- and 30-day mortality. Results: One thousand eight hundred two patients receiving antibiotic treatment were included. Adherence to guidelines had an absolute increase from 60 to 66% for all intervention wards (p = 0.04). Effects differed across specialties and pulmonary intervention wards achieved a 14% absolute increase in adherence (p = 0.003), while no change was observed for other specialties. A pulmonary ward targeting increased use of penicillin G 2 mill IU × 4 for pneumonia and COPD exacerbations had an intended increase of 30% for this prescribing behaviour (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Pulmonary wards had a higher increase in adherence, independent of applied intervention. The effect of antibiotic stewardship interventions is dependent on how and in which context they are implemented. Additional effects of interventions are seen when stakeholders discuss ward prescribing behaviour and agree on specific targets for changes in prescribing practice.