Antimicrobial prescribing in a secondary care setting during the COVID-19 pandemic

Michael M Tadros; Marian S Boshra; Michael Scott; Glenda Fleming; Fidelma Magee; Mohammad I Hamed; Ahmed Abuelhana; Aaron Courtenay; Heba F Salem; Kathryn Burnett

doi:10.1093/jacamr/dlad117

Antimicrobial prescribing in a secondary care setting during the COVID-19 pandemic

JAC Antimicrob Resist. 2023 Nov 13;5(6):dlad117. doi: 10.1093/jacamr/dlad117. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ulster University, Coleraine, UK.
² Clinical Pharmacy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Misr University for Science and Technology (MUST University), P.O. Box 12566, Giza, Egypt.
³ Clinical Pharmacy Department, Faculty of Pharmacy, Beni-Suef University, P.O. Box 62514, Beni-Suef, Egypt.
⁴ Medicines Optimisation and Innovation Centre (MOIC), Antrim Area Hospital, Antrim, UK.
⁵ Pharmacy Department, Northern Health and Social Care Trust (NHSCT), Antrim, UK.
⁶ Department of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Beni-Suef University, P.O. Box 62514, Beni-Suef, Egypt.
⁷ Regional Pharmaceutical Procurement Service, Northern Health and Social Care Trust (NHSCT), Antrim, UK.

Abstract

Background: Increased antimicrobial resistance patterns lead to limited options for antimicrobial agents, affecting patient health and increasing hospital costs.

Objectives: To investigate the antimicrobial prescribing patterns at two district hospitals in Northern Ireland before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A mixed prospective-retrospective study was designed to compare pre- and during pandemic antimicrobial prescribing data in both hospitals using a Global Point Prevalence Survey.

Results: Of the 591 patients surveyed in both hospitals, 43.8% were treated with 402 antimicrobials. A total of 82.8% of antimicrobial prescriptions were for empirical treatment. No significant difference existed in numbers of patients treated or antimicrobials used before and during the pandemic. There was a slight decrease of 3.3% in the compliance rate with hospital antimicrobial guidelines during the pandemic when compared with the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when it was 69.5%. Treatment based on patients' biomarker data also slightly decreased from 83.5% pre-pandemic (2019) to 81.5% during the pandemic (2021).

Conclusions: There was no overall significant impact of the pandemic on the antimicrobial prescribing patterns in either hospital when compared with the pre-pandemic findings. The antimicrobial stewardship programmes would appear to have played an important role in controlling antimicrobial consumption during the pandemic.