Outpatient Stewardship Research Articles

P-1637. Four-year Experience on Ambulatory Antibiotic Prescribing for Viral Respiratory Infections

Abstract Background In 2019, our institution implemented the MITIGATE (a Multifaceted Intervention to Improve Prescribing for Acute Respiratory Infection for Adult and Children in Emergency Department and Urgent Care Settings) Toolkit, a multimodal antimicrobial stewardship strategy using education, data, and feedback to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for viral respiratory infections (RTIs) in ambulatory care settings. Methods This was a single center observational study. Prescribers in emergency department (ED), primary care (PC), and urgent care (UC) were notified of their individual unnecessary antibiotic prescribing from 9/2019 - 3/2022 via email. We reduced rate of feedback from notifying all prescribers, to half after the first year, and none after 2 years and observed the impact on antibiotic prescribing. Prescribers were labeled as a top performer or not a top performer compared to their peers. Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for RTI was evaluated 4 years after the intervention began. Results In 2019 Pre-toolkit intervention, 14,247 patient visits had a qualifying viral RTI. 17.9%, 9.8%, and 6.4% received an antibiotic unnecessarily in the ED, PC, and UC, respectively. After 2-years of direct feedback, antibiotics were prescribed in 13.4%, 4.3% , and 4.7% , in the ED, PC, and UC (N = 48,192) (p< 0.001). In 2023, after feedback stopped, unnecessary prescribing remained lower in ED (14.4%, p< 0.001) and PC (5.8%, p< 0.001), but not UC (7.2%, p=0.015), N =53,496. Conclusion Rates of unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for viral RTI dropped most significantly following two years of varying degrees of direct feedback. Although prescribing rates in the ED and PC remain lower after 4 years compared to pre-intervention, current data demonstrate an uptrend. Although labor-intensive, this supports that feedback with peer comparison is an instrumental intervention. Strategies to ensure successful intervention maintenance should be considered when implementing outpatient stewardship. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

P-1645. Appropriateness of Ambulatory Antibiotic Prescriptions Given Outside of Formal Patient-Clinician Encounters

Abstract Background There are limited published data on the frequency and appropriateness of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions ordered outside of formal patient-clinician encounters. Methods A random sample of oral antibiotics prescribed to adult patients from 4 primary care practices were manually reviewed for appropriateness. The need for any antibiotic, as well as the appropriateness of agent selection and duration, were compared between visit-based (formal in-person, video, or telephone encounters) and non-visit-based encounters. Results Of the 859 prescriptions reviewed, 543 (63.2%) were generated from visit-based encounters (48.2%, 13.2% and 1.9% were from in-person, video, and telephone visits, respectively) and 316 (36.8%) were non-visit-based. Overall, 29.7% of prescriptions were written despite no antibiotic indication (Table). Antibiotics were indicated in 382/543 (70.3%) of visit-based encounters, vs 165/316 (52.2%) of non-visit-based encounters (P< 0.0001). When an antibiotic was indicated, agent selection was more frequently appropriate in visit-based encounters (88.7% vs 81.8%, P=0.006), with no difference in appropriate duration (81.9% vs 89.7%, P=0.49). When duration was inappropriate, it was too long in 94.5% of cases. Among visit-based prescribing, antibiotic prescriptions were indicated more frequently from in-person encounters as compared to virtual (combined video and telephone) encounters (73.4% vs 60.5%, P=0.008). Compared to visit-based antibiotic prescriptions, significantly fewer non-visit-based antibiotic prescriptions were associated with any diagnosis code (543/543 (100%) vs 189/316 (59.8%), P< 0.0001). Azithromycin and fluoroquinolones were more likely to be inappropriately chosen agents compared to other antibiotics (46.7% vs 12.4%, P< 0.0001, and 45.5% vs 12.4%, P< 0.0001, respectively). Conclusion Compared to antibiotic prescriptions from formal patient-clinician encounters, antibiotic prescriptions generated from non-visit-based encounters were significantly less indicated, with less appropriate agent selection, and were frequently not associated with a diagnosis code. Outpatient stewardship efforts should target non-visit-based encounters. Disclosures Dustin R. Carr, PharmD, BCPS, BCIDP, Merck: Advisor/Consultant Derek N. Bremmer, PharmD, BCIDP, Thermo Fischer Scientific: Expert Testimony

No "One-Size-Fits All": chronic "Carryover" diagnoses dilute antibiotic prescribing rates for sinusitis among adults in primary and urgent care settings.

