The 2018 Aged Care National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey: results show room for improvement.

Abstract

SUMMARY The annual Aged Care National Antimicrobial Prescribing Survey aims to identify local and national prescribing issues and guide antimicrobial stewardship goals. In the 2018 point prevalence survey, medication charts of over 20,000 residents were reviewed from 407 participating facilities across Australia. On the day of the survey, almost 10% of residents were prescribed an antimicrobial. Nearly two-thirds of recently prescribed antimicrobials were for residents who had no documented signs or symptoms of infection. Over a quarter of antimicrobials had been prescribed for longer than six months. Incomplete documentation was a prominent barrier to proper review of antimicrobial therapy, with the indication, review date or stop date not documented for many prescriptions. Recommendations include using appropriate microbiological testing to guide prescribing, following national antimicrobial prescribing guidelines, documenting the indication for the antimicrobial, and its start, stop and review dates, and monitoring and re-evaluating long-term antimicrobial use.