Likelihood of Bacterial Infection in Patients Treated With Broad-Spectrum IV Antibiotics in the Emergency Department.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Best practice guidelines and quality metrics recommend immediate antibiotic treatment for all patients with suspected sepsis. However, little is known about how many patients given IV antibiotics in the emergency department are ultimately confirmed to have bacterial infection.

Design, setting, and patients

We performed a retrospective study of adult patients who presented to four Massachusetts emergency departments between June 2015 and June 2018 with suspected serious bacterial infection, defined as blood cultures drawn and broad-spectrum IV antibiotics administered. Structured medical record reviews were performed on a random sample of 300 cases to determine the post hoc likelihood of bacterial infection, categorized as definite, likely, unlikely, or definitely

SUBMITTER: Shappell CN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8516665 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature