Prioritizing emergency department antibiotic stewardship interventions for skin and soft tissue infections using judgment analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) account for over 2.8 million annual emergency department (ED) visits and often result in suboptimal antibiotic therapy. The objective of this study was to evaluate a set of interventions in minimizing inappropriate prescription of antibiotics for presumed SSTIs in the ED.

Design

Case vignette survey.

Participants

A national sample of emergency medicine (EM) physicians.

Methods

Each vignette described a clinical scenario of a presumed SSTI (cellulitis or abscess) and included a unique combination of zero to five interventions (outpatient follow-up, inappropriate antibiotic request flag, thermal imaging for cellulitis or rapid wound MRSA PCR for abscess, patient education/shared decision-making, and clinical decis

SUBMITTER: Griffin M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11883652 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature