Outpatient antimicrobial stewardship: Optimizing patient care via pharmacist led microbiology review

Cultures are often taken in the outpatient setting but results are not acted upon, leading to unnecessary re-presentations to the health care setting.

This study was a prospective study with interventions made between January 1, 2018, and January 1, 2019. Cultures were reviewed to ensure appropriate antimicrobial coverage. The objective was to compare outcomes with accepted versus rejected interventions. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize data.

A total of 7,360 antibiotic orders were reviewed by the infectious diseases pharmacists. Pharmacists intervened on 20.1% (n = 194) of encounters with related cultures. Interventions were most frequent in the emergency department (42%). Ciprofloxacin required the most interventions (26%), followed by third-generation cephalosporins (22%). The intervention acceptance rate was 76%, which was associated with decreased rates of 30-day treatment failure (5% vs 28%, P < .001) and 30-day admission (0.7% vs 11%, P = .001), when interventions were accepted rather than rejected.

Approximately 20% of patients required intervention. Culture review services may be beneficial in a variety of outpatient settings. Outpatient stewardship literature is limited, and our study found a decrease in admission and treatment failure.

Microbiology review and intervention positively impacted care for outpatients. Intervention was associated with significantly decreased rates of treatment failure and admission when interventions were accepted.