Parenteral antibiotic use in acute-care hospitals: A standardized analysis of fourteen institutions.

Despite increasing concerns regarding the need to optimize appropriate antibiotic use in hospitals, a standardized method for evaluating interinstitutional antibiotic use has not been developed. To address this issue, antibiotic use was analyzed by means of a uniform methodology among 14 acute-care hospitals. Data were standardized by use of a defined daily dose for each antibiotic while adjusting for patient volume by calculating use per 1000 patient-days. Within the group, there was a 68% range in total parenteral antibiotic expenditures and wide variability in the use of individual agents. Analysis of these differences indicated that only the use of active antibiotic-management programs clearly correlated with antibiotic cost per 1000 patient-days (P<.001). Given these results, we believe that wider comparative analysis of antibiotic use with a standardized methodology in conjunction with standardized analysis of nosocomial infection rates and antibiotic resistance data may enhance the stewardship of antibiotics in acute-care hospitals.