Duration of Antibiotic Therapy for General Medicine and General Surgery Patients Throughout Transitions of Care: An Antibiotic Stewardship Opportunity for Noninfectious Disease Pharmacists.

BACKGROUND: Overuse of antibiotics from the inpatient to outpatient setting is an antibiotic stewardship initiative where noninfectious disease (ID) pharmacists can have a large impact. Our purpose was to evaluate antibiotic durations across transitions of care from the inpatient to outpatient setting.
METHODS: This is a single-center, retrospective cohort analysis evaluating antibiotic durations from the inpatient and outpatient setting in adult patients admitted to general surgery and medicine services at an academic medical center between January 1, 2017 and September 20, 2017. The primary outcome was to assess total antibiotic duration for patients with uncomplicated and complicated urinary tract infections (UTI, cUTI), community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), and hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP). Outpatient electronic discharge prescriptions were used to calculate intended antibiotic duration upon transitions of care. Excessive duration of therapy was defined as >3 days-UTI, >5 days-CAP, and >7 days-cUTI or HAP.
RESULTS: One hundred and one patients met inclusion criteria. Overall, most of the patients (81%) had antibiotics longer than recommended with only 3% receiving less than the recommended duration. Median total duration of therapy compared with recommended duration specified in national guidelines was UTI: 10 days [7 -10], cUTI: 12 days [7.5-12.5], CAP: 7 days [7 -9], HAP: 10 days [8 -12]. The median antibiotic duration was shorter in patients with no cultures or culture negative results compared with patients with positive cultures for all indications (UTI: 10.3 vs 10.8 days, cUTI: 9 vs 12 days, CAP: 8 vs 9.1 days, HAP: 10.5 vs 19.8 days). Overall, the recommended duration of antibiotics was completed while inpatient in 34.7%, but varied by infection. More patients with UTI or cUTI completed recommended duration of therapy while inpatient vs for CAP or HAP (53.8% vs 28%, P = .03). Eighty percent of those with UTI, 18.2% with cUTI, 25.6% with CAP, and 31.2% with HAP had already received the recommended duration of treatment, or more, on day of hospital discharge.
CONCLUSIONS: The median duration of antibiotic therapy for all indications evaluated was longer than recommended in national guidelines. Opportunities for stewardship by non-ID pharmacists to impact postdischarge antimicrobial use at transitions of care have been identified.