A Study Review of the Appropriateness of Oral Antibiotic Discharge Prescriptions in the Emergency Department at a Rural Hospital in Mississippi, USA

Antimicrobial therapy in emergency departments (EDs) is usually empiric in nature. Due to workload and a goal to reduce patient wait times, providers often make rapid decisions regarding antibiotic prescriptions for discharge. A review of current empiric prescribing practices would determine the appropriateness of oral antibiotic discharge prescriptions from EDs. A single-center retrospective electronic health record review of all adult patients with an ED visit from 1 June 2019, to 30 June 2021 who received at least one oral antibiotic prescription at discharge from Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle was conducted. The primary outcome was the assessment of appropriate antibiotic discharge prescriptions. The parameters for appropriateness included empiric drug selection, dosage, frequency, duration, and subsequent cultures and sensitivities. Of the 18,289 identified records, 421 patients were randomly sampled with 400 patients included in the final analysis. Of these, 190 (47.8%) discharge oral antibiotic prescriptions were assessed as appropriate and 209 (52.3%) discharge oral antibiotic prescriptions were assessed as inappropriate based on the guideline recommendations. With approximately half of the patients receiving discharge antibiotics that did not fully follow the guideline recommendations, there is a need for provider education, pharmacist intervention, and antimicrobial stewardship programs focusing on this practice.