• Describes an audit undertaken in the East of England on antibiotic prescribing in general dental practice.• The protocols of an original North West of England audit published in 2001 were deliberately replicated, in order to be able to pool the data and obtain a sample size of at least 1% of all UK dentists.• The combined Regional results confi rm that clinical audit reduces both the number of errors made by dental practitioners when writing out a prescription, as well as the number of those which are issued inappropriately, as compared to contemporary prescribing guidelines. I N B R I E FThe impact of clinical audit on antibiotic prescribing in general dental practice Objective To reduce the number of antibiotics inappropriately prescribed by general dental practitioners, and to increase overall prescription accuracy. Design A prospective clinical audit carried out between September and March of 2002-3 and 2003-4. Setting General dental practices in Eastern England. Subjects and methods The pre-audit antibiotic prescribing practices of 212 general dental practitioners were recorded over an initial six week period. On each occasion this included which antibiotic had been chosen, together with its dose, frequency and duration, as well as the clinical condition and reason for which the prescription had been raised. When related to prophylaxis, the patient's medical history was also noted. Following education on contemporary prescribing guidelines, presentations which illustrated the practitioners' previous errors, and the agreement of standards to be achieved, the process was repeated for another six weeks, and the results compared. Results In the pre-audit period, 2,951 antibiotic prescriptions were issued, and during the audit this was reduced by 43.6% to 1,665. The majority were for therapeutic reasons, with only 10.5% and 13.6% for medical prophylaxis during the pre-audit and audit periods respectively. Over both periods, amoxicillin and metronidazole were the two most commonly prescribed antimicrobials (63.4% and 21.2% respectively). In the pre-audit period, only 43% of all prescriptions were error free in dose, frequency, and/or duration of use, but this rose signifi cantly to 78% during the audit. Equally, using contemporary published guidelines, out of all the prescriptions made in the pre-audit period, only 29.2% were deemed to be justifi ed, as compared to 48.5% during the audit. Conclusions Clinical audit, in conjunction with education, and prescribing guidelines can favourably change antibiotic prescribing patterns among general dental practitioners.

An in-home geriatric assessment service was able to contribute at least one relevant intervention for 81% of referred APS clients to collaboratively help mitigate elder mistreatment circumstances.

Geriatrics healthcare providers need to be aware of the effect that culture has on establishing treatment priorities, influencing adherence, and addressing end-of-life care issues for older patients and their caregivers. The mnemonic ETHNIC(S) (Explanation, Treatment, Healers, Negotiate, Intervention, Collaborate, Spirituality/Seniors) presented in this article provides a framework that practitioners can use in providing culturally appropriate geriatric care. ETHNIC(S) can serve as a clinically applicable tool for eliciting and negotiating cultural issues during healthcare encounters and as a new instructional strategy to be incorporated into ethnogeriatric curricula for all healthcare disciplines.

This new effort to link APS workers with geriatric clinicians conducting in-home health assessments proved effective for identifying a high prevalence of remediable health conditions among APS clients suffering various manifestations of elder mistreatment.