The impact of an infectious diseases consultation on antimicrobial prescribing

摘要

The article published in the April issue by Gwee etaP describes the activities of an infectious diseases (ID) consult service in children. Their study did not aim to compare patients who received a consult with those who did not. Using national Australian data, we have compared patients who received a consult with those who did not, to provide additional insight to the value of ID consultation in improving antimicrobial use. In conjunction with the international Antimicrobial Resistance and Prescribing in European Children study,2 8 Australian pedi-atric hospitals participated in a single-day, hospital-wide point prevalence survey of antimicrobials. Deidentified data were collected about all antimicrobial prescriptions, including the appropriateness of the antimicrobial prescription using a standardized method of describing inappropriate prescribing (decision, choice and application) and whether there had been a concurrent ID consult.