OBJECTIVE

To optimize antimicrobial treatment of patients with fever upon admission to the department of internal medicine of Dr Soetomo Hospital in Surabaya, Indonesia.

METHODS

Prospective intervention study. The intervention comprised development of a consensus guideline, an official declaration of the guideline by the head of department, distributing a guideline pocketbook, carrying out blood cultures free of charge, teaching sessions and refresher courses. The outcome was measured with reference to (i) percentage of patients with fever started on antibiotic therapy, (ii) amount of antibiotics used expressed as defined daily doses (DDD)/100 patient-days, (iii) percentage of appropriate prescriptions and of prescriptions without indication as assessed by independent reviewers, (iv) percentage of treatments in accordance with guidelines, (v) percentage of patients in whom blood cultures were taken before starting antimicrobial therapy, (vi) percentage of treatments appropriately stopped on re-evaluation of the patients at 72 h and (vii) mortality.

RESULTS

The study involved 501 patients, 95 residents and 60 specialists. After the intervention 17% patients less were treated with antibiotics upon admission and antibiotic use fell from 99.8 to 73 DDD/100 patient-days. The percentage of patients with sepsis and dengue treated in accordance with the guideline increased by 23% and 30%. The percentage of appropriate therapies, therapies without indication and mortality did not change significantly. The percentage of patients for whom a blood culture was taken upon admission increased from 3% to 81%; however, almost all were taken after they commenced antibiotic therapy. Therapy was not adjusted after 72 h in any case. Interrupted time series analysis showed that the start of development of the guideline and the declaration of the guideline were the interventions with the greatest impact.

CONCLUSIONS

The multifaceted intervention had limited success. A very important drawback to the prudent use of antibiotics was the absence of adequate microbiological diagnostics.