title: Assessment of antibiotic prescription in hospitalised patients at a Chinese university hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe and understand antibiotic prescribing in hospitalised patients in a university hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study using clinical data on antibiotic prescriptions in 1025 inpatient cases chosen from 21,000 inpatients in our hospital in 1997 by systematic sampling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Antibiotics were prescribed to 77.8% of inpatients, among which 55.2% were prescribed two or more kinds of antibiotics. In 58.5% of cases, antibiotic prescriptions were given therapeutically. Only 39 specimens in 1025 cases were taken for microbiological investigation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Few microbiological investigations were undertaken prior to antibiotic prescribing. The main challenges in the antibiotic prescribing are to make rational choices for antibiotic use and recognise the potential problems of abuse of antibiotics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China. husup@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Suping
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Xiuheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Peng
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002681:China; D017723:Drug Utilization Review; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents