Computer-Assisted Antimicrobial Recommendations for Optimal Therapy: Analysis of Prescribing Errors in an Antimicrobial Stewardship Trial.

Clinician education and prospective audit and feedback interventions, deployed separately and concurrently, did not reduce antimicrobial use errors or rates compared to a control group of general medicine inpatients at our public hospital. Additional research is needed to define the optimal scope and intensity of hospital antimicrobial stewardship interventions. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:857-859.

Implementation of an extended-infusion piperacillin-tazobactam program at an urban teaching hospital.

PURPOSE: The development and implementation of an extended-infusion piperacillin-tazobactam program at an urban teaching hospital are described. SUMMARY: A multidisciplinary team was formed to address the feasibility of converting from the standard 30-minute infusion to an extended infusion of piperacillin- tazobactam. Before hospitalwide implementation, feasibility studies were performed in a subset of patients to identify potential barriers to program implementation. On the day of hospitalwide conversion, the orderables for piperacillin-tazobactam were reprogrammed in the computerized prescriber-order-entry system to allow separate options for the 30-minute infusion (for pediatric patients) and the extended-infusion regimen. After selecting the orderable for the extended-infusion regimen, an electronic message appeared to remind prescribers of the rationale for this change and recommended indications for piperacillin-tazobactam. Program success was prospectively evaluated on 11 weekdays after hospitalwide conversion for all 96 adult inpatients receiving piperacillin-tazobactam. Of the 194 piperacillin-tazobactam doses observed, 90% were appropriate, with compliance increasing to 100% by the end of the observation period. There was near-complete cessation of the every-6-hour dosage interval and a marked increase in the every-8-hour and every-12-hour dosage intervals. The number of piperacillin-tazobactam doses per 1000 patient-days significantly decreased during the postimplementation period. During the postimplementation period, pharmacy expenditures related to piperacillin-tazobactam decreased by 18% and the total number of grams of piperacillin-tazobactam purchased decreased by 24%. CONCLUSION: A hospitalwide program for the administration of extended-infusion piperacillin-tazobactam was safely and successfully implemented using a multi-disciplinary approach in an urban teaching hospital.

Pharmacists' perceptions of the effectiveness of antimicrobial control programs.

PURPOSE: The perceptions of the effectiveness of antimicrobial control programs (ACPs) among infectious diseases (ID) pharmacists were studied. METHODS: A survey asking pharmacists to characterize the ACP in their hospitals and rate the program's effectiveness was distributed electronically in 1999 and by regular mail in 2000 to all 365 members of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists residing in North America. RESULTS: Of the 365 surveys distributed, 323 (88.5%) were completed, 233 of which were eligible for analysis. Most respondents (99%) indicated the use of one or more ACP components (mean +/- S.D., 4.3 +/- 1.9) in their hospitals. The ACP components used most frequently included prescriber education, review of patient medical records, formularies, prior authorization, infectious diseases consultation, and clinical practice guidelines. A similar percentage of respondents indicated that ID pharmacists and ID physicians directly participated in implementing and monitoring the effectiveness of ACPs (57% and 58%, respectively). Of the 231 respondents whose hospitals had an ACP, 73% perceived that their ACP effectively addressed antimicrobial resistance, patient outcomes, or costs, with cost reduction viewed as being accomplished more often than the improvement of patient outcomes or containment of antimicrobial resistance (62%, 35%, and 38%, respectively; p < 0.001). Many indicated uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of their ACP, with a substantial percentage of respondents believing that the level of support for these programs was inadequate. CONCLUSION: ID pharmacists in 231 North American hospitals perceived that their ACP was not sufficiently effective at improving patient outcomes, containing antimicrobial resistance, and decreasing medication costs, possibly due to inadequate institutional support for the program.

Antimicrobial consumption data from pharmacy and nursing records: how good are they?

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether randomly selected intravenous (IV) antimicrobial doses dispensed from an inpatient pharmacy were administered. DESIGN: This was a prospective, cross-sectional study in which dose administration was confirmed by direct observation and by assessment of the medication administration record (MAR). A retrospective analysis of the return rate of unused IV antimicrobial doses was performed subsequently. SETTING: Medical and surgical intensive care units (ICUs) and non-ICUs of a 550-bed urban public teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Hospitalized patients with an order in the pharmacy database for an IV antimicrobial during 9 non-consecutive weekdays in June 1999. RESULTS: Of 397 doses, 221 (55.7%) assessed by bedside observation and 238 (59.9%) assessed by MAR review were classified as administered; 139 doses (35.0%) were dispensed but changes in the drug order or the patient's status prevented their administration. In the subsequent assessment, of 745 IV antimicrobial doses dispensed during 24 hours, 322 (43.2%) were returned to the pharmacy unused; 423 (56.8%) of the doses-consistent with our prior observations-were presumably administered. CONCLUSIONS: Because computerized pharmacy data may overestimate actual antimicrobial consumption, such data should be validated when used in studies of hospital antimicrobial use. Dispense-return analysis offers a simple validation method.

Antibiotic combinations with redundant antimicrobial spectra: clinical epidemiology and pilot intervention of computer-assisted surveillance.

Redundant antibiotic combinations are a potentially remediable source of antibiotic overuse. At a public teaching hospital, we determined the incidence, cost, and indications for such combinations and measured the effects of a pharmacist-based intervention. Of 1189 inpatients receiving >or=2 antibiotics, computer-assisted screening identified 192 patients (16.1%) receiving potentially redundant combinations. Chart reviews showed that 137 episodes (71%) were inappropriate. Physician overprescribing errors were found in 77 episodes (56%); most involved redundant coverage for gram-positive or anaerobic organisms. In 76 episodes (55%), lapses in the medication ordering and distribution system led to the persistence in the pharmacy records of regimens no longer active according to the patient charts. The incidence of redundant antibiotic combinations was significantly higher in the intensive care unit and surgery services, compared with medical services. Interventions to discontinue redundant agents were successful in 134 (98%) of the 137 episodes. Potential drug cost savings and reduction in redundant antibiotic combination days were 10,800 dollars and 584 days, respectively; pharmacist time for patient review and intervention cost 2880 dollars. Use of redundant antibiotic combinations was common, and a pharmacist-based intervention was feasible, with a potential annualized cost savings of 48,000 dollars.

Lack of effect of nizatidine-induced elevation of gastric pH on the oral bioavailability of dapsone in healthy volunteers.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of histamine2 (H2)-receptor antagonist-induced elevation of gastric pH on oral bioavailability of a single dose of dapsone 100 mg. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, crossover, open-label, single-dose pharmacokinetic study. SETTING: Teaching hospital. PATIENTS: Sixteen men were enrolled in the study; data from 11 subjects were evaluable. INTERVENTIONS: Participants received two treatments separated by at least 14 days. Treatment A consisted of a single dose of dapsone 100 mg. Treatment B consisted of a single dose of dapsone 100 mg plus two doses of oral nizatidine 300 mg administered 3-4 hours apart to maintain gastric pH above 6.0. Plasma samples collected before and up to 120 hours after dapsone administration were analyzed for dapsone and monoacetyldapsone (MADDS) by high-performance liquid chromatography. Pharmacokinetic parameters were determined by noncompartmental analysis. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Gastric pH in the first 6 hours after dapsone administration was above 6.0 for a mean +/- SD of 1.1% +/- 2.9% of the time in the absence of nizatidine and 69.5% +/- 18.0% of the time during nizatidine therapy. The geometric mean dapsone maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) declined by 13% (p<0.01), and median time to Cmax occurred 2 hours later (p<0.01) with nizatidine coadministration compared with dapsone alone. Inclusion of the 90% confidence interval for the mean Cmax ratio within the equivalence interval of 0.8-1.25 demonstrated the lack of clinical significance for this modest decrease in Cmax. Neither the area under the dapsone plasma concentration-time curve from zero to infinity nor the elimination half-life of dapsone were significantly altered by nizatidine. No clinically significant changes were observed in the pharmacokinetics of MADDS with regard to coadministration of nizatidine. CONCLUSION: Elevation of gastric pH by H2-receptor antagonists, such as nizatidine, does not result in clinically important changes in the rate or extent of oral dapsone absorption.