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PubMed2005

Evaluation of an antibiotic intravenous to oral sequential therapy program.

AIM: This study was designed to analyse the drug consumption difference and economic impact of an antibiotic sequential therapy focused on quinolones. METHOD: We studied the consumption of quinolones (ofloxacin/levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin) 6 months before and after the implementation of a sequential therapy program in hospitalised patients. It was calculated for each antibiotic, in its oral and intravenous forms, in defined daily dose (DDD/100 stays per day) and economical terms (drug acquisition cost). At the beginning of the program ofloxacin was replaced by levofloxacin and, since their clinical uses are similar, the consumption of both drugs was compared during the period. RESULTS: In economic terms, the consumption of intravenous quinolones decreased 60% whereas the consumption of oral quinolones increased 66%. In DDD/100 stays per day, intravenous forms consumption decreased 53% and oral forms consumption increased 36%. CONCLUSIONS: Focusing on quinolones, the implementation of a sequential therapy program based on promoting an early switch from intravenous to oral regimen has proved its capacity to alter the utilisation profile of these antibiotics. The program has permitted the hospital a global saving of 41420 dollars for these drugs during the period of time considered.

Administration, Oral↗
PubMed1988

Quality control of hospital formularies.

This paper identifies various uses of the formulary concept, outlines factors that underlie the need for such an administrative device, and reviews four barriers to effective formulary control. It then examines selected components of the formulary system and specifies the need for supporting techniques, both internal and external. Twelve guidelines for developing a model drug formulary are presented. While administrative elements associated with implementation of a formulary are stressed, concerns about more intangible behavioural forces are introduced.

Drug Prescriptions↗
PubMed1991

Cost of hospital antimicrobial chemotherapy. A method for global cost calculation.

We will describe the method of cost-identification analysis, which was performed in a Dutch hospital during a review of antimicrobial drugs usage. In the present Dutch hospital budget system, in-patients' drug costs generate no revenues. Efforts to diminish drug costs result in financial benefit for the institution. To maximize cost containment, efforts are to be directed to all cost components. We chose wholesale purchase prices of antimicrobial drugs and national prices for salaries and hospital costs. Global cost comparison shows the most cost effective system of intravenous administration. Push injection is the most economic way to administer intravenous drugs which do not require dilution or prolonged infusion time. For stable solutions, such as metronidazole, ready-to-infuse bags are the most economic system. A global cost calculation is listed for commonly used antimicrobial drugs for in-patients. A cost comparison is given for vancomycin CP and teicoplanin, two antistaphyloccocal drugs, which are probably equieffective. The result of global cost comparison contributes to the decision to include new drugs into the hospital formulary or to replace older ones.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Survey of pharmacists' and physicians' perceptions of therapeutic interchange.

Therapeutic interchange has long been an integral part of drug formulary management, but physicians' and pharmacists' attitudes toward such programs are relatively unknown. This survey was undertaken to determine pharmacists' attitudes, physicians' potential response to a hypothetical interchange, and how well pharmacists predicted physicians' responses. A survey that described a drug interchange program and several potential responses to the proposed switch was provided to 300 staff physicians at a 512-bed community facility in southwest Florida; the survey was also mailed to pharmacy directors or clinical pharmacy coordinators at 42 southwest Florida hospitals. Responses were obtained from 98 physicians and 95 pharmacists. Most physicians would not cooperate with an interchange if they were not familiar with the proposed drug; 16% would continue to prescribe the original drug, knowing that the new agent would be provided; and 58% would switch to another agent with which they had clinical experience. Only 26% of physicians would follow the interchange program. In contrast, 48% of pharmacists believed that physicians would continue to order the original therapy, 32% believed that physicians would order the new agent, and only 20% believed that physicians would switch to an alternative drug (P<.005 vs physician responses). Clearly, pharmacists' expectations of physicians' response to a therapeutic interchange differ significantly from the physicians' expected behavior. This difference has potentially important implications for actual versus projected cost savings of therapeutic interchange.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2000

[Effects of restrictions on use of vancomycin in a German university hospital].

