The Impact of Point-of-Care Blood C-Reactive Protein Testing on Prescribing Antibiotics in Out-of-Hours Primary Care: A Mixed Methods Evaluation.

ABSTRACT: Improving prescribing antibiotics appropriately for respiratory infections in primary care is an antimicrobial stewardship priority. There is limited evidence to support interventions to reduce prescribing antibiotics in out-of-hours (OOH) primary care. Herein, we report a service innovation where point-of-care C-Reactive Protein (CRP) machines were introduced to three out-of-hours primary care clinical bases in England from August 2018-December 2019, which were compared with four control bases that did not have point-of-care CRP testing. We undertook a mixed-method evaluation, including a comparative interrupted time series analysis to compare monthly antibiotic prescription rates between bases with CRP machines and those without, an analysis of the number of and reasons for the tests per

SUBMITTER: Dixon S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9332095 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature