How do you measure the impact of an antibiotic policy?

The principle aim of antibiotic policies is to bring about a change in prescribing which will lead to decreased cost, reduction of resistance and improved quality (judicious, safe and appropriate) of antibiotic prescribing. Before embarking upon developing, disseminating and subsequently implementing an antibiotic policy clinicians and key decision makers need to make explicit at the onset of policy development, how they plan to evaluate its impact. Quality indicators of the process of implementing policies and their impact on various outcomes need to be identified. These number and complexity of these indicators is dependent on local resource but they must be specific to the organisation, simple, measurable and meaningful. This information needs to be shared and acted upon.