Blood samples drawn for culture as a surrogate marker for case-mix adjustment of hospital antibiotic use.
Hospital antibiotic consumption is generally adjusted to occupancy. This study hypothesised that the number of blood culture samples could be a surrogate marker for case-mix adjustment. Antibiotic consumption was compared over 16 consecutive trimesters in one medical ward in terms of patient-days or blood culture samples. Compared with patient-days, measurement adjusted to blood culture samples detected three trimesters with an unusually high consumption, and one trimester with consumption falsely classified as high because of a high incidence of infections. Blood culture numbers enabled easy and accurate identification of periods with a drift in antibiotic consumption ina medical ward.
Lamoth
F
F
Service of Infectious Deseases, Department of Medicine, University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland. Frederic.Lamoth@chuv.ch
Francioli
P
P
Zanetti
G
G
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D001800:Blood Specimen Collection; D004363:Drug Utilization; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D020379:Risk Adjustment
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents