Attitudes of pharmacists and physicians to antibiotic policies in hospitals.
BACKGROUND
Antibiotic therapy in hospitals has substantial impact on patient outcome and the pharmacy drug budget. Antibiotic policies have been implemented by some hospitals to improve the quality of patient outcome and cost of antibiotic therapy. Antibiotic policies impose certain requirements on pharmacists and physicians. Pharmacists' and physicians' attitudes to and opinions about antibiotic policies are likely to affect the usefulness of such policies.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the attitudes of pharmacists and physicians to antibiotic policies in New South Wales (NSW) hospitals.


METHODS
Pharmacists and physicians in NSW public hospitals were surveyed to determine their attitudes to and opinions on antibiotic policies. A simple one-stage cluster sample of 241 pharmacists and a two-stage cluster sample of 701 physicians were obtained. Factor analysis was used to identify the attitudinal dimensions. General linear modelling was used to investigate the effects of predictor variables on outcome variables.


RESULTS
The response rates were 91% and 77% for pharmacists and physicians, respectively. Factor analysis identified three dimensions of attitude to antibiotic policies: that they encourage rational antibiotic use; that they improve the quality of antibiotic prescribing and that they are associated with some problems. The reliability of these factors (Cronbach's alpha) ranged from 0.71 to 0.74, and was 0.90 for the overall attitude scale. Pharmacists and physicians had a positive overall attitude to antibiotic policies. Whereas physicians recognize that antibiotic policies improve the quality of prescribing, this was highly correlated with identification of problems (alpha = 0.71). In urban hospitals, pharmacists were more likely than physicians to associate antibiotics with problems.


CONCLUSIONS
There was a positive overall attitude to hospital antibiotic policies expressed by pharmacists and physicians.
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Pharmaceutical Evaluation Section, Commonwealth Department of Health, Canberra ACT, Australia. ammish.adu@health.gov.au
Simpson
J M
JM
Armour
C L
CL
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D016134:Organizational Policy; D010595:Pharmacists; D010820:Physicians
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents