1008. The Reduction of Fluoroquinolone Prescribing in Rural Vermont Hospitals

BACKGROUND: In 2017 The Joint Commission required all hospitals irrespective of size to implement antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) using the CDC core elements (CE) for antimicrobial stewardship (AS). Critical access and rural community hospitals have struggled with developing effective ASPs. Many ASPs seek to reduce fluoroquinolone (FQ) prescribing due to its high risk for drug-drug interactions, risk of Clostridioides difficile infection, and numerous side effects, including five black box warnings from the FDA. METHODS: We contracted with the Vermont Department of Health to help rural VT hospitals develop ASPs that are compliant with the CDC CE for AS. Six of Vermont’s 13 hospitals were recruited between June – December 2017 (Table 1). Each hospital obtained antibiotic usage (AU) data in grams (g)/1000 (1k) patient-days (PD) from their electronic medical record (EMR), starting from January 2017. All identified FQ as frequently prescribed antimicrobials. Each hospital had unique interventions to decrease FQ prescribing (Table 1), including orderset changes and pharmacist intervention. Monthly combined FQ (ciprofloxacin + levofloxacin) administration data were collected in g/1K PD. AU data from each hospital were summed and expressed as total FQ g/1000 patient-days. The FQ prescribing trend was analyzed by linear regression. RESULTS: Prior to implementing ASP, there was a combined FQ rate of 69 g/1K PD. After 20 months of ASP interventions, combined FQ prescribing decreased to 26 g/1K PD (Figure 1, R= 0.9797, P < 0.001). This trend is also significant for each individual FQ: ciprofloxacin (R=0.8364, P < 0.05) and levofloxacin (R= 0.9801, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Rural and critical access hospitals can have successful antimicrobial stewardship programs. We have shown that rural hospitals in Vermont (1) can extract AU data from their EMR, (2) develop interventions to decrease high use antimicrobial agents, and (3) be successful in decreasing FQ prescribing in less than 2 years. [Image: see text] [Image: see text] DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.