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Abstract Aims Documenting antibiotic indications and course lengths on drug charts at the time of prescription is recommended in numerous publications. A closed loop audit was therefore performed to assess the documentation of this information for acute general surgery patients in a district general hospital. Methods During the first cycle, drug charts from acute general surgery patients were reviewed and the rates of documentation for antibiotic indication and course length were assessed. To improve these measures, the results from this cycle were presented to junior doctors and cards reminding doctors to complete antibiotic documentation were made and attached to drug charts when necessary. The impact of these measures was examined during a re-audit. Results 50 patients were assessed during cycle one and antibiotic indication and course length were documented in 54.0% and 42.0% of cases respectively. Data from a further 50 patients were collected following the presentation to junior doctors working in general surgery and the introduction of the reminder cards. Following these interventions, antibiotic indication and course length were documented in 74.0% and 68.0% of cases respectively. Co-amoxiclav and Tazocin were the most common agents prescribed across cycle 1 (64.0% and 14.0% respectively) and cycle 2 (60.0% and 16.0% respectively). Conclusions The documentation of antibiotic indication and course length on drug charts needed improving in this cohort. Although the presentation of the data from cycle 1 and reminder cards achieved this outcome, further improvements are required and should be assessed during future re-audits.
Carey et al. (Sun,) studied this question.