Impact of BioFire FilmArray respiratory panel results on antibiotic days of therapy in different clinical settings

Abstract

Objective: The BioFire FilmArray Respiratory Panel (RFA) has been proposed as a tool that can aid in the timely diagnosis and treatment of respiratory tract infections but its effect on antibiotic prescribing among adult patients has varied. We evaluated the impact of RFA result on antibiotic days of therapy (DOTs) in 2 distinct cohorts: hospitalized patients and patients discharged from the emergency department (ED).

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: The study was conducted in 3 community hospitals in Des Moines, Iowa, from March 3 to March 16, 2019.

Patients: Adults aged >18 years.

Methods: Potential outcome means and average treatment effects for RFA results on antibiotic DOTs were estimated. Inverse probability of treatment weighting with regression adjustment was used.

Results: We identified 243 patients each in the hospitalized and ED-discharged cohorts. Among hospitalized patients, RFA results did not affect antibiotic DOTs. Among patients discharged from the ED, we found that if all patients had had influenza detected, the average DOTs would have been 2.3 DOTs (-3.2 to -1.4) less than the average observed if all the patients had had a negative RFA (P < .0001); no differences in DOTs were observed when comparing an RFA with a noninfluenza virus detected compared to an RFA with negative results.

Conclusions: The impact of RFA results on antibiotic DOTs varies by clinical setting, and reductions were observed only among patients discharged from the ED who had influenza A or B detected.