Antibiotic Prescribing Variability in a Large Urgent Care Network: A New Target for Outpatient Stewardship.

ABSTRACT: Improving antibiotic prescribing in outpatient settings is a public health priority. In the United States, urgent care (UC) encounters are increasing and have high rates of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. Our objective was to characterize antibiotic prescribing practices during UC encounters, with a focus on respiratory tract conditions. This was a retrospective cohort study of UC encounters in the Intermountain Healthcare network. Among 1.16 million UC encounters, antibiotics were prescribed during 34% of UC encounters and respiratory conditions accounted for 61% of all antibiotics prescribed. Of respiratory encounters, 50% resulted in antibiotic prescriptions, yet the variability at the level of the provider ranged from 3% to 94%. Similar variability between providers was observed

SUBMITTER: Stenehjem E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7768670 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature