2093. Prescribing of Antibiotics by Provider Type Across the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), 2015–2017

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic stewardship frequently targets high prescribing providers. Our objective was to determine differences by provider type in antibiotic prescribing rates, high prescribing and trends over time. METHODS: Cross-sectional study in 2015–2017 of non-trainee dental and medical providers actively practicing (defined as ≥20 VHA visits). Medical providers included all physicians and advanced practice providers (APP). Antibiotics prescribed within 7 days of a visit were included. “High prescribing” was defined as providers with visit-based rates ≥75th percentile. Chi square assessed differences in the frequency of high prescribing. Poisson and logistic regression were applied; models were clustered within the facility. RESULTS: At 130 VHA facilities, there were 32,000 unique medical providers and 1300 dentists actively practicing/year. From 2015–2017, overall antibiotic prescribing rates decreased by 6.4% (P < 0.0001 for trend); decreasing by 1.8% for dentists (P < 0.001) and 6.6% for all medical providers (P < 0.001). More antibiotics were prescribed/visit among dentists vs. medical providers (6.7 vs. 4.3/100 visits; IRR = 1.7). Among medical providers, APP had higher rates (5.0 vs. 4.1/100 visits; P < 0.001). Among dentists, specialty dentists had higher rates compared with general dentists (7.6 vs. 6.5/100 visits; P < 0.001), increasing by 1.9% for specialty dentists and decreasing by 3.1% for general dentists. At the facility-level, dentists who were high prescribers (≥ 75th percentile) of antibiotics were at different facilities as medical providers who were high prescribers (P < 0.001). However, there was no difference in the odds of being a high antibiotic prescriber for dentists when compared with medical providers. Specialty dentists (OR = 1.7; 95% CI: 1.4–2.1) had higher odds of being high prescribers when compared with general dentists. There was no difference among the type of medical provider. CONCLUSION: As compared with physicians, dentists and APP have higher antibiotic prescribing rates, though prescribing may differ based on the frequency of infection-related visits. Facility-level interventions to curb the high use of antibiotics may not be reaching high prescribing dentists. Stewardship should be targeted to non-physician providers. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.