International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) billing data used in outpatient stewardship metrics is under-described for acute and chronic sinusitis. We found that different sinusitis ICD-10 definitions impacted antibiotic prescribing rates (APRs). Chronic sinusitis ICD-10s dilute overall sinusitis APR, particularly in primary care settings and should be examined separately.

Medical school ranking and provider outpatient Medicare Part D claims for antibiotics among older patients in the USA.

Our study aimed to assess whether there was a relationship between graduating from higher-ranked medical schools and the rate of prescribing antibiotics among Medicare Part D providers in the USA. The study obtained data from the Medicare Part D Prescribers (FY2013-2021) and the Doctor and Clinicians National repositories. A regression model was fitted to assess the relationship between provider medical school ranking and the rate of antibiotic days supplied per 100 beneficiaries at the provider level. A total of 197 540 providers were included. No association was found between the medical school ranking and the rate of antibiotics days supplied per 100 beneficiaries. Instead, the type of provider is associated with the prescription rates. Hospitalists and Emergency Medicine providers had fewer days supplied per 100 beneficiaries than Family Medicine providers. In contrast, students, more experienced providers (>20 years since medical school graduation) and females had more days supplied per 100 beneficiaries. Our study highlights the need for robust outpatient stewardship interventions and incorporating an outcome-based approach to antibiotic stewardship curricula in medical and mid-level provider schools.

Variability in Antimicrobial Prescribing Across Five Ambulatory Settings Within a Large Integrated Health System

Background: Lack of access to timely, detailed antibiotic use data has limited ambulatory antibiotic stewardship efforts. Antibiotic utilization is tracked across ambulatory care sites and emergency departments (ED) within a large integrated health system. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort analysis from June 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020 comparing antibiotic prescribing for all patients with ICD-10 diagnosis codes for cystitis, otitis media, pharyngitis, sinusitis, and upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) among five ambulatory care departments across northeast Ohio and southeast Florida locations: ED, Urgent Care (UC), On-Demand Telehealth (TEL), Pediatrics (PED), and Primary Care (PC). Results: A total of 261,947 encounters were included (ED:56,766, UC:92,749, TEL:8,783, PED:29,151, PC:74,498) for the treatment of cystitis (30,932), otitis media (22,094), pharyngitis (59,964), sinusitis (53,693), or URTI (95,264). The population was 63% female with a median age of 34.2 years [12.8-56.3]. A total of 17% of patients had documented penicillin allergies and 18% of patients with pharyngitis received Group A Streptococcus (GAS) testing. Antibiotics were prescribed in 44% of encounters (ED:21,746 [38%], UC:45,652 [49%], TEL:4,622 [53%], PED:10,909 [37%], PC:33,547 [45%]; P < 0.001). Guideline concordant antibiotics were prescribed in 65% of encounters (ED:14,338 [66%], UC:31,532 [69%], TEL:3,869 [84%], PED:8,212 [75%], PC:17,263 [51%]; P < 0.001). Conclusions: Observed rates of antibiotic and guideline concordant antibiotic prescribing were similar to national published rates of antibiotic prescribing in the ambulatory setting. The variability in antibiotic prescribing demonstrates opportunities for targeted outpatient stewardship efforts. Timely antibiotic tracking tools can facilitate ambulatory antimicrobial stewardship activities.

"Electronic Phenotyping" Antimicrobials to Facilitate Outpatient Stewardship for Asymptomatic Bacteriuria and Urinary Tract Infection in Renal Transplant.

Asymptomatic bacteriuria and urinary tract infection in renal transplant are important antimicrobial stewardship targets but are difficult to identify within electronic medical records. We validated an "electronic phenotype" of antibacterials prescribed for these indications. This may be more useful than billing data in assessing antibiotic indication in this outpatient setting.

Prevalence of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions among dental visits, 2019.

