[Good clinical practices and inpatient antibiotics: optimization of fluoroquinolone switch therapy]

Intravenous-to-oral switch therapy is strongly recommended in the medical literature. The aim of this study was to assess how we can improve fluoroquinolone switch therapy.

In this comparative prospective study, we analyzed 243 intravenous ciprofloxacin treatments and assessed the impact of promoting a switch to oral step-down therapy.

This study found that switches from intravenous to oral therapy increased, mainly in medical wards, and led to significant savings in direct costs.

Promoting switch therapy has improved clinical practices in antibiotic use and led to lower direct and probably indirect drug-related costs.

Our findings will help define the role of switch therapy in improving clinical practices in inpatient antibiotic use.