Antimicrobial Stewardship Optimization in the Emergency Department: The Effect of Multiplex Respiratory Pathogen Testing and Targeted Educational Intervention

Abstract

Antibacterial agents are often prescribed for patients with suspected respiratory tract infections even though these are most often caused by viruses. In this study, we sought to evaluate the effect of Respiratory Pathogen Panel (RPP) PCR result availability and antimicrobial stewardship education on antibiotic prescription rates in the adult emergency department (ED).