The Antibiotic Usage in a University Hospital and Necessity of an Antibiotic Policy

To determine the problems with inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics in hospitalized patients, a crosssectional study was carried out in Atatürk University, Medical School Hospital, the largest hospital in Eastern Anatolian Region of Turkey. Patients hospitalized between 03 May 2001 and 10 May 2001 were included in the study. Appropriateness of antibiotic use was evaluated using published recommendations for antibiotic prescription. Statistical analysis was made by chi-square test. A total of 717 patients were evaluated. Of the patients, 378 (52.7%) were receiving one or more antibiotics. Empirical use was more frequent (45.5%) than prophylactic (40.5%) and specific (based on culture result, 14.0%) use. Inappropriate use was found to be 44.4%, and it was 68.6%, 30.2% and 20.8% in prophylactic, empirical and specific administrations, respectively. The main problem in medical wards was unnecessary use of antibiotics while it was improper timing or duration of surgical prophylaxis in surgical wards. Appropriate usage rate of ampicillin-sulbactam, the most commonly used antibiotic, was 38.9%. This study emphasized a high proportion of misuse of antibiotics in the hospital. Our results are striking in respect of display of the need of antibiotic management policy in hospitals