BACKGROUND: Recently, increasing antibiotic resistance has been observed among gram-positive bacteria. However, only few isolates were found to be resistant against glycopeptides. Therefore, internationally accepted guidelines recommend a restricted use of vancomycin and other glycopeptide antibiotics in order to prevent the development of resistance against these clinically important antibiotics. In many countries, the hospital pharmacies play a key role in control and reinforcement of antibiotic formulary restrictions. In Germany, however, the hospital pharmacies usually do not take over such control functions, and most wards keep a stock of regularly used drugs including antibiotics, which makes reinforcement of restrictions difficult. METHODS: In an attempt to achieve a restriction of vancomycin use, the pharmacy of our university hospital was advised to deliver vancomycin to the wards only on request with a special order form signed by an attending, individually for every patient who should receive vancomycin. The efficacy of this restriction measure was evaluated in 3-month periods before and after the restriction became effective. RESULTS: Hospitalwide, this led to a 20.1% reduction of i.v. vancomycin and an 85.7% reduction of oral vancomycin use per 1000 patient days. If the hematology/oncology units were not considered, the reduction of i.v. vancomycin use was 41.8%, and the total use after the restriction 24.2 g per 1000 patient days. Microbiology results which justified the use of vancomycin decreased by 8.3% (10.9% hematology/oncology units not considered) between the 2 observation periods. Assuming a 7-day mean course of i.v. vancomycin therapy, the empirical use of i.v. vancomycin decreased from 39.9% to 8% after the restriction had been instituted. CONCLUSION: Allowing only experienced physicians (attendings) to decide on the use of vancomycin therapy, proved in our experience to be an effective measure to reduce unnecessary vancomycin use.

Drug Utilization↗
PubMed2002

Multicenter hospital study on prescribing patterns for prophylaxis and treatment of complications of cirrhosis.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the prescribing patterns for liver disease management. METHODS: A multicenter cross-sectional prospective observational study was carried out in 25 Spanish hospitals. Inpatients, admitted to gastrointestinal and liver units with a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, were included in five centrally assigned index days between February and June 1999. Information was collected about demographic variables and pharmacological treatments used on admission and recommended at discharge. RESULTS: Five hundred and sixty-eight patients (70% men, mean age 61 years) were studied. Alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver accounted for 44% of the sample, ascites being the most prevalent complication. The most frequent diuretic schedule on admission was the combination of spironolactone and furosemide at a ratio of 1 (100 mg/40 mg). Hospitalization resulted in an increase in the percentage of patients that received the combination at a ratio higher than 1. Diuretics were a major cause of adverse drug events on admission (7.5%). Ulcer-healing drugs showed a notable increase at discharge (35%; range 10-59%) compared with 24% (6-37%) on admission. Utilization rates at discharge were 65% (59-74%) for diuretics, 51% (38-76%) for laxatives, 31% (0-75%) for vitamin K, 24% (4-53%) for beta-adrenergic blocking agents, and 13% (0-47%) for nitrates, which were significantly higher than on admission. CONCLUSION: These results provide the first quantitative data of drug utilization in liver disease and highlight the wide variability in prescribing practices across centers and the higher than expected use of non-evidence-based treatments, especially vitamin K and antiulcer drugs.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Structure and activities of hospital drug committees in Germany.

OBJECTIVES: Hospital drug committees have been established to ensure rational drug use. However, with regard to their structure and duties remarkable differences between European countries may exist, reflecting the differences in drug legislation and market. Our aim was to obtain information about the structure, present activities and decision-making processes of hospital drug committees in Germany and especially the role of clinical pharmacologists in these committees. METHODS: In 1995, a questionnaire with 36 items was designed and sent to all 450 hospitals in Germany with more than 400 beds. One hundred forty three returned questionnaires were evaluated. RESULTS: According to hospital size, the median value for the annual drug budget (including the cost of blood and blood-derived products) in 1993 ranged between DM 2.4 million for hospitals with less than 500 beds and DM 30.0 million for university hospitals with more than 1,000 beds. In 53.2% of drug committees, a pharmacist holds the position of chairman, followed by medical specialists (32%); (clinical) pharmacologists hold this position in only 7.7% of the general hospitals, but in almost 50% of the university hospitals. In most cases, all clinical specialities are represented in the drug committee the number of members ranging between 5 and 40 (median 12). The number of drugs included in the internal drug list, ranging between 400 in hospitals with < 500 beds and about 700 in university hospitals, strongly correlated with the number of beds and, interestingly, with the number of drug committee members. Treatment guidelines were implemented mainly for antiinfectives (87%), infusion solutions (30%), anti-emetic drugs (5-HT3-receptor antagonists, 27%) and blood and blood-derived products such as intravenous immunoglobulins (23%). However, effective control of these guidelines was only performed in about 50% of the hospitals. A drug information service was provided in most hospitals, where 95% of queries were answered by pharmacists. CONCLUSION: The results of our survey showed that German hospital drug committees vary considerably with regard to their function and control mechanisms of drug use. Most of the responders would appreciate a more intensive exchange of current problems and treatment guidelines. Although the process of pharmacotherapeutic decision making should be supported by clinical pharmacologists, experts in this field are often not involved in German hospital drug committees.

