Monthly prescription comment on antimicrobial agents at outpatient and emergency department for 5 years: performance of antimicrobial stewardship

Abstract

Objective To retrospectively analyze the implementation of the antimicrobial agents prescription monthly review at the emergency and outpatient departments for the past five years, for evaluation of its action in promoting rational application of antimicrobial drugs. Methods At the baseline investigation stage, 1780 prescriptions on antibiotics in emergency and outpatient department from June 2012 to November 2012 were randomly selected for centralized evaluation. The period of correction and observation falls into two stages. The first stage ranged from December 2012 to February 2015, when the prescription of antibiotics was sampled manually for monthly review. The second stage ranged from March 2015 to June 2017, when a prescription review software for prescription comment was introduced for the sample purpose. The data so acquired were subject to chi-square test and linear regression analysis using Excel 2010 and SPSS 16.0. Results The rational rate of prescription for antibiotics at the emergency department increased from 80.56% of the baseline stage to 99.47% of the second stage (166 506/167 400), scoring a difference of statistical significance (P<0.001). With intervention of the prescription review software, the percentage of irrational use of antimicrobial agents dropped by 5.18% compared to the baseline stage. Conclusions Monthly prescription review on antimicrobial agents at the outpatient and emergency departments could promote the rational use of antimicrobial agents and play an important role in clinical drug safety. Information system and performance assessment contributed to the effect of prescription review. Key words: Anti-bacterial agents; Prescription; Comment; Medication safety management