Is fear of missing an infection — call it “FOMI” — leading you to overprescribe antibiotics to your patients?
Inappropriate use of antibiotics can result in adverse events and toxicity, superinfections such as Clostridioides difficile and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, excess mortality and costs, and resistance to the drugs.
All that has been well-known for years, and antibiotic resistance has become a leading public health concern. So why are physicians continuing to overprescribe the drugs?
Dr James Cutrell
Speaking at the 2022 annual Internal Medicine Meeting of the American College of Physicians, James “Brad” Cutrell, MD, medical director of antimicrobial stewardship, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, said clinicians in the United States and elsewhere appear to be falling into a three-part fallacy when it comes to using the drugs: Fear of “missing an infection,” coupled with patient expectations that they will leave the office with a prescription — combined with an overemphasis on the potential benefit to the individual at the expense of the risk to society of antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotics are the only drugs that lose their efficacy for all patients over time the more they are used. “For example, if I give a beta blocker to a patient, it’s not going to affect other patients down the road,” Cutrell said. “It’s not going to lose its efficacy.”
“What we need in medicine is a new culture around antibiotic use,” Cutrell added. “We need more respect for the dangers of antibiotic misuse and to have confidence in [their] benefits and when they can be used wisely.”
Rampant Misuse
Outpatient prescriptions account for at least 60% of antibiotic use in the United States. The rate is even higher in other countries, Cutrell said during a presentation at the 2022 annual Internal Medicine Meeting of the American College of Physicians.
“About 10% of adult visits and 20% of pediatric visits will result in an antibiotic prescription,” said Cutrell, noting that prescribing patterns vary widely across the country, with as much as a three-fold difference in some locations. But at least 30% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are inappropriately ordered, he said.
“When we look at acute respiratory infections, upwards of 50% are not indicated at all,” he said. Imagine, he added, if the same error rate applied to other medical practices: “What if surgeons were only right 50% of the time, or if the oncologist was only giving the right treatment 50% of the time.”
The most recent Antibiotic Threats Report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi cause more than 2.8 million infections and about 36,000 deaths annually in the Unites States alone.
How to Be a Better Steward
The core elements for antimicrobial stewardship in the outpatient setting, according to Cutrell, include making a commitment to optimize prescribing, implementing at least one policy or practice to improve prescribing, monitoring prescribing practices and offering feedback to clinicians, and educating both patients and clinicians.
All that is similar to in-patient stewardship, he said, but outpatient clinicians face a few unique challenges. “Patients are lower acuity and there is less diagnostic data, and program resources and time are more limited,” he said. Patient satisfaction is also a major driver, and it is also more difficult to measure and track ambulatory antibiotic use.
Interventions have been identified, however, that can help improve stewardship. One is auditing and feedback with peers. “Another [is] commitment posters, which can be placed around the clinic, and that helps set the culture,” he said. “Clinical education and practice guidelines are also important.”
Clinicians should also:
Observe antibiotic best practices
Optimize antibiotic selection and dosing
Practice effective diagnostic stewardship
Use the shortest duration of therapy necessary
Avoid antibiotics for inappropriate indications
Educate patients on when antibiotics are needed
Follow and become good antibiotic stewardship mentors
“Multiple antibiotic stewardship interventions are effective, particularly those focused on behavioral interventions,” Cutrell said. “Every provider should follow antibiotic ‘best practices’ and other simple steps to prescribe antibiotics more wisely and to improve patient care.”
Cutrell reported financial relationships with Gilead Sciences and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
Antimicrobial Stewardship in Outpatient Practice. The American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting 2022. Presented April 30.
Roxanne Nelson is a registered nurse and an award-winning medical writer who has written for many major news outlets and is a regular contributor to Medscape.
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