Antimicrobial prescribing in a secondary care setting during the COVID-19 pandemic

Michael M Tadros, Marian S Boshra, Michael Scott, Glenda Fleming, Fidelma Magee, Mohammad I Hamed, Ahmed Abuelhana, Aaron Courtenay, Heba F Salem, Kathryn Burnett

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Abstract

Background: Increased antimicrobial resistance patterns lead to limited options for antimicrobial agents, affecting patient health and increasing hospital costs.

Objectives: To investigate the antimicrobial prescribing patterns at two district hospitals in Northern Ireland before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A mixed prospective-retrospective study was designed to compare pre- and during pandemic antimicrobial prescribing data in both hospitals using a Global Point Prevalence Survey.

Results: Of the 591 patients surveyed in both hospitals, 43.8% were treated with 402 antimicrobials. A total of 82.8% of antimicrobial prescriptions were for empirical treatment. No significant difference existed in numbers of patients treated or antimicrobials used before and during the pandemic. There was a slight decrease of 3.3% in the compliance rate with hospital antimicrobial guidelines during the pandemic when compared with the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when it was 69.5%. Treatment based on patients’ biomarker data also slightly decreased from 83.5% pre-pandemic (2019) to 81.5% during the pandemic (2021).

Conclusions: There was no overall significant impact of the pandemic on the antimicrobial prescribing patterns in either hospital when compared with the pre-pandemic findings. The antimicrobial stewardship programmes would appear to have played an important role in controlling antimicrobial consumption during the pandemic.
Original languageEnglish
Article numberdlad117
Pages (from-to)1-11
Number of pages11
JournalJAC-Antimicrobial Resistance
Volume5
Issue number6
Early online date13 Nov 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished online - 13 Nov 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was jointly funded by both Misr University for Science and Technology (6 October City, Egypt) and Ulster University (Coleraine, UK) through a joint research programme to support one researcher from Egypt to compete a MSc (Master’s degree in Clinical Pharmacy). Article processing charges (APC) was paid by Ulster University through Jisc affliated UK intitutions Open Access Agreement. th

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

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