Usage of Antibiotics in a General Hospital: Effect of Requiring Justification

The amounts of certain antibiotics used at Boston City Hospital during recent years have been reviewed and correlated with the requirement to justify the choice of those antibiotics. This mild restraint on the prescribing of antibiotics for hospitalized patients appears to have substantially limited the use of certain potentially toxic or expensive agents, and removal of that restriction has been followed by an increase in use of those agents. Similar, relatively simple requirements may promote more effective and economical use of antibiotics and perhaps of other classes of drugs.