Implementation of Hospital's Antibiotic Policy Decreases Antimicrobial Use in the General Pediatric Ward

Hospitalized children are often treated with antibiotics. However, 30-75% of antibiotic treatment in pediatric hospitals is administrated incorrectly or unreasonably. Implementation of Hospital's Antibiotic Policy (HAP) should improve antibiotic consumption patterns in pediatric wards. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of HAP by assessing antibiotic consumption in the General Pediatric Ward of an academic hospital in the city of Warsaw, Poland before and after this policy was introduced in the years 2012 and 2013, respectively. Antibiotic use was calculated in daily-defined doses (DDDs) per 100 patient-days and DDDs per 100 admissions. Antibiotics were ranked by the volume of DDDs and the number of antibiotics which accounted for 90% and 100% of the total volume: DU90% and DU100% (where DU stands for drug use). The total antibiotic consumption and significantly decreased after the implementation of HAP; DDDs were 2,177.5 before and 1,335.4 after implementation of HAP. The number of DDDs/100 patient-days was also lower; 36.3 vs. 24.9 before and after HAP, respectively. After implementation of HAP a decreased use of ceftriaxone and cefuroxime was observed. The most commonly used antibiotic was amoxicillin with clavulanic acid. The DU100% rates remained the same (8 antibiotics) and DU90% increased (from 3 in 2012 to 5 in 2013). We conclude that implementation of HAP resulted a decreased consumption of antibiotics in the General Pediatric Ward, despite the hardly changed number of children treated with antibiotics.