The impact of pharmacist intervention on prophylactic antibiotics use in orthopedic surgery at a hospital in China

This study aimed to assess the impact of the pharmacist-led intervention on perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis by standardizing the cephalosporin intradermal skin test in the orthopedic department. A pre-and postintervention study was conducted among patients in the Orthopedics Department at the Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital in China. Use of intradermal skin test, perioperative antibacterial prophylaxis, and cost of care were compared between the preintervention population (admitted from 6/1/2018 to 8/31/2018) and postintervention population (admitted from 1/1/2019 to 3/31/2019). Logistic regression and generalized linear regression were used to assess the intervention impact. 425 patients from the preintervention period and 448 patients from the postintervention period were included in the study. After the implementation of the pharmacist intervention program, there was a decrease in the utilization of intradermal skin tests, from 95.8% to 16.5% (P < .001). Patients were more likely to have cephalosporin as prophylactic antimicrobials (OR = 5.28, P < .001) after the implementation. The cost of antimicrobials was significantly reduced by $150.21 (P < .001) for each patient. Pharmacist-involved intervention can reduce the utilization of cephalosporins skin tests and decrease the prescription of unnecessary high-cost antimicrobials.