Effects of monthly evaluations on the rates of irrational antimicrobial prescription in the outpatient and emergency departments at Ningbo No. 6 Hospital, Ningbo, China

BACKGROUND: Antibiotic resistance is a major global public health problem. The primary cause of antibiotic resistance is inappropriate antibiotic use. In this study, we aimed to verify whether the monthly evaluation of antibiotic prescription improves clinical antibiotic use in outpatient and emergency departments. METHODS: A minimum of 25% of the prescriptions for antibacterial drugs were randomly selected at the outpatient and emergency departments to enter the monthly evaluation system from July 2016 to June 2019. We analysed the rate of irrational prescription of antibiotics, proportion of the use of antibiotics, and consistency between the evaluation and expert groups after implementing the monthly assessment to validate the role of monthly evaluations. RESULTS: After 3 years of monthly evaluations of antibiotic prescriptions, the utilisation rate of single antibiotics in the outpatient and emergency departments was found to increase each year. Each year, a decreasing trend was observed for the irrational use of antibiotics, whereas the proportion of antibiotics to the total drugs prescribed gradually decreased in the same period. In addition, the consistency of prescription evaluation results between the evaluation and expert groups increased continuously. CONCLUSIONS: Monthly evaluation of antibiotic prescriptions is an effective management tool for the rational use of antibiotics in clinical practice. This practice could help reduce the combinative use of antibiotics, rate of irrational antibiotic prescription, and antibiotic use ratio, and play an important role in safe clinical drug use.