Antibiotic handbook and pre-printed perioperative order forms for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis: do they work?

The authors attempted to compare the value of two strategies--an educational (antibiotic handbook) and a control (perioperative pre-printed physician order form, which contained antibiotic orders)--in modifying physicians' patterns of antibiotic prophylaxis for preventing infection in patients who undergo elective surgery. They reviewed the charts of 240 such patients on five different surgical services in one teaching hospital. Use of the antibiotic handbook (educational strategy) increased overall compliance with the recommended regimens from 11% to 18% (p = 0.06). The control strategy (perioperative pre-printed physician order form) increased compliance from 17% to 78% (p less than 0.01).