Survey to determine the relative importance of clinical factors used to make empiric antibiotic decisions

Abstract

A cross-sectional survey study of inpatient prescribers in a university health system was performed to assess the importance they place on different clinical risk factors when making empiric antibiotic decisions. Our findings show that these clinical risk factors were weighted differently based on the clinical scenario and the type of prescriber.

Investigation of factors influencing inpatient antibiotic prescribing decisions in the Veterans’ Health Administration

“…Some of the decisional factors we identified have also been described in prior research about antibiotic decision making in studies across different types of infections, different countries, and different healthcare settings. [6][7][8][9][10] Our findings may help identify potential targets for educating prescribers about antibiotics. For example, some participants stated a preference for using oral antibiotics with high bioavailability or for using intravenous agents over oral agents, and this finding highlights an opportunity for antibiotic stewardship teams to better define when these pharmacologic properties are most clinically relevant.…”