Long-term outcomes of an educational paediatric antimicrobial stewardship programme: a quality improvement study

Abstract

Background and objectives Antimicrobial stewardship programmes (ASPs) have resulted in antimicrobial consumption (AMC) reduction and quality of prescription (QOP) improvement. However, evidence of ASP impact in paediatrics is still limited. This study aims to assess a paediatric ASP long-term outcomes. Methods A quality improvement study assessed by a interrupted time series analysis was conducted in a paediatric tertiary hospital. QOP expressed as proportion of adequate prescriptions, AMC measured by defined daily dose incidence per 1000 occupied bed days, incidence density of bloodstream infections (BSIs) and its related all-cause crude death rate (CDR) were compared between pre (from January 2013 to December 2015) and post (from January 2016 to December 2019) ASP activities intensification, which included a dedicated paediatric infectious diseases physician to actively perform educational interviews with prescribers. Results Inappropriate prescribing showed a significant downward shift associated to the intervention with a −51.4% (−61.2% to −41.8%) reduction with respect to the expected values. Overall AMC showed no trend change after the intervention. For neonatology a 28.8% (−36.8% to −20.9%) reduction was observed. Overall anti-pseudomonal cephalosporin use showed a −51.2% (−57.0% to −45.4%) reduction. Decreasing trends were observed for carbapenem use, with a quarterly per cent change (QPC) of −2.4% (−4.3% to −0.4%) and BSI-related CDR (QPC=−3.6%; −5.4% to −1.7%) through the study period. Healthcare-associated multi-drug-resistant BSI remained stable (QPC=2.1; −0.6 to 4.9). Conclusions Intensification of counselling educational activities within an ASP suggests to improve QOP and to partially reduce AMC in paediatric patients. The decreasing trends in mortality remained unchanged.