Parenteral Antibiotic Use Among Ambulatory Children in United States Children’s Hospital Emergency Departments

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing recognition of the importance of optimal antibiotic selection and expansion of antimicrobial stewardship activities to ambulatory settings, few studies have examined the frequency of parenteral antibiotic use among ambulatory children. We assessed the prevalence and patterns of parenteral antibiotic administration among ambulatory children in pediatric emergency departments (EDs). METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional assessment of parenteral antibiotic use among ambulatory children aged 0–18 years in 49 US children’s hospital EDs in 2018. We assessed the prevalence rates of parenteral antibiotic use and stratified these by patient-, clinic-, and hospital-level characteristics. We also assessed the prevalence of use of specific antibiotics by age and diagnosis category. Among encounters associated with an infection diagnosis, we identified factors associated with parenteral antibiotic use using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Among 3( )452( )011 ambulatory ED encounters in 2018, parenteral antibiotics were administered in 62( )648 (1.8%). The highest proportion of parenteral antibiotic use occurred in the 15–18-year age group (3.3%) and among encounters in children with complex chronic conditions (8.9%) and with primary diagnoses of neoplasms (36%). Ceftriaxone was the most commonly administered parenteral antibiotic (61%). In multivariable analysis, several factors including age ≤2 months, White race, private insurance, complex chronic conditions, digestive and genitourinary system diseases, and encounters attributed to emergency medicine providers were significantly associated with higher odds of parenteral antibiotic use. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates substantial variability in the frequency of parenteral antibiotic administration by age and diagnosis in the ambulatory ED setting and highlights potential opportunities to target stewardship activities.