title: General surgeon's antibiotic stewardship: Climbing the Rogers Diffusion of Innovation Curve-Prospective Cohort Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The primary aim of this study was to establish concordance of general surgeon's prescribing practice with local IV-oral antibiotic guidelines. The secondary aim was to evaluate the effect of introducing educational antibiotic measures. The Rogers Diffusion of Innovation Model was used to explore the adoption of antibiotic stewardship practices.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this prospective, cohort study, data was collected on 100 pre and 100 post awareness intervention programme patients. The educational intervention comprised raising awareness of a) the guidelines b) pre-intervention results c) introducing an IV-oral antibiotic prompt sheet. The concordance with local guidelines was compared between pre- and post-intervention groups using Fisher's Exact Test or Pearson's Chi Test (SPSS Statistics V22).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The concordance of general surgical doctors with local IV-oral antibiotic guidelines was poor and did not improve significantly following the awareness intervention programme. There was no uptake of the antibiotic prompt sheet. There was a trend towards increase in the number of patients switched from IV to oral antibiotics at 48-72 h and significant increase (p < 0.05) in number of patients with clearly documented intention to review IV antibiotics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Antibiotic governance measures failed to inspire even an initial group of innovators to use the antibiotic prompt sheets. It appears educational measures are effective in improving prescribing behavior and intent amongst a group of early adopters, but this fails to reach a critical mass. In order to improve antibiotic governance and embark upon the Rogers Diffusion of Innovation Curve, more must be done to engage general surgical doctors in timely, judicious antibiotic prescribing.
authors.affiliation: Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Eastern Road, Brighton, BN2 5BE, England, UK. Electronic address: chantelle.rizan@bsuh.nhs.uk.
authors.forename: Chantelle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rizan
authors.affiliation: Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Falmer, Brighton Road, Brighton, BN1 9PX, England, UK. Electronic address: J.Phee1@uni.bsms.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jaewon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Phee
authors.affiliation: Crawley University Hospitals NHS Trust, W Green Dr, Crawley, RH11 7DH, UK. Electronic address: charlotte.boardman@bsuh.nhs.uk.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boardman
authors.affiliation: Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Eastern Road, Brighton, BN2 5BE, England, UK. Electronic address: goldie.khera@bsuh.nhs.uk.
authors.forename: Goldie
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Khera
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D066231:Surgeons
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: Antibiotic stewardship; General surgery; Innovation adoption