Impact of an automated antibiotic time-out alert on the de-escalation of broad-spectrum antibiotics at a large community teaching hospital.

Broad-spectrum antibiotic de-escalation before and after implementation of a 72-hour antibiotic time-out alert within the electronic medical record was analyzed. De-escalation occurred significantly more often after the implementation of the alert (55.0% vs 35.1%; 95% confidence interval, -0.3491 to -0.0488; P < .01).