[Surveillance and the costs related to the prescription of antimicrobials in a pediatric hospital].
BACKGROUND
Important considerations in the selection of an antimicrobial agent include the indications for its prescription, its efficacy, toxicity and cost. However, is has been observed that up to 50% of these prescriptions are inappropriate.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the utilization patterns and costs of restricted antimicrobial agents requiring authorization of the infectious diseases service for their prescription, in a tertiary care pediatric hospital through the use of a computer software antimicrobial use surveillance program designed by the investigators.


METHODS
A one-year longitudinal descriptive and prolective survey was conducted in all patients requiring antimicrobial therapy during their hospitalization. Information on the prescription and costs of antimicrobial agents was recorded from both the medical chart and pharmacy registers.


RESULTS
A total of 748 patients were prescribed at least one restricted antimicrobial agent, corresponding to 9.6% of the total number of patients hospitalized and 63.4% of the antibiotic expenditures during the study.


CONCLUSIONS
Hospital surveillance of antimicrobial prescription is useful for detecting antimicrobial prescription patterns and costs. These types of studies are inexpensive and of easy access when a computerized register is available in the pharmacy.
Navarrete-Navarro
S
S
Unidad de Epidemiología Hospitalaria, Centro Médico Nacional Siglo XXI, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, México, DF.
Avila-Figueroa
C
C
Medina-Cuevas
F
F
Santos-Preciado
J I
JI
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000191:economics*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000191:economics; D016527:Drug Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008800:Mexico; D011358:Product Surveillance, Postmarketing / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents