2538. Directed Educational Intervention and Resident Physician Outpatient Antimicrobial Prescribing

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial stewardship is the coordinated approach to optimal use of antimicrobials. Directed stewardship may benefit resident physicians and improve outpatient antimicrobial prescribing. METHODS: Internal medicine residents as of July 1, 2017 (n = 37) with continuity clinic at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System were eligible. Antimicrobial prescriptions and number of patient visits per month were extracted from the Computerized Patient Record System. Antimicrobial rate was calculated for 9 baseline months (July 1, 2017–March 31, 2018) and 12 intervention months (April 1, 2018–March 31, 2019). Residents were divided into high and low prescribing groups based on baseline antimicrobial rate. The low prescribing group received one email with links to antimicrobial stewardship resources. The high prescribing group received the same email and one in person meeting with an infectious disease fellow to discuss antimicrobial prescribing. RESULTS: Prescription and visit data were available for 37 residents. The low and high prescribing interventions were administered to 17/17 (100%) and 12/20 (60%) participants, respectively. Remaining high prescribing participants (8, 40%) graduated and did not complete the intervention. During the intervention period, there were a total of 171 prescriptions and 4,018 visits, for an average antimicrobial rate of 43 prescriptions/1,000 visits compared with baseline rate of 51 (P = 0.09). Antimicrobial rate per month is shown in Figure 1. CONCLUSION: An educational intervention did not significantly change antimicrobial prescribing rates in a VA resident clinic. Antimicrobial prescribing rates were much lower than expected, suggesting that weekly continuity clinic may not be an optimal setting for learning how to manage outpatient antimicrobials. Our study was small and conducted at a single site without evaluation of antimicrobial appropriateness. Further studies should explore the optimal setting for residents to gain outpatient antimicrobial prescribing experience. [Image: see text] DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.