The US National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria established a goal to decrease unnecessary outpatient antibiotic use by 50%. However, data to inform this goal have been limited to medical settings and have not included dental prescribing. Thus, we sought to identify the proportion of antibiotics prescribed inappropriately by dentists to inform outpatient stewardship efforts. Cross-sectional analysis of 2019 Veterans' Affairs (VA) national electronic health record data. Antibiotics prescribed by dentists were evaluated for appropriateness based on 2 definitions: one derived from current guidelines (consensus-based recommendations) and the other based on relevant clinical literature (nonconsensus). A clustered binomial logistic regression model determined factors associated with discordant prescribing. In total, 92,224 antibiotic prescriptions (63% amoxicillin; mean supply, 8.0 days) were associated with 88,539 dental visits. Prophylaxis for complications in medically compromised patients was associated with the most (30.9%) antibiotic prescriptions, followed by prevention of postsurgical complications (20.1%) and infective endocarditis (18.0%). At the visit level, 15,476 (17.5%) met the consensus-based definition for appropriate antibiotic usage and 56,946 (64.3%) met the nonconsensus definition. More than half of antibiotics prescribed by dentists do not have guidelines supporting their use. Regardless of definition applied, antibiotics prescribed by dentists were commonly unnecessary. Improving prescribing by dentists is critical to reach the national goal to decrease unnecessary antibiotic use.

Variations in antibiotic prescribing among children enrolled in North Carolina Medicaid, 2013-2019.

The majority of pediatric antibiotic prescribing occurs in the outpatient setting and inappropriate use contributes to antimicrobial resistance. There are regional variations in outpatient antibiotic use with the highest rates occurring in the Southern states, including in Appalachia. The purpose of this study was to describe the rates and risk factors for inappropriate antibiotic prescription among pediatric patients enrolled in North Carolina (NC) Medicaid. We used Medicaid prescription claims data from 2013 to 2019 to describe patterns of pediatric antibiotic prescription in NC. We assessed patient and provider factors to identify variations in prescribing. Children who were less than 2 years of age, non-Hispanic White, and living in a rural area had the highest overall rates of antibiotic prescription. Compared to pediatricians, the risk of inappropriate antibiotic prescription was highest among other specialists and general practioners and lowest among nurse practitioners. Rural areas of NC had the highest rates of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing, and the risk for non-Hispanic Black children compared to children of other races/ethnicities was compounded by rurality. Prescribing practices in NC differ compared to neighboring states with a lower overall risk of inappropriate prescription in Appalachian regions; however, disparities by race and rurality exist. Outpatient stewardship efforts in NC should focus on ensuring health equity by appreciating racial and geographic variations in prescribing patterns and providing education to all health care providers.

Increasing Local Productivity Through a Regional Antimicrobial Stewardship Collaborative.

Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are vital to improving patient safety and ensuring quality of care but are often underresourced, limiting their effectiveness and reach. While barriers to ASP success have been well documented, approaches to address these barriers with limited resources are needed. Stewardship networks and collaboratives have emerged as possible solutions. In January 2020, 5 US Department of Veterans Affairs facilities created a regional ASP collaborative. In this article, we describe the impact of this collaborative on the productivity of the facilities' ASPs. ASP annual reports for each of the 5 facilities provided retrospective data. Reports from fiscal year (FY) 2019 and reports from FY 2020-2022 were reviewed. Staffing, inpatient and outpatient stewardship reporting, individual and collaborative initiatives, and publications data were collected to measure productivity. Yearly results were trended for each facility and for the region. Additionally, the COVID-19 antibiotic use dashboard and upper respiratory infection dashboard were used to review the impact of initiatives on antibiotic prescribing during the collaborative. Regular reporting of outpatient metrics increased; 27% of measures showed improvement in 2019 and increased to 60% in 2022. For all 5 facilities, ASP initiatives increased from 33 in 2019 to 41 in 2022 (24% increase) with a corresponding increase in collaborative initiatives from 0 to 6. Likewise, publications increased from 2 in 2019 to 17 in 2022 (750% increase). Rates of reporting and improvement in inpatient metrics did not change significantly. The ASP collaborative aided in efficiency and productivity within the region by sharing improvement practices, distributing workload for initiatives, and increasing publications.

1369. Effect of COVID-19 on Antibiotic Consumption: An Analysis of the COVID-19 Community Research Partnership

Abstract Background The COVID-19 Community Research Partnership (CCRP) is a multisite healthcare system-based study of the COVID pandemic. Community residents in this study provided consent for electronic health record (EHR) access allowing for analysis of antibiotic prescribing. Methods We conducted a retrospective, self-controlled cohort study to determine antibiotic consumption in the CCRP pre-COVID (Jan 2018 - Dec 2019) and post-COVID (Jan 2020 - Jan 2022). Participants were ≥18 years with an EHR record in the pre-COVID period. The primary outcome was the number of antibiotic prescriptions (AP) per 1000 patient care encounters in each time period. Secondary outcomes included the AP location of care, analysis of antibiotic classes, and COVID attributable antibiotic consumption, defined as an AP written ≤14 days before or after an EHR documented or self-reported positive SARS-CoV-2 test or COVID diagnosis. Results 34,234 participants were included representing 2,775,711 encounters. Median age was 53 years with 70% female and 88% white. 41% lived in a rural or suburban area. There were 26,121 APs among 25,433 participants. Mean rate of AP per 1000 encounters was 12.1 and 7.6 pre vs post-COVID (p&amp;lt; 0.001). A decline in AP occurred at onset of the pandemic persisting through the post-COVID period (Fig 1). The prescribing rate for all antibiotics, except linezolid, decreased during the pandemic (p&amp;lt; 0.001, Fig 2). The largest declines were seen with antibiotics typically prescribed for respiratory illnesses. The decline in antibiotic consumption was driven by outpatient encounters (Fig 3). 6,341 participants were diagnosed with COVID and 333 APs were COVID attributable. These participants were more likely to receive a macrolide (45% vs. 22%, p&amp;lt; 0.001), live in a rural area (31% vs. 20%, p&amp;lt; 0.001), and receive care in an emergency department (12% vs. 6.1%, p&amp;lt; 0.001). Figure 1. Antibiotic Prescriptions During The Study Time Period Figure 2. Analysis Of Antibiotic Classes Figure 3. Location of Antibiotic Prescribing Conclusion The COVID pandemic was associated with a broad decline in antibiotic consumption. These results may be due to declines in other respiratory viruses, anchoring bias for COVID during the pandemic, improved antibiotic stewardship practices, or social isolation. Antibiotics for respiratory illnesses declined the most, suggesting this may be a target for outpatient stewardship efforts. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

How to design and implement an outpatient antimicrobial stewardship programme.

Antimicrobial stewardship programmes in the outpatient setting have recently become an area of focus in an effort to improve antimicrobial prescribing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The Joint Commission have recently addressed this concern and provided a framework for the implementation of an outpatient stewardship programme. This manuscript offers detailed guidance on how to design and implement an outpatient antimicrobial stewardship programme and reviews the literature on current strategies. Challenges related to initiating and maintaining outpatient stewardship efforts are also discussed. This article is part of the Antibiotic stewardship Special Issue: https://www.drugsincontext.com/special_issues/antimicrobial-stewardship-a-focus-on-the-need-for-moderation.

Antibiotic perceptions, adherence, and disposal practices among parents of pediatric patients.

Antibiotics are frequently prescribed for children in the outpatient setting. Although sometimes necessary, antibiotic use is associated with important downstream effects including the development of antimicrobial resistance among human and environmental microorganisms. Current outpatient stewardship efforts focus on guiding appropriate antibiotic prescribing practices among providers, but little is known about parents' understanding of antibiotics and appropriate disposal of leftover antibiotics. To help bridge this gap, we conducted a qualitative study to assess parental understanding of their children's antibiotics, their adherence to antibiotic instructions, and their disposal practices. We conducted a semi-structured interview with parents of 13 children diagnosed with acute respiratory illnesses and prescribed antibiotics in an urban outpatient clinic. We found that parents had limited understanding of how antibiotics work. Although they received instructions about antibiotic use during the healthcare visit, adherence to the prescription and appropriate disposal of antibiotics was suboptimal. Limited baseline understanding of antibiotics, their prior experiences with antibiotics, perceptions about their social networks' antibiotic use, and information provided to them by healthcare providers may influence these behaviors. Our findings can inform educational efforts of outpatient stewardship programs to help optimize parental understanding of how to use and dispose of their children's antibiotics.

Improving antibiotic utilization through an outpatient stewardship initiative.

Antibiotic prescribing errors at hospital discharge are common. We designed a pharmacist-driven antimicrobial stewardship program to evaluate prescriptions prior to being transmitted to community pharmacies. Drug-related problems were identified in prescriptions for 48 of 149 patients, resulting in 55 interventions. Review at discharge improves outpatient prescribing of antimicrobials.

1799. Impact of COVID 19 on urgent care diagnoses and stewardship metrics

Abstract Background The percentage of all respiratory diagnoses prescribed an antibiotic is an outpatient stewardship metric and was introduced as a HEDIS measure in 2022. Given a stable case mix, this metric is not affected by differences in coding practices between clinicians or health systems since all respiratory diagnoses are considered together. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a high number of viral illness episodes where antibiotics are not recommended. The impact of this shift in case mix on respiratory diagnosis coding and prescribing metrics has not been explored. Methods We examined antibiotic prescribing rates for respiratory diagnoses in a network of urgent care clinics affiliated with the University of Utah during two periods. Pre-Pandemic was Mar 2019-Feb 2020 and Pandemic was Mar 2020-Mar 2022. Respiratory diagnoses were identified using ICD10 codes and further stratified into 3 Tiers (Tier 1: antibiotics indicated; Tier 2: antibiotics sometimes indicated; Tier 3: antibiotics not indicated). We examined trends in antibiotic prescribing across these periods including the percentage of all respiratory visits prescribed antibiotics and by Tier and the distribution of diagnoses by Tier. No formalized stewardship interventions were introduced during these periods. Results There were 146,897 urgent care visits during the study period (47,423 Pre Pandemic and 99,474 Pandemic). The respiratory prescribing rate declined from 42.3% Pre Pandemic to 26.2% during the Pandemic (Figure). The distribution of respiratory diagnoses by Tier and prescribing within Tier are shown in the Table. Tier 3 diagnoses increased from 48% to 67%, while Tier 2 diagnoses declined from 47% to 31%. Antibiotic prescribing declined for both Tier 2 and Tier 3 diagnoses. 15,429 (23%) of Tier 3 diagnoses during the Pandemic were coded as COVID-19. 50% of the reduction in prescribing is attributable to changes in Tiers alone. FigureTable Conclusion The COVID 19 pandemic was associated with a reduction in the percentage of respiratory diagnoses prescribed antibiotics. Half was due to an increase in Tier 3 encounters although declines in prescribing occurred with Tiers in addition. Using this metric for benchmarking requires accounting for the impact of case mix differences over time or between systems and clinicians. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures.

Impact of outpatient antimicrobial stewardship guideline implementation in an urgent care setting

BackgroundUrgent care medicine is a rapidly growing health care sector where patients are commonly treated for acute infectious diseases–related conditions. However, there are few antimicrobial stewardship interventions described in these settings. ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to determine whether implementing outpatient antimicrobial stewardship guidelines would improve antibiotic prescribing for acute upper respiratory tract infections (ARTIs), skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI), and urinary tract infections (UTI) at a single urgent care site. MethodsThis was a pre-post interventional study comparing antibiotic prescribing patterns for ARTI, SSTI, and UTI at a single urgent care site in the preintervention group (November 2019 to January 2020) with the postintervention group (November 2020 to January 2021) after implementation of outpatient stewardship guidelines. A second urgent care site that did not receive any interventions served as a control. The outpatient stewardship guidelines were implemented in October 2020 via didactic provider education and pocket guide distribution. The primary end point was the rate of total guideline-concordant antibiotic prescribing. Secondary end points included the rates of guideline concordance of each component of the prescription, including antibiotic selection, duration, dose, therapy indication, and patient safety outcomes. ResultsThe primary outcome of total guideline-concordant antibiotic prescribing significantly improved after implementation of outpatient antimicrobial stewardship guidelines at the study site (50% vs. 70%, P < 0.001), which was also reflected when comparing postintervention study site with postperiod control site (70% vs. 48%, P < 0.001). There was a statistically significant improvement in guideline-concordant duration of antibiotic therapy (43% vs. 61%, P = 0.001), driven by a reduction in antibiotic duration for UTI (7 [interquartile range (IQR) 5–7] vs. 5 [IQR 5–7] days, P = 0.007), which was also observed when comparing the postintervention study site with the postperiod control site (61% vs. 48%, P = 0.02). Patient safety outcomes were similar between groups. ConclusionAn antimicrobial stewardship intervention comprising institutional outpatient guideline implementation and provider education significantly improved total guideline-concordant antibiotic prescribing by 20% for ARTI, UTI, and SSTI in an urgent care site.

