title: Lower antibiotic costs attributable to clinical microbiology rounds.
abstract: At our institution, our microbiologist, pharmacist, and infectious disease (ID) team meet to discuss ID patients, and this meeting is referred to as microbiology rounds. We hypothesized that our microbiology rounds reduce antibiotic costs. The study involved a review of 80 patients with an ID consultation order at each of the 3 hospitals: hospital A (HA) (only HA has microbiology rounds), hospital B (HB), and hospital C (HC). Of this population, we included patients with a positive blood culture. Thirty-six patients who met the above criteria were included in the study. The average antibiotic cost/patient/day at HA, HB, and HC were $66.0, $123, and $109, respectively. Also, we found that change in antibiotics was appropriate when compared to the final microbiology results in 90%, 44%, and 40% of the time at HA, HB, and HC, respectively. Herein, we found an association between conducting microbiology rounds and reduction of antibiotic cost.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA. Electronic address: Richard.Huang.1@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Richard S P
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Guervil
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wanger
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000191:economics* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000191:economics*; D005260:Female; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: Antibiotic costs; Clinical microbiology rounds