Surveillance of Antibiotic Consumption Using the "Focus of Infection" Approach in 2 Hospitals in Ujjain, India

Antibiotic surveillance initiatives are limited in resource-constrained settings. In the present study, a quantitative comparison of antibiotic use rates for suspected infections in 2 hospitals in India was performed using the "focus of infection" approach to identify targets for quality improvement in antibiotic prescription patterns in hospitalized patients. Methods: This observational study was carried out in one teaching and one nonteaching hospital. All the patients with suspected bacterial etiology were included. Data on the prescribed antibiotics and the focus of infection were prospectively collected using a structured questionnaire. Each diagnosis was further reviewed and confirmed by an independent consultant. The prescribed antibiotics were coded according to the World Health Organization Anatomic Therapeutic Classification (ATC) index with the defined daily dose (DDD) methodology. Focus-specific DDDs were calculated per hundred patient days (DDD/HPD). Results: A total of 6026 patients were included from 72 participating physicians out of available 75 physicians. Overall antibiotic prescribing was higher by 5 percentage points in the teaching hospital (95%) than in the nonteaching hospital (90%). Quinolones (ciprofloxacin constituting 86% of DDD/HPD) were the highest prescribed class in the teaching hospital, and third-generation cephalosporins (with ceftriaxone and ceftriaxone/sulbactam constituting 40% and 28% of the DDD/HPD, respectively), in the nonteaching hospital. The targets identified for improvement were the following: longer than recommended duration of prophylaxis and lack of distinction between prophylaxis and therapy among surgical patients; irrational antibiotic prescribing in gastroenteritis; overuse of quinolones and lack of use of penicillin in pneumonia; overuse of quinolones and lack of use of doxycycline and macrolides in genital infections; and overreliance on antibiotics for treating skin and soft tissue infections. Conclusions: Providing a quantitative comparison of antibiotic use rates for suspected infections, using the "focus of infection" approach along with the ATC/DDD methodology, appears appropriate for identifying targets for quality improvement with regards to antibiotic prescribing.