Metrics in outpatient stewardship: Is more always better?

Background: Emerging evidence supports the use of billing data to identify stewardship targets in primary care. Standardizing an approach to antibiotic prescribing rate (APR) calculations could facilitate external benchmarking. Methods: Using methodology and an ICD-10 dictionary validated in urgent care clinics,1 we created an expanded ICD-10 dictionary to incorporate additional ICD-10 codes from primary care associated with antibiotic prescriptions (Fig. 1). We then compared antibiotic prescribing rates using the urgent care and expanded dictionaries. We included all primary care visits from 2019 to 2020 and extracted ICD-10 codes and antibiotic order data. Using the urgent care and expanded ICD-10 dictionary, we classified each encounter by prescribing tier based on whether antibiotics are almost always (tier 1), sometimes (tier 2), or almost never (tier 3) indicated. For encounters with ICD-10s in multiple tiers, we chose the lowest tier. For multiple ICD-10 codes within the same tier, we chose the first extracted ICD-10 code. We calculated antibiotic prescribing rates as the proportion of encounters associated with ≥ 1 antibacterial prescription. This quality improvement project was deemed non–human subjects research by the Stanford Panel on Human Subjects in Medical Research. Results: The urgent care dictionary has 1,400 ICD-10 codes. We added 1,439 ICD-10 codes derived from primary care encounters to create the expanded ICD-10 dictionary (8.5% tier 1, 9.1% tier 2, and 82.4% tier 3) (Fig. 1). We identified 177,531 encounters; 74% had ≥ 2 associated ICD-10 codes (Fig. 2). In total, 147,085 encounters (82.9%) were classified into a tier using the urgent care dictionary. An additional 22,039 encounters were classified with the expanded dictionary (Table 1). Most added encounters were tier 3 with low 0.7% APR (Tables 1 and 3). In total, 41,473 (28.2%) encounters were classified differently depending on the ICD-10 dictionary used, most commonly changing from tier 3 to tier 2 without an increase in overall tier 2 antibiotic prescribing rate (Tables 2 and 3). Overall antibiotic prescribing rates were similar when using either the urgent care or expanded ICD-10 dictionary (Table 2). Conclusions: The expanded ICD-10 dictionary allowed for classification of more encounters in primary care; however, it did not meaningfully change antibiotic prescribing rates. Antibiotic prescribing rates were likely diluted by classifying more encounters without identifying an associated increase in antibiotic prescribing. A more sophisticated classification system may help to accommodate the diversity and volume of ICD-10 codes used in primary care.1. Stenehjem E, et al. Clin Infect Dis 2020;70:1781–1787.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None

Tier-based antimicrobial stewardship metrics for genitourinary-related antibiotic use in Veterans’ Affairs outpatient settings

Background: Tracking antibiotic use is a core element of antimicrobial stewardship. We developed a set of metrics based on electronic health record data to support an outpatient stewardship initiative to improve management of urinary tract infections (UTIs) in Veterans’ Affairs (VA) emergency departments (EDs) and primary care clinics. Because UTI diagnostic codes only capture a portion of genitourinary (GU)-related antibiotic use, a tier-based approach was used to evaluate practices. Methods: Metrics were developed to target practices related to antibiotic prescribing and diagnostic testing (Table 1). GU conditions were divided into 3 categories: tier 1, conditions for which antibiotics are usually or always indicated; tier 2, conditions for which antibiotics are sometimes indicated; and tier 3, conditions for which antibiotics are rarely or never indicated (eg, benign prostatic hypertrophy with symptoms). Patients with visits related to urological procedures, nontarget providers, and concomitant non-GU infections were excluded. Descriptive analyses included calculation of the correlation matrix for the 7 metrics and the construction of box plots to display interfacility variability. Results: Metrics were calculated quarterly for 18 VA medical centers, including affiliated clinics, in a western VA network, from July 2018 to June 2020 (Table 1). Tier 3 GU conditions accounted for 1,276 of 11,840 (11%) of GU-related antibiotic use. Metrics 1 and 6b were strongly correlated with each other and were also positively correlated with metrics 2 and 5 (coefficients &gt; 0.5) (Fig. 1). Substantial interfacility variation was observed (Fig. 2). Conclusions: Stewardship metrics for suspected or documented UTIs can identify opportunities for practice improvement. Broadly capturing GU conditions in addition to UTIs may enhance utility for performance feedback. Antibiotic prescribing for tier 3 GU conditions is analogous to unnecessary antibiotic use for acute, uncomplicated bronchitis and upper respiratory tract infections.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None

A multimodal intervention to decrease inappropriate outpatient antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections in a large integrated healthcare system.

To evaluate the effectiveness of Carolinas Healthcare Outpatient Antimicrobial Stewardship Empowerment Network (CHOSEN), a multicomponent outpatient stewardship program to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory infections by 20% over 2 years. Before-and-after interrupted time series of antibiotics prescribed between 2 periods: April 2016-October 2017 and May 2018-March 2020. The study included 162 primary-care practices within a large healthcare system in the greater Charlotte, North Carolina region. Adult and pediatric patients with encounters for upper respiratory infections for which an antibiotic is inappropriate. Patient and provider educational materials, along with a web-based provider prescribing dashboard aimed at reducing inappropriate antibiotic prescribing were developed and distributed. Monthly antibiotic prescribing rates were calculated as the number of eligible encounters with an antibiotic prescribed divided by the total number of eligible encounters. A segmented regression analysis compared monthly antibiotic prescribing rates before versus after CHOSEN implementation, while also accounting for practice type and seasonal trends in prescribing. Overall, 286,580 antibiotics were prescribed during 704,248 preintervention encounters and 277,177 during 832,200 intervention encounters. Significant reductions in inappropriate prescribing rates were observed in all outpatient specialties: family medicine (relative difference before and after the intervention, -20.4%), internal medicine (-19.5%), pediatric medicine (-17.2%), and urgent care (-16.6%). A robust multimodal intervention that combined a provider prescribing dashboard with a targeted education campaign demonstrated significant decreases in inappropriate outpatient antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections in a large integrated ambulatory network.

Sustained Reduction in Urgent Care Antibiotic Prescribing During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: An Academic Medical Center's Experience.

We compared antibiotic prescribing before and during the ­coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic at 2 academic urgent care clinics and found a sustained decrease in prescribing driven by respiratory encounters and despite transitioning to telemedicine. Antibiotics were rarely prescribed during encounters for COVID-19 or COVID-19 symptoms. COVID-19 revealed opportunities for outpatient stewardship programs.

A qualitative assessment of nonclinical drivers of pediatric outpatient antibiotic prescribing: The importance of continuity.

Antibiotic overuse is common in outpatient pediatrics and varies across clinical setting and clinician type. We sought to identify social, behavioral, and environmental drivers of outpatient antibiotic prescribing for pediatric patients. We conducted semistructured interviews with physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) across diverse outpatient settings including pediatric primary, urgent, and retail care. We used the grounded theory constant comparative method and a thematic approach to analysis. We developed a conceptual model, building on domains of continuity to map common themes and their relationships within the healthcare system. We interviewed 55 physicians and APPs. Clinicians across all settings prioritized provision of guideline-concordant care but implemented these guidelines with varying degrees of success. The provision of guideline-concordant care was influenced by the patient-clinician relationship and patient or parent expectations (relational continuity); the clinician's access to patient clinical history (informational continuity); and the consistency of care delivered (management continuity). No difference in described themes was determined by setting or clinician type; however, clinicians in primary care described having more reliable relational and informational continuity. Clinicians described the absence of long-term relationships (relational continuity) and lack of availability of prior clinical history (informational continuity) as factors that may influence outpatient antibiotic prescribing. Guideline-concordant outpatient antibiotic prescribing was facilitated by consistent practice across settings (management continuity) and the presence of relational and informational continuity, which are common only in primary care. Management continuity may be more modifiable than informational and relational continuity and thus a focus for outpatient stewardship programs.