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Life sciences · Journal article
Infection Prevention in Practice · September 1, 2026
Encouraging direction, but not yet definitive.
A quasi-experimental evaluation of a multidisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship program at a single tertiary hospital in Colombia demonstrated statistically significant improvements in prescription appropriateness and dosing accuracy, with marked reductions in consumption of amikacin and piperacillin/tazobactam but an increase in ceftriaxone use. The finding that surgical specialists were substantially less likely to issue appropriate prescriptions suggests that targeted interventions in surgical services may be necessary to sustain improvements.
Quasi-experimental before–after study. Adult inpatients receiving broad-spectrum antimicrobials for ≥48 hours at a tertiary hospital in Boyacá, Colombia. Intervention: Multidisciplinary, non-restrictive Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) with prospective audit and feedback. Compared with: Pre-implementation prescriptions (June–December 2023). n = 3,845. Single tertiary hospital in Boyacá, Colombia.
Significant improvement in dosing accuracy and prescription appropriateness after ASP implementation (p<0.001) Amikacin use decreased by 47.4% and piperacillin/tazobactam by 48.9% after intervention Ceftriaxone use increased by 52.9% after ASP implementation
No report of clinical outcomes (e.g., mortality, length of stay, treatment failure) or adverse events
Clinicians implementing or evaluating antimicrobial stewardship programs should recognize that multidisciplinary, non-restrictive approaches can improve prescription appropriateness and reduce consumption of specific broad-spectrum agents, but should anticipate that surgical services may require targeted additional interventions to achieve sustained prescribing improvements.
A well-designed quasi-experimental study with prospective audit showing statistically significant improvements in prescription appropriateness and meaningful reductions in broad-spectrum antibiotic use, but limited by single-centre design and surrogate endpoints rather than hard clinical outcomes.
As stated by the source record.
Quoted from the source exactly as published.
Clinicians implementing or evaluating antimicrobial stewardship programs should recognize that multidisciplinary, non-restrictive approaches can improve prescription appropriateness and reduce consumption of specific broad-spectrum agents, but should anticipate that surgical services may require targeted additional interventions to achieve sustained prescribing improvements.
Graded across the dimensions that decide whether you should act, each from what the source actually supports. There is no single score, and where a dimension was not assessed it says so.
Background Antimicrobial stewardship interventions are essential for optimizing antibiotic use and combating resistance. We implemented a multidisciplinary, non-restrictive Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) at a tertiary hospital in Boyacá, Colombia. Objective To evaluate the effect of the ASP on antimicrobial consumption prescription patterns. Methods A quasi-experimental study compared antimicrobial prescriptions before (June–December 2023) and after (January–July 2024) ASP implementation. Adult inpatients receiving broad-spectrum antimicrobials for ≥48 hours were included. Prescription appropriateness and dose/schedule deviations were evaluated through prospective audit and feedback by a multidisciplinary team. Consumption was measured using Defined Daily Doses per 100 patient-days. A probit regression model was used to assess the association between prescriber type and prescription appropriateness. Confounding was addressed using a directed acyclic graph to determine the minimal adjustment set. Results Out of 3,845 prescriptions from 2,491 patients, a significant improvement was observed in dosing accuracy and appropriateness of prescriptions after ASP implementation (p<0.001). Use of amikacin and piperacillin/tazobactam decreased by 47.4% and 48.9%, respectively, while ceftriaxone use increased by 52.9%. The adjusted probit model showed that, compared to infectious disease specialists, orthopaedic surgeons were 48.7% (95%CI:36.0–61.4%) and general surgeons 33.9% (95%CI:22.4–45.5%) less likely to issue appropriate prescriptions, after controlling for patient sex and infection type. Conclusion The ASP improved antimicrobial prescribing and reduced use of selected broad-spectrum antibiotics. Sustained improvements may require further efforts targeting surgical services and institutional integration.
Taken from the source record, never inferred. Follow any of these and new work involving them reaches your briefing.