Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most common indications for antibiotic prescriptions in the outpatient setting. Given rising rates of antibiotic resistance among uropathogens, antibiotic stewardship is critically needed to improve outpatient antibiotic use, including in outpatient clinics (primary care and specialty clinics) and emergency departments. Outpatient clinics are in general a neglected practice area in antibiotic stewardship programs, yet most antibiotic use in the United States is in the outpatient setting. This article provides a comprehensive review of antibiotic stewardship strategies for outpatient UTI in the adult population, with a focus on the "five Ds" of stewardship for UTI, including right diagnosis, right drug, right dose, right duration, and de-escalation. Stewardship interventions that have shown success for improving prescribing for outpatient UTI are discussed, including diagnostic stewardship strategies, such as reflex urine cultures, computerized decision support systems, and modified reporting of urine culture results. Among the many challenges to achieving stewardship for UTI in the outpatient setting, some of the most important are diagnostic uncertainty, increasing antibiotic resistance, limitations of guidelines, and time constraints of stewardship personnel and front-line providers. This article presents a stewardship framework, built on current evidence and expert opinion, that clinicians can use to guide their own outpatient management of UTI.

The Five Ds of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship for Urinary Tract Infections.

Background: Hydrocodone-combination analgesics were changed from Schedule III to Schedule II to discourage the prescribing of these analgesics. Our primary aim was to explore the effect of hydrocodone rescheduling on opioid prescribing within an urban safety-net health care system. Methods and Design: Data were extracted from electronic records of ambulatory patients (N = 82,432 patients) prescribed hydrocodone-combination, codeine-combination, or tramadol opioid analgesics (N = 200,675 prescriptions) between October 6, 2013 and October 6, 2015. Data analyses modeled predicted probabilities of hydrocodone-combination prescriptions (HCPs). Chronic opioid therapy (COT) for chronic pain (ie, ≥3 opioid prescriptions/12 months) and morphine milligram equivalency (MME) levels were also examined. Results: The probability of providers writing HCPs decreased significantly from pre- to postrescheduling (0.525 vs 0.158, respectively, P Discussion: Significant declines in HCPs occurred after rescheduling; however, one third of patients prescribed opioids remained on doses ≥20 MME/day. Codeine- and tramadol-prescription probabilities increased significantly and providers may have an increased perception of safety about these medications. Physicians and health care systems must reduce their overreliance on opioids in treating pain, especially chronic pain, as all opioids incur some level of risk.

The Impact of Increased Hydrocodone Regulation on Opioid Prescribing in an Urban Safety-Net Health Care System.

We assessed the impact of the implementation of a simple multifaceted intervention aimed at improving management of cystitis in primary care.Quality control before and after study. SITE: Primary care centres in Barcelona city provided by the Catalonian Institute of Health.The multifaceted intervention consisted of (1) creation of a group with a leader in each of the primary care centres, out of hours services, sexual and reproductive centres, and home visit service, (2) session on management of cystitis in each centre, (3) result feedback for professionals, and (4) provision of infographics for professionals and patients with urinary tract infections. Interventions started in November 2020 and ended in the summer of 2021.Variation in the prescription of first-line antibiotics, usage of antibiotics, and request for urine cultures before and after this intervention.Training sessions took place in 93% of the centres. The use of first-line therapies cystitis increased by 6.4% after the intervention (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.7-7.1%). The use of nitrofurantoin in recurrent cystitis increased, mainly in out of hours service (8.7%; 95% CI, 5.2-12.2%). Urine cultures were more frequently requested after the intervention for recurrent cystitis in both primary care centres and out of hours services, with a 7.2% increase [95% CI, 5.9-8.5%), but also for uncomplicated urinary tract infections (3.1%; 95% CI, 1.8-4.4%).A low-intensity multifaceted intervention on management of cystitis, with strong institutional support, resulted in a better choice of antibiotic in antibiotic prescribing, but the intervention had less impact on the adequacy of urine cultures. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aprim.2022.102493

Improved management of cystitis in primary care following the implementation of a simple multifaceted intervention

Abstract Background It is not well known how reliably clinicians order reflex urinalysis to microscopy and culture (rUA-cx) for outpatient urinary tract infection (UTI) workup. Antibiotic appropriateness cannot be fully appreciated until the prevalence of UTIs and asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) are realized. Objective This quality improvement study has two major aims, first to determine UTI symptom accuracy for rUA-cx ordering and second, to confirm UTI and ASB cases by integrating rUA-cx and cascaded urinalysis results. Antibiotic utilization and diagnostic coding were secondarily linked to UTIs and ASB. Methods An electronic best-practice alert informed the ordering of two rUA-cx options: symptomatic- rUA-cx specifically for dysuria, frequency, urgency, costovertebral pain, suprapubic pain or fever versus non-specific-rUA-cx for vague complaints. UTI symptoms were verified by chart review. Confirmed UTI was defined as a significant culture with UTI symptoms and ASB as a significant culture without UTI symptoms. Results rUA-cx (2065) were prospectively collected over 6 months from female patients at risk for uncomplicated UTIs. Symptomatic-rUA-cx and non-specific-rUA-cx were associated with UTI symptoms for 53% (809/1527) and 20% (107/538), respectively. Overall, 44% (916/2065) of all rUA-cx had UTI symptoms. rUA-cx were overordered by a factor of 9 (2065/225) for every confirmed UTI. The UTI-to-ASB relative ratio was 2.6 (225/86). Regarding UTI-relevant antibiotics, 39% (214/553) were appropriately associated with UTI whereas only 22% (74/339) of inappropriate antibiotics were captured by the ASB definition, underestimating the problem 4-fold. Conclusions UTI and ASB remain challenging to categorize despite a meticulous method that applied acceptable criteria. 

Diagnostic and antibiotic stewardship lessons: an outpatient assessment of symptomatic reflex urinalysis ordering accuracy using an electronic best-practice alert

Inappropriate antibiotic choice or duration of therapy for urinary tract infections (UTIs) in outpatients is common and is a major contributor to antibiotic overuse. Most studies on outpatient antibiotic stewardship for UTIs follow a pre-design or post-design with a multifaceted intervention; these trials generally have found improvement in appropriateness of antibiotic use for UTI. Audit and feedback was one of the most commonly employed strategies across these trials but may not be sustainable. Future research on antibiotic stewardship for UTIs in outpatients should measure both effectiveness and implementation success. 

Antibiotic Stewardship Interventions for Urinary Tract Infections in Outpatient Settings: A Narrative Review.

Objectives The objective of our study was to evaluate the impact of a multifaceted stewardship intervention on adherence to the evidence-based practice guidelines on treatment of uncomplicated cystitis in primary care. We hypothesised that our intervention would increase guideline adherence in terms of antibiotic choice and duration of treatment. Design A preintervention and postintervention comparison with a contemporaneous control group was performed. During the first two study periods, we obtained baseline data and performed interviews exploring provider prescribing decisions for cystitis at both clinics. During the third period in the intervention clinic only, the intervention included a didactic lecture, a decision algorithm and audit and feedback. We used a difference-in-differences analysis to determine the effects of our intervention on the outcome and guideline adherence to antibiotic choice and duration. Setting Two family medicine clinics (one intervention and one control) were included. Participants All female patients with uncomplicated cystitis attending the study clinics between 2016 and 2019. Results Our sample included 932 visits representing 812 unique patients with uncomplicated cystitis. The proportion of guideline-adherent antibiotic regimens increased during the intervention period (from 33.2% (95% CI 26.9 to 39.9) to 66.9% (95% CI 58.4 to 74.6) in the intervention site and from 5.3% (95% CI 2.3 to 10.1) to 17.0% (95% CI 9.9 to 26.6) in the control site). The increase in guideline adherence was greater in the intervention site compared with the control site with a difference-in-differences of 22 percentage points, p=0.001. Conclusion A multifaceted intervention increased guideline adherence for antibiotic choice and duration in greater magnitude than similar trends at the control site. Future research is needed to facilitate scale-up and sustainability of case-based audit and feedback interventions in primary care.

https://fmch.bmj.com/content/fmch/9/3/e000834.full.pdf

Case-based audit and feedback around a decision aid improved antibiotic choice and duration for uncomplicated cystitis in primary care clinics

Pain management, chronic use of opioids for non-cancer pain, and opioid overdose have become nationwide public health challenges. According to a recent Institute of Medicine report, up to one-third of U.S. adults report chronic pain [1]. Following nationwide policy changes, updated practice guidelines, and the loosening of opioid prescribing restrictions in the 1990s, a dramatic increase was seen in the prescriptions of opioids for non-cancer chronic pain [2].

In addition, over the last 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in opioid-related accidental overdoses and deaths, with 16,651 deaths attributed to prescription opioids in 2010 [3,4]. The majority of these deaths are attributable to long-acting opioids and methadone [5]. The increased mortality rate is due not simply to the overall increase in prescriptions but also to prescriber knowledge deficits, patient behaviors and co-morbidities, and payor and system policies [5,6]. In addition to the risk of accidental overdose and death, chronic use of opioids creates other risks to patient safety including abuse, addiction, transition to heroin use, diversion, and accidents [7]. Lastly, opioids can be associated with numerous adverse effects, such as constipation, sedation, hormonal imbalance, and hyperalgesia [8–10].

At the same time, opioids are necessary to meet a critical need for adequate control of both acute and chronic pain in certain patient populations. Withholding and restricting necessary medical treatment may cause undue patient suffering [11]. In addition, prescriber bias and societal stigmas may result in unintended and problematic barriers to improved quality of life for certain groups [12].

In response to increases in opioid-related morbidity and mortality, various recommendations have been made for safe opioid prescribing, including urine drug monitoring, state prescription monitoring databases, and treatment agreements …

Dramatic Reduction in Hydrocodone Prescriptions in an Urban Safety Net Health Care System: Has It Improved Patient Safety or Led to Increased Patient Suffering?

Background: Outpatients with uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) are often treated empirically without culture, whereas urine cultures are typically collected from patients with complicated UTI. Susceptibilities for fosfomycin (a first-line agent) are not routinely performed or reported in the antibiogram. Understanding the prevalence of antibiotic resistance for UTI is critical for empiric treatment and antibiotic stewardship in primary care. Methods: We developed a UTI-focused antibiogram from a prospective sample of outpatients (women and men) with UTIs from 2 public family medicine clinics in an urban area with a diverse, international population (November 2018 to present). During the study period, providers ordered a urine culture for any adult patient presenting with UTI symptoms, including uncomplicated and complicated infections. We estimated the prevalence of resistance to UTI-relevant antibiotics in the overall study population and compared it between patients born in the United States and other countries. Results: We collected 678 urine cultures from 644 unique patients (79% female). Of these cultures, 158 (23.3%) had no growth, 330 (48.7%) grew mixed urogenital flora, and 190 (28.0%) were positive (>10,000 CFU/mL). Patients with positive cultures were mostly female (88.2%), and their mean age was 46.6 ± 14.8 years. Among patients with positive cultures, 42.7% were born in the United States and 57.3% were born Mexico or Central America. Escherichia coli was the most commonly isolated organism (Fig. 1). Susceptibility results for E. coli and all gram-negative organisms combined are presented in Fig. 2. Susceptibility of uropathogens to TMP-SMX was significantly higher in patients born in the United States compared to patients from Mexico or Central America (82% vs 61%; P = .03). Susceptibility to ciprofloxacin was similar in patients born in the United States and other countries (79% vs 72%; P = .50). Of 77 E. coli isolates, 11 (14%) were positive for extended-spectrum β-lactamase production, including 8 isolates from patients whose country of origin was Mexico or a Central American country. Conclusions: More than 20% of outpatients presenting with UTI symptoms had a negative urine culture. Among outpatients with uncomplicated and complicated UTI, uropathogens had a high prevalence of resistance to ciprofloxacin and TMP-SMX, but susceptibility to fosfomycin (restricted in our system) was 100%. Resistance rates for TMP-SMX were higher in patients from Mexico and Central America. Our findings question whether TMP-SMX should remain a first-line agent in US primary-care settings.
 Funding: This project was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UM1AI104681.
 Disclosures: None

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Creating an Outpatient-Specific Antibiogram to Guide Treatment for Urinary Tract Infections

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Case-based audit and feedback around a decision aid improved antibiotic choice and duration for uncomplicated cystitis in primary care clinics

Dramatic Reduction in Hydrocodone Prescriptions in an Urban Safety Net Health Care System: Has It Improved Patient Safety or Led to Increased Patient Suffering?

Creating an Outpatient-Specific Antibiogram to Guide Treatment for Urinary Tract Infections