Fresh Insights Into Responsible Antibiotic Prescribing; the Numbers May Surprise You

A study newly published in BMJ reaffirms that too many inappropriate prescriptions for antibiotics are being written, especially during influenza season. It also reflects some ambiguity in prescribers’ reporting habits, however, and offers some insights into which drugs are being prescribed the most. The authors found that 25% of antibiotic prescriptions are written for “inappropriate” reasons, and that 18% reflect cases in which documentation was insufficient to determine whether a prescription was appropriate or not. On the positive side, 57% of prescriptions were found to have been written appropriately. Overall, antibiotics were prescribed in 13.2% of all visits. Penicillins were most likely to be prescribed appropriately, while prescriptions for quinolones and urinary anti-infectives were most likely to be unwarranted. JUCM hosted a webinar on good antibiotic stewardship recently. You can view Strategies Towards Prudent Use of Antibiotics in our archive.