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A Nationwide Survey of Australian General Practitioners on Antimicrobial Stewardship: Awareness, Uptake, Collaboration with Pharmacists and Improvement Strategies

Implementing antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs is central to optimise antimicrobial use in primary care. This study aims to assess general practitioners’ (GPs’) awareness of AMS, uptake of AMS strategies, attitudes towards GP–pharmacist collaboration in AMS and future AMS improvement strategi...

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Autores principales: Saha, Sajal K., Kong, David C. M., Thursky, Karin, Mazza, Danielle
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345044/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32521720
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9060310
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author Saha, Sajal K.
Kong, David C. M.
Thursky, Karin
Mazza, Danielle
author_facet Saha, Sajal K.
Kong, David C. M.
Thursky, Karin
Mazza, Danielle
author_sort Saha, Sajal K.
collection PubMed
description Implementing antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs is central to optimise antimicrobial use in primary care. This study aims to assess general practitioners’ (GPs’) awareness of AMS, uptake of AMS strategies, attitudes towards GP–pharmacist collaboration in AMS and future AMS improvement strategies. A paper-based survey of nationally representative GPs across Australia was conducted in 2019. Of 386 respondent GPs, 68.9% were familiar with AMS. Respondents most frequently used the Therapeutic Guidelines (TG) (83.2%, 321/385) and delayed antimicrobial prescribing (72.2%, 278/385) strategies, whereas few utilised point-of-care tests (18.4%, 71/382), patient information leaflets (20.2%, 78/384), peer prescribing reports (15.5%, 60/384) and audit and feedback (9.8%, 38/384). GPs were receptive to pharmacists’ recommendations on the choice (50.5%, 192/381) and dose (63%, 241/382) of antimicrobials, and more than 60% (235/381) supported a policy fostering increased GP–pharmacist collaboration. Most GPs agreed to have AMS training (72%, 278/386), integration of electronic TG (eTG) with prescribing software (88.3%, 341/386) and policies limiting the prescribing of selected antimicrobials (74.4%, 287/386) in the future. Conclusively, GPs are aware of the importance of judicious antimicrobial prescribing but inadequately uptake evidence-based AMS strategies. The majority of GPs support GP–pharmacist collaborative AMS approaches to optimise antimicrobial use. Developing a feasible GP–pharmacist collaborative AMS implementation model and facilitating stewardship resources and training could foster AMS activities in primary care.
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spelling pubmed-73450442020-07-09 A Nationwide Survey of Australian General Practitioners on Antimicrobial Stewardship: Awareness, Uptake, Collaboration with Pharmacists and Improvement Strategies Saha, Sajal K. Kong, David C. M. Thursky, Karin Mazza, Danielle Antibiotics (Basel) Article Implementing antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs is central to optimise antimicrobial use in primary care. This study aims to assess general practitioners’ (GPs’) awareness of AMS, uptake of AMS strategies, attitudes towards GP–pharmacist collaboration in AMS and future AMS improvement strategies. A paper-based survey of nationally representative GPs across Australia was conducted in 2019. Of 386 respondent GPs, 68.9% were familiar with AMS. Respondents most frequently used the Therapeutic Guidelines (TG) (83.2%, 321/385) and delayed antimicrobial prescribing (72.2%, 278/385) strategies, whereas few utilised point-of-care tests (18.4%, 71/382), patient information leaflets (20.2%, 78/384), peer prescribing reports (15.5%, 60/384) and audit and feedback (9.8%, 38/384). GPs were receptive to pharmacists’ recommendations on the choice (50.5%, 192/381) and dose (63%, 241/382) of antimicrobials, and more than 60% (235/381) supported a policy fostering increased GP–pharmacist collaboration. Most GPs agreed to have AMS training (72%, 278/386), integration of electronic TG (eTG) with prescribing software (88.3%, 341/386) and policies limiting the prescribing of selected antimicrobials (74.4%, 287/386) in the future. Conclusively, GPs are aware of the importance of judicious antimicrobial prescribing but inadequately uptake evidence-based AMS strategies. The majority of GPs support GP–pharmacist collaborative AMS approaches to optimise antimicrobial use. Developing a feasible GP–pharmacist collaborative AMS implementation model and facilitating stewardship resources and training could foster AMS activities in primary care. MDPI 2020-06-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7345044/ /pubmed/32521720 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9060310 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Saha, Sajal K.
Kong, David C. M.
Thursky, Karin
Mazza, Danielle
A Nationwide Survey of Australian General Practitioners on Antimicrobial Stewardship: Awareness, Uptake, Collaboration with Pharmacists and Improvement Strategies
title A Nationwide Survey of Australian General Practitioners on Antimicrobial Stewardship: Awareness, Uptake, Collaboration with Pharmacists and Improvement Strategies
title_full A Nationwide Survey of Australian General Practitioners on Antimicrobial Stewardship: Awareness, Uptake, Collaboration with Pharmacists and Improvement Strategies
title_fullStr A Nationwide Survey of Australian General Practitioners on Antimicrobial Stewardship: Awareness, Uptake, Collaboration with Pharmacists and Improvement Strategies
title_full_unstemmed A Nationwide Survey of Australian General Practitioners on Antimicrobial Stewardship: Awareness, Uptake, Collaboration with Pharmacists and Improvement Strategies
title_short A Nationwide Survey of Australian General Practitioners on Antimicrobial Stewardship: Awareness, Uptake, Collaboration with Pharmacists and Improvement Strategies
title_sort nationwide survey of australian general practitioners on antimicrobial stewardship: awareness, uptake, collaboration with pharmacists and improvement strategies
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345044/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32521720
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics9060310
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