2076. Comparison of Diagnosis and Prescribing Practices between Virtual Visits and Office Visits for Sinusitis within a Primary Care Network

BACKGROUND: The majority of antibiotics prescribed in the outpatient setting result from upper respiratory tract infections; however, these infections are often viral. Virtual visits (VV) have emerged as a popular alternative to office visits (OV) for sinusitis complaints and are an important area for stewardship programs to target for intervention. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted utilizing the outpatient electronic medical record for Mercy Health Physician Partners (MHPP) and Zipnosis database for VV to compare diagnosis and prescribing between OV and VV for sinusitis. VV consisted of an online questionnaire for patients to complete, which was then sent to a provider to evaluate electronically without face-to-face interaction. Adult patients were included with a diagnosis code for sinusitis during the 6-month study period from January to June 2018. The primary objective was to compare rates of appropriate diagnosis of viral vs. bacterial sinusitis between OV and VV, based on national guideline recommendations. Secondary objectives were to compare the appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing and supportive therapy prescribing between OV and VV, as well as 24-hour, 7-day and 30-day re-visits. RESULTS: A total of 350 patients were included in the study (OV n = 175, VV n = 175). Appropriate diagnosis per national guidelines was 45.7% in OV compared with 69.1% in the VV group (P < 0.001). Additionally, patients that completed VV were less likely to receive antibiotic prescriptions (OV 94.3%, VV 68.6%, P < 0.001). Guideline-concordant antibiotic prescribing was similar between groups (OV 60.6%, VV 58.3%, P = 0.70) and both visit types had a median duration of treatment of 10 days (P = 0.88). Patients that completed VV were more likely to re-visit for sinusitis within 24 hours (OV 1.7%, VV 8%, P = 0.006) and within 30-days (OV 7.4%, VV 14.9%, P = 0.027). In multivariate logistic regression the only factor independently associated with 24-hour re-visit was patient self-request for antibiotics (OR 0.20, 95% CI 0.06–0.68). CONCLUSION: Appropriate diagnosis of sinusitis was more likely in the VV group, which shows that VV provides a good platform to target outpatient antimicrobial prescribing. These findings support opportunities for antimicrobial stewardship intervention in both OV and VV. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.