Few studies have investigated the influence of more full-time equivalents (FTEs) of infectious disease (ID) pharmacists on the likelihood of a post-prescription review with feedback (PPRF) intervention. This study focused on this in community hospitals before and after the Japanese medical reimbursement system was revised to introduce antimicrobial stewardship (AS) fees. We collected data for two periods: before (April 2017 to March 2018) and after (April 2018 to March 2019) AS fee implementation. The efficacy of the PPRF by the ID pharmacist was assessed based on the usage of broad-spectrum antimicrobials in days of therapy (DOT) per 100 patient-days. Further, we generated the susceptibility rate for antimicrobial-resistant organisms. The number of PPRF drugs was 2336 (2596 cases) before AS fee implementation and 2136 (1912 cases) after implementation. The overall monthly FTE for AS for an ID pharmacist increased from [median (interquartile range; IQR)] 0.34 (0.33-0.36) to 0.63 (0.61-0.63) after AS fee implementation. The DOT of the broad-spectrum antibiotics decreased from 10.46 (9.61-12.48) to 8.68 (8.14-9.18). The DOT of carbapenems and quinolones decreased significantly from 4.11 (3.69-4.41) to 3.07 (2.79-3.22) and 0.96 (0.61-1.14) to 0.37 (0.19-0.46), respectively (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the rate of levofloxacin (LVFX)-susceptible Pseudomonas (P.) aeruginosa improved from 71.5 to 84.8% (p < 0.01). We observed that increasing the FTE of ID pharmacists influences the DOTs of broad-spectrum antibiotics; a higher FTE contributes to fewer DOTs. Further, the susceptibility of P. aeruginosa to meropenem and LVFX increased as the FTE increased.
Keywords: antimicrobial resistance; full-time equivalent; infectious disease; pharmacist.