Formularies, Hospital as Topic↗
PubMed1998

Nonformulary drug requests at an academic hospital in Germany--the role of general practitioners' long-term medication.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of general practitioners' outpatient medication on nonformulary drug requests in university hospitals. METHODS: During a period of 1 year every nonformulary drug request at the Göttingen University Hospital was analysed (reason for request, drug class). A second analysis examined whether the introduction of a new order form that allowed the prescribing physician to mark a box to declare that this request is due to general practitioner's outpatient therapy influenced the rate of requests. RESULTS: During 12 months a total of 6,281 nonformulary drugs were ordered from the pharmacy, 1,077 (17.1%) of them because of outpatient medication. The percentage of requests according to general practitioners' outpatient medication was about 11% in both the medical and the surgical departments. The rate was rather high in the departments of psychiatry and orthopaedic surgery (39% and 60%, respectively). With the introduction of the new order form, there was a significant increase in the general practice based rate of nonformulary requests on the general surgical wards (from 10.8% to 19.9%). Only a minority of requests (14%) represented drugs of unproven efficacy. CONCLUSION: Since nonformulary requests attributable to previous outpatient medication accounts for less than 20% and since only a minor portion of them lack scientific proof of efficacy we suggest that hospital doctors and clinical pharmacologists should avoid a drug policy, which is too restrictive, and support maintenance of chronic medication initiated by general practitioners. Especially in the department of psychiatry, nonformulary requests seem to be justified by patient needs.

Drug Prescriptions↗
PubMed2001

The effect of formulary restriction in the use of antibiotics in an Italian hospital.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the expenditure and usage of antibiotics at the San Martino Teaching Hospital, a 2500-bed hospital in Genoa, Italy, before and after the implementation of an antibiotic control program that streamlined the hospital formulary and the creation of a restricted group of antibiotics requiring approval before use. METHODS: Usage and expenditure data for all antibiotics were collected from 1996 to 1998. Antibiotic usage was standardised by defined daily doses (DDDs) per 100/patient-days. Cost data were expressed in Euros. Changes in antibiotic usage was determined by comparing the mean usage during 1996 and 1997, the period before the implementation of the antibiotic control program, to 1998 when the streamlined formulary and restricted group of antibiotics, controlled by the Infectious Disease Team (IDT). were initiated. The Wilcoxon rank sign test was used to determine statistical significance of the changes in overall antibiotic use; a P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: After the implementation of the antibiotic control program, overall antibiotic usage decreased by 8.5%, 28.00 DDD/100 patient-days during 1996-1997 to 25.62 DDD/100 patient-days during 1998. The control program resulted in overall savings of 342,927 Euros after the first year of implementation. The usage and expenditure in the restricted group of antibiotics decreased by 78.5% and 53.5%, respectively, (P=0.03). Restricting the use of ceftazidime and imipenem accounted for the majority of the decreased usage and savings. In the non-restricted group of antibiotics, usage increased only by 32.6% resulting in a net reduction of 46.3% in all antibiotic use. CONCLUSION: Although antibiotic control programs have been successful in other countries, this represents the first attempt at successful antibiotic control in a large Italian teaching hospital. Streamlining the formulary to control antibiotic choices and the creation of a restriction program using the expertise of infectious disease physicians resulted in significant reductions in the use of and expenditure for antibiotics.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed2001

Assessment of indicators for hospital drug formulary non-adherence.

