2060. Evaluation of a Pharmacist’s Impact on Antimicrobial Prescribing in an Urgent Care Center

Abstract

BackgroundThe urgent care center (UC) setting is an opportunity for pharmacists to promote antimicrobial stewardship (AS). The primary objective is to determine compliance with antibiotic prescribing recommendations for the treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs), skin and soft-tissue infections (SSTIs), upper respiratory tract infections (URIs), and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) before, during, and after the presence of an AS pharmacist in an UC.MethodsSingle-center, retrospective, observational, pre (December 10, 2018–January 6, 2019), intervention (January 7–February 3, 2019), and post-intervention (February 4–March 3, 2019) study. All non-pregnant, adult patients with a chief complaint consistent with UTI, SSTI, URI, or LRTI were included. Patients transferred to another facility, presented for a follow-up visit, with multiple sites of infection, or treated for a bite, wound, or surgical site infection were excluded. Noncompliance (NC) was a composite endpoint of non-guideline adherent antibiotic prescribing for viral infections, inappropriate empiric selection, duration, and/or dosage. Secondary outcomes include composite outcome components and subgroup analysis of disease states.ResultsA total of 1,930 patients were screened with 439,440, and 430 patients included in the pre, intervention, and post-intervention group. Demographics were similar between groups, except for age (P = 0.001) and influenza diagnoses (P < 0.001). NC decreased from 43.3% to 31.1% (P = 0.0002) pre-intervention to intervention and from 31.1% to 26.5% (P = 0.14) post-intervention. Pre-intervention to intervention resulted in a change in composite outcome components of non-compliant prescribing (18.9% to 13%, P = 0.02), empiric selection (8.7% to 5.9%, P = 0.12), duration (4.1% to 5.9%, P = 0.28), dosage (3.4% to 0.5%, P = 0.001), and multiple components for NC (8.2% to 6.4%, P = 0.3). Reductions in NC were seen for UTI (83.3% to 69.2%, P = 0.26), SSTI (45.7% to 42.9%, P = 1.0), URI (23.5% to 23.2%, P = 1.0), and LRTI (82.1% to 51.6%, P = 0.0004).ConclusionAn AS pharmacist’s presence in a UC significantly reduced NC to antibiotic prescribing recommendations. The largest impact was in reducing antibiotic treatment of viral infections and optimizing antibiotic dosing.Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.