Association of a Clinician's Antibiotic-Prescribing Rate With Patients' Future Likelihood of Seeking Care and Receipt of Antibiotics.

ABSTRACT:

Background

One underexplored driver of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory illnesses (ARI) is patients' prior care experiences. When patients receive antibiotics for an ARI, patients may attribute their clinical improvement to the antibiotics, regardless of their true benefit. These experiences, and experiences of family members, may drive whether patients seek care or request antibiotics for subsequent ARIs.

Methods

Using encounter data from a national United States insurer, we identified patients <65 years old with an index ARI urgent care center (UCC) visit. We categorized clinicians within each UCC into quartiles based on their ARI antibiotic prescribing rate. Exploiting the quasi-random assignment of patients to a clinician within an UCC, we exami

SUBMITTER: Shi Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8492129 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature