title: Application of ATC/DDD methodology to evaluate of antibiotic use in a general hospital in Turkey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study is to evaluate in-house antibiotic use in a state hospital in Turkey with its cost, using the ATC/DDD index, which is an accepted standard method.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was performed as a point prevalence study in a state hospital with 372 beds. All in-house patients using antibiotics on July 19, 2011 were included in the study. Indications for antibiotic use and information about the patients were recorded on special forms. Antibiotic use and cost analysis were evaluated using the ATC/DDD index, which is also suggested by the WHO to be used in similar studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  147 patients out of 308 patients who were in-house were identified to use antibiotics with appropriate indications for prophylaxis or treatment in 61% of the patients. The rate of appropriate antibiotic use was identified to be in 78%, while this rate was 38.9% in surgical clinics. The daily cost of the antibiotics consumed on the date of the study was calculated as 4104.79 TL (=2476.80 USD).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The rate of inappropriate use of antibiotics seems to be high in our hospital. This will result in both increased costs and also increased nosocomial infection rates with resistant species. Infectious disease specialists should take more active roles in the in-house antibiotic use, hospitals should prepare and implement their own principles of antibiotic use, and microbiology laboratories should be used more effectively. These measures would decrease the conspicuous shortcomings in the antibiotic use.
authors.affiliation: Medical Faculty, Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey. dribak77@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Hamdi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sözen
authors.forename: Ibak
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gönen
authors.forename: Ayse
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sözen
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kutlucan
authors.forename: Serdar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kalemci
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sahan
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D017723:Drug Utilization Review / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D057970:Inappropriate Prescribing / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics; D008297:Male; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D063487:Prescription Drug Misuse / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000191:economics; D014421:Turkey; D014944:World Health Organization
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents