About 30% of the antibiotics prescribed in the outpatient setting is unnecessary. This injudicious use of antibiotics could propel the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. Outpatient antibiotic stewardship is one of the ways to monitor antibiotic prescription practices. But what are the attitudes and perceptions of primary care physicians towards outpatient stewardship? A qualitative study conducted in the USA tries to answer this question.
The study uncovered many interesting facts. Antibiotic resistance is considered as less important in the daily practice of physicians than other public health issues like obesity, diabetes, and opioid addiction. Some physicians opinioned that antibiotic resistance is an issue but is limited to the tertiary hospital level.
The study also tried to find out what are the drivers of outpatient antibiotic prescribing practice. The two main drivers identified were
- Inappropriate outpatient antibiotic prescribing by clinicians other than themselves
- Patient demand
The positive aspect which emerged in the study was the physicians were accepting the outpatient stewardship practices like patient education, physician education, performance reporting, etc. To learn more, kindly visit the website of BMJ Open journal through the LINK
