Antibiotics can help save lives. Unfortunately, many hospitals in the United States do not use antibiotics correctly. Federal health officials warned that many hospitals misuse or overuse antibiotics, leading to problems such as growth of drug-resistant bacteria.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday that poor prescription practices are putting patients at risk. The agency said the overusing antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance and cause unwanted health risks.
"Antibiotics can be lifesaving, but poor prescribing practices put hospital patients at risk for preventable allergic reactions, super-resistant infections, and deadly diarrhea caused by Clostridium difficile," CDC said in a statement. "These practices also drive antibiotic resistance, further endangering the future of these miracle drugs and the patients who need them. For some hospital patients, it is already too late. We must change prescribing practices now."
To prevent misuse of antibiotics, CDC recommended hospitals to appoint a doctor who will lead a program on responsible use of antibiotics; appoint a pharmacist to improve antibiotic prescribing; educate doctors on the dangers of antibiotic resistance; monitor patterns of prescribing and antibiotic resistance; and report data on prescribing and antibiotic resistance to doctors.
"Improving antibiotic prescribing can save today's patients from deadly infections and protect lifesaving antibiotics for tomorrow's patients," CDC director Thomas Frieden said. "Health care facilities are an important part of the solution to drug resistance and every hospital in the country should have a strong antibiotic stewardship program."
CDC's report and recommendations were based on a study described in "Vital Signs: Improving Antibiotic Use Among Hospitalized Patients" published in the March 4 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Researchers of the study found that doctors in some hospitals prescribe up to three times more antibiotics than doctors in other medical centers and that many of the patients with urinary tract infection who were given the antibiotic vancomycin were given the drug for too longer or were not properly tested and evaluated.
"Antibiotic prescribing for inpatients is common, and there is ample opportunity to improve use and patient safety by reducing incorrect antibiotic prescribing," the researchers wrote. "Hospital administrators and health-care providers can reduce potential harm and risk for antibiotic resistance by implementing formal programs to improve antibiotic prescribing in hospitals."
