Identifying antibiotic stewardship interventions to meet the NHS England CQUIN: An evaluation of antibiotic prescribing against published evidence-based antibiotic audit tools

Evidence-based audit tools were used to identify the antibiotic stewardship improvements necessary to meet the NHS England targets in a 750-bed teaching hospital. Antibiotic prescribing was reviewed against published evidence-based audit tools for 139 patients treated with antibiotics. Severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) median course length was 8.5 days. Ninety-six percent of non-severe CAP patients were initiated on intravenous antibiotics (IV); median antibiotic course length 9 days. Twenty-six percent of urinary tract infection (UTI) patients without an indwelling catheter met the UTI diagnostic criteria. IV antibiotics initiated in 79% patients with other infections. Of these, 17% met the IV to oral switch criteria at 72 hours but were not switched. On average, antibiotic courses were 19% longer than recommended. Three key areas for improvement consist of: (a) implement the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence UTI Quality Standard - only 38% of patients treated for UTI met the UTI definition; (b) ensure antibiotic course lengths are in line with local prescribing guidelines - antibiotics were continued for 14% longer than recommended in local guidelines; (c) switch antibiotic therapy to oral when switch criteria met - 17% percent of patients initiated on IV antibiotics were eligible for oral switch by 72 hours and were not switched.