BACKGROUND: Translation of rational drug therapy into practice remains an international problem. Although pharmacotherapeutic treatment guidelines (PTGs) as managerial tools are favoured over hospital drug formularies (HDFs), the latter are still applied in most hospitals. HDF enforcement often leads to time-consuming consultation from the perspective of both pharmacy staff and prescriber. So far, research on HDFs has only been conducted outside Europe. Moreover, this research has only been descriptive. Straightforward indicators qualitatively characterising HDF non-adherence have never been assessed. METHODS: A retrospective 1:1 case-control study was conducted across three general teaching hospitals. Non-HDF requests were compared with HDF requests. Data were multivariably analysed, considering patient, prescriber, drug, and HDF characteristics as possible indicators for non-adherence. RESULTS: HDF adherence was almost universal across characteristics. Non-adherence was characterised by newly marketed drugs, drugs that were part of patients' pre-admission drug therapy, drugs with many fellow drugs within the drug group on the market, and drugs originating from a drug group for which the HDF was highly restrictive. Contrary to common perception, non-adherence was independent of medical specialty, therapeutic area, and patient characteristics. CONCLUSION: This research provides an epidemiological framework for hospitals (drug and therapeutics committees) for evaluating pharmacy data on HDF non-adherence. It can be used for educational tailor-made feedback to prescribers and for drug selection when the inclusion of newly marketed drugs is considered or HDF restrictiveness for certain drug groups is reconsidered. Moreover, it demonstrates the importance of a regional approach involving secondary and primary health care to establish continuity in seamless care of drug therapy.

Data Collection↗
PubMed2005

Impact of a fluoroquinolone formulary change on acquisition of quinolone-resistant gram-negative bacilli.

Rising rates of fluoroquinolone resistance in bacteria have been associated with increased fluoroquinolone use. In vitro data show differences in potency among fluoroquinolone antibiotics against gram-negative bacteria and have led to the hypothesis that rates of selection of resistant microorganisms may be affected by the choice of the specific fluoroquinolone. Because clinical data to prove this hypothesis are lacking, the aim of the present study was to determine rates of acquisition of quinolone-resistant gram-negative bacilli (QRGNB) in the fecal flora of medical intensive care unit patients before and after a formulary change from ciprofloxacin to levofloxacin. Unadjusted rate ratios for acquisition of QRGNB were 1.09 (95%CI, 1.02-1.16) for each day of ciprofloxacin use and 1.01 (95%CI, 0.87-1.17) for each day of levofloxacin use. Following adjustment for other antibiotic use, enteral feeding, APACHE II score, and nursing home admission, neither ciprofloxacin nor levofloxacin use was associated with acquisition of QRGNB. In conclusion, a formulary change from ciprofloxacin to levofloxacin was not significantly associated with an increased risk of acquisition of QRGNB.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1987

Antibiotic cost savings from formulary restrictions and physician monitoring in a medical-school-affiliated hospital.

Strictly enforced formulary restrictions for aminoglycosides, cephalosporins, and a vancomycin group generated combined savings of $2.61 (p less than 0.0046) per antibiotic day and $34,597 (p less than 0.0003) per month. Even after some cost increases (not significant) in new and other antibiotics, the program saved $1.33 (p less than 0.0175) per antibiotic day and $24,620 (p less than 0.0311) per month for all antibiotics. The pharmacy's 1985 average cost per antibiotic day and its monthly expenditures were $18.45 and $199,003, respectively. In the months following the formulary restrictions, no significant detrimental changes occurred in hospital length of stay or mortality. A retrospective analysis of 322 patients with bacteremia treated before and after the onset of the controls revealed that antibiotics were more appropriately used afterwards.

Aminoglycosides↗
PubMed1990

Antibiotic sensitivity and the prescribing information sheet: assisting the prescribing physician.

The concept conceived 5 years ago is now a reality. Physicians have information readily available for empiric prescribing from the home, office, or hospital. The other two hospitals in the city have implemented the systems. The reaction of physicians has been extremely favorable. In fact, two new publications for the outpatient/community and for the pediatric populations are now under way at the suggestion of physicians. Plans are in place to assess physician satisfaction and use of the information sheet within the coming year. Presently, too little time has passed to evaluate whether changes in prescribing have actually occurred. In fact, it may never be possible to identify how many instances of inadvisable prescribing are prevented with good initial information. However, for the relatively low cost involved, this has been an exciting new opportunity for education, as well as a method to promote cost-effective and appropriate antibiotic therapy.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