Written “Report Card” Decreases Dentists’ Antibiotic Prescriptions

Dentists are less likely to prescribe antibiotics after they experience a personalised report detailing their past prescription writing rates, according to a randomised restraint test of UK dentists published in PLOS Medicine , by Linda Young, NHS Education for Scotland, UK, Jan Clarkson, University of Dundee and Craig Ramsay, Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, and colleagues.

Dentists prescribe about 10 percentage of the antibiotics dispensed in UK community pharmacies. Previous considers discovered  that, despite clear clinical guidelines, they often prescribe antibiotics in the absence of clinical desire. To experiment an” audit and feedback” intervention to reduce these improper prescriptions, the RAPiD( Reducing Antibiotic Prescribing in Dentistry) test relied on dental prescribing and care claim data that was already routinely collected by the National Health Service. The investigates haphazardly allocated all 795 antibiotic prescribing general dentist rehearsals in Scotland( a total of 2566 dentists) to either receive or not experience a graph plotting their monthly antibiotic prescribing rate. A random subset of practices in the involvement group also received a written behavior change theme repetition national recommendations.

At the start of the test, the full amounts of the number of antibiotics prescribed per 100 NHS treatment declare were 8.3 in the limit group and 8.5 in the involvement radical. Over the 12 months following the start of the involvement, dentists in the limit radical rehearsals prescribed antibiotics at a rate of 7.9 per 100 declares, and dentists in the involvement radical rehearsals at a rate of 7.5, representing a 5.7% reduction in antibiotic prescriptions in the involvement radical relative to the limit radical. Additionally, dentists who received a written behavior change theme had an even greater reduction, of 6.1% relative to involvement dentists who did not receive such message.

While the findings suggest that accommodating individualized graphical feedback is coming from routinely collected data can reduce the antibiotic prescribing rate of dentists, it was not possible to evaluate the impact on the quality or appropriateness of dentists’ antibiotic prescribing in this study.

” The feedback provided in this study is a fairly straightforward, low-cost public health and patient safety intervention that could potentially help the part healthcare profession address the increasing provoke of antimicrobial opposition ,” the authors say.

This study was conducted as part of the TRiaDS program of implementation research which is funded by NHS Education for Scotland( NES ). The Health Services Research Unit which is funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates.

The columnists of this manuscript have the following competing stakes: Columnists LY and JEC are employed by NHS Education for Scotland, which is responsible for supporting NHS works in Scotland by developing and delivering education and training for those who work in NHS Scotland. Author AE was indicated that during the course of the study, “he’s in” paid full-time employment firstly by the University of Aberdeen and subsequently by Glasgow Caledonian University. The research was carried out on behalf of the TRiaDS Research Methodology Group( of which AE is a member ). This group provides funding for NHS Education for Scotland. No other competing stakes exist.

Article: An Audit and Feedback Intervention for Reducing Antibiotic Prescribing in General Dental Practice: The RAPiD Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial, Elouafkaoui P, Young L, Newlands R, Duncan EM, Elders A, Clarkson JE, et al ., PLOS Medicine , doi: 10.1371/ journal.pmed. 1002115, produced 30 August 2016.