It takes a village: Decreasing inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections

Abstract

Objective: Prescribing of antibiotics for viral upper respiratory infections (URIs) remains a pressing public health problem. We sought to reduce inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics for URIs in Mayo Clinic Arizona. Design: Single-center, quasi-experimental, and retrospective cohort study Setting: Emergency medicine and all primary care departments Methods: The interventions included sharing baseline prescribing data, education, resources, and quarterly peer comparison reports. Encounters with diagnostic codes for respiratory infections commonly caused by viruses were categorized as Tier 3 (ie, never appropriate to prescribe antibiotics). Our goal was to reduce inappropriate prescribing for Tier 3 encounters by 22% in 2022. Results: Department education was completed by June 2022. The annual antibiotic prescribing rate for Tier 3 encounters was reduced by 29%, from a baseline rate of 23.6% in 2021 to 16.4% in 2022 (P