Impact of Antibiotic Authorisation at Three Provincial Hospitals in Thailand: Results from a Quasi-Experimental Study

Development and Implementation of a Mobile Application for Choosing Empirical Antimicrobial Therapy for Bacteremia, Pneumonia, Urinary Tract Infection, and Skin and Soft Tissue Infection among Hospitalized Patients

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and computerized clinical decision support programs are effective antimicrobial stewardship strategies. The DigitalAMS™, a mobile-based application for choosing empirical antimicrobial therapy under the hospital’s CPGs, was implemented at Siriraj Hospital and evaluated. From January to June 2018, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 401 hospitalized adults who received ≥1 dose of antimicrobials and had ≥1 documented site-specific infection. The antimicrobial regimen prescribed by the ward physician (WARD regimen), recommended by the DigitalAMS™ (APP regimen), and recommended by two independent infectious disease (ID) physicians before (Emp-ID regimen) and after (Def-ID regimen) the final microbiological results became available were compared in a pairwise fashion. The percent agreement of antimicrobial prescribing between the APP and Emp-ID regimens was 85.7% in the bacteremia group, 59.1% in the pneumonia group, 78.6% in the UTI group, and 85.2% in the SSTI group. The percent agreement between the APP and Emp-ID regimens was significantly higher than that between the WARD and Emp-ID regimens in three site-specific infection groups: the bacteremia group (85.7% vs. 47.9%, p < 0.001), the UTI group (78.6% vs. 37.8%, p < 0.001), and the SSTI group (85.2% vs. 40.2%, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the percent agreement between the APP and Def-ID regimens was similar to that between the Emp-ID and Def-ID regimens in all sites of infection. In conclusions, the implementation of DigitalAMS™ seems useful but needs some revisions. The dissemination of this ready-to-use application with customized clinical practice guidelines to other hospital settings may be beneficial.

Implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines for Empirical Antibiotic Therapy of Bacteremia, Urinary Tract Infection, and Pneumonia: A Multi-Center Quasi-Experimental Study

A quasi-experimental study was conducted on the implementation of locally developed clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for empirical antibiotic (ATB) therapy of common infections (bacteremia, urinary tract infection (UTI), pneumonia) in the hospitals from January 2019 to December 2020. The CPGs were developed using data from patients with these infections at individual hospitals. Relevant CPG data pre- and post-implementation were collected and compared. Of the 1644 patients enrolled in the study, 808 and 836 were in the pre- and post-implementation periods, respectively, and patient outcomes were compared. Significant reductions in the mean durations of intensive care unit stay (3.44 ± 9.08 vs. 2.55 ± 7.89 days; p = 0.035), ventilator use (5.73 ± 12.14 vs. 4.22 ± 10.23 days; p = 0.007), piperacillin/tazobactam administration (0.954 ± 3.159 vs. 0.660 ± 2.217 days, p = 0.029), and cefoperazone/sulbactam administration (0.058 ± 0.737 vs. 0.331 ± 1.803 days, p = 0.0001) occurred. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that CPG-implementation was associated with favorable clinical outcomes (adjusted odds ratio 1.286, 95% confidence interval: 1.004–1.647, p = 0.046). Among patients who provided follow-up cultures (n = 284), favorable microbiological responses were significantly less frequent during the pre-implementation period than the post-implementation period (80.35% vs. 91.89%; p = 0.01). In conclusion, the locally developed CPG implementation is feasible and effective in improving patient outcomes and reducing ATB consumption. Hospital antimicrobial stewardship teams should be able to facilitate CPG development and implementation for antimicrobial therapy for common infections.