[Intervention for improving the quality of antibiotic prescription in a basic health area]

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of corrective measures introduced in a health area (HA) to improve the way antibiotics (AB) are prescribed.

Design: Intervention study, with a control. SITE. Two HAs: Cervera and Tarrega. The intervention was carried out in the first; the second serving as the control group.

Patients or other participants: All the doctors in both areas' primary care teams (PCT).

Intervention: Monographic sessions of the PCT during June and October, 1991, analysed consecutively the following, which had taken place in the health area during 1990: the quality control methodology applied to the prescription; the quality indicators in the prescription--among them its classification by intrinsic value (IV)--; and the general level of prescription with the proportion of ABs prescribed.

Main measurements and results: The pharmaceutical listing of the 100 most prescribed drugs in relation to the number of containers were used as a data source for evaluating the November, 1990, AB prescription; with a re-evaluation in November, 1991, after the introduction of the corrective measures. Significant reductions could be observed in the health area where the intervention took place, both in the percentage of low IV drugs prescribed (-10.8%) and of intramuscular injections used (-23.5%). In the area used as the control group, there were no variations.

Conclusions: The effect of the intervention on the improvement in the way ABs were prescribed, was clear.