https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/09/stewardship-resistance-scan-sep-21-2022
Stewardship / Resistance Scan for Sep 21, 2022
Healthcare-linked infections in Scotland;
Physician empathy and antibiotic prescribing
Filed Under:
Antimicrobial Stewardship;
Healthcare-Associated Infections
Scottish report shows no increase in healthcare-associated infections
A new report from Scotland's national health service shows that three key healthcare-associated infections remained stable or declined from 2020 to 2021.
Surveillance data compiled by Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection Scotland (ARHAIS) showed that despite an increase in the number of patients admitted to Scottish acute care hospitals in 2021 compared with 2020 and an increase in total occupied bed days, incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) remained stable, at 20.8 and 29.1 per 100,000 population, respectively.
Incidence of healthcare-associated Escherichia coli bacteremia (ECB)—the most common cause of gram-negative bacteremia—fell by 6.4% from 2020 to 2021, to 37.1 per 100,000 bed-days.
Overall, non–COVID-19 healthcare outbreaks and incidents declined, from 136 in 2020 to 118 in 2021. The annual incidence of community-associated CDI, SAB, and ECB remained stable from 2020 to 2021.
ARHAIS also reports that it continues to review and develop guidance documents for the prevention and control of infections across all care settings. Surveillance priorities for 2022 include further investigation into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare-associated infections and the development of wider gram-negative bacteremia surveillance.
Sep 20 ARHAIS 2021 annual report
Survey finds physician empathy linked to lower antibiotic prescribing
A survey of general practitioners (GPs) in Denmark found that those who exhibited high levels of empathy had different antibiotic prescribing habits than low-empathy GPs, particularly when it comes to prescribing penicillins, researchers reported yesterday in BMC Primary Care.
The survey, sent to a stratified sample of 1,196 Danish GPs in 2016, included questions about demographic, professional, and antibiotic prescribing characteristics and used the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Health Professionals to assess self-reported physician empathy. The high-empathy group was defined as GPs who had empathy scores above the 90th percentile, and the low-empathy group were those with scores below the 90th percentile. The response rate was 39%.
The results showed that 61% of GPs in the top decile of the empathy score were women. GPs in this decile reported the following person-centered factors as more important for their job satisfaction than the bottom decile: the patient-physician relationship, interaction with colleagues, and intellectual stimulation.
Overall, high-empathy scoring GPs had 19% fewer antibiotic prescriptions per year than the low-empathy group and prescribed significantly less penicillin (34% less) than the low-empathy GPs. This was true for most penicillin subcategories. The intra-profile variation index and confidence intervals showed less prescribing uncertainty among GPs with high empathy.
There were no significant differences in age, practice setting (urban vs rural), practice type (partnership vs solo), overall job satisfaction, or GP’s value of prestige and economic profit for their job satisfaction.
The authors say the findings suggest that high-empathy GPs may be more likely to spend time explaining to patients why they don't need an antibiotic rather than simply comply with the patient's request.
"Practitioners with a degree of empathy may prescribe less penicillin as they take better time to explain, meet the patient's fears and expectations, and evaluate antibiotic choice in their community with reference to local resistance patterns," the authors wrote. "A likely explanation may be that high empathy GPs better identify patient’s concerns and expectations and are able to contextualize the patient’s infection in the community."
Sep 20 BMC Prim Care study
Stewardship / Resistance Scan for Sep 21, 2022
Healthcare-linked infections in Scotland;
Physician empathy and antibiotic prescribing
Filed Under:
Antimicrobial Stewardship;
Healthcare-Associated Infections
Scottish report shows no increase in healthcare-associated infections
A new report from Scotland's national health service shows that three key healthcare-associated infections remained stable or declined from 2020 to 2021.
Surveillance data compiled by Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection Scotland (ARHAIS) showed that despite an increase in the number of patients admitted to Scottish acute care hospitals in 2021 compared with 2020 and an increase in total occupied bed days, incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) remained stable, at 20.8 and 29.1 per 100,000 population, respectively.
Incidence of healthcare-associated Escherichia coli bacteremia (ECB)—the most common cause of gram-negative bacteremia—fell by 6.4% from 2020 to 2021, to 37.1 per 100,000 bed-days.
Overall, non–COVID-19 healthcare outbreaks and incidents declined, from 136 in 2020 to 118 in 2021. The annual incidence of community-associated CDI, SAB, and ECB remained stable from 2020 to 2021.
ARHAIS also reports that it continues to review and develop guidance documents for the prevention and control of infections across all care settings. Surveillance priorities for 2022 include further investigation into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare-associated infections and the development of wider gram-negative bacteremia surveillance.
Sep 20 ARHAIS 2021 annual report
Survey finds physician empathy linked to lower antibiotic prescribing
A survey of general practitioners (GPs) in Denmark found that those who exhibited high levels of empathy had different antibiotic prescribing habits than low-empathy GPs, particularly when it comes to prescribing penicillins, researchers reported yesterday in BMC Primary Care.
The survey, sent to a stratified sample of 1,196 Danish GPs in 2016, included questions about demographic, professional, and antibiotic prescribing characteristics and used the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Health Professionals to assess self-reported physician empathy. The high-empathy group was defined as GPs who had empathy scores above the 90th percentile, and the low-empathy group were those with scores below the 90th percentile. The response rate was 39%.
The results showed that 61% of GPs in the top decile of the empathy score were women. GPs in this decile reported the following person-centered factors as more important for their job satisfaction than the bottom decile: the patient-physician relationship, interaction with colleagues, and intellectual stimulation.
Overall, high-empathy scoring GPs had 19% fewer antibiotic prescriptions per year than the low-empathy group and prescribed significantly less penicillin (34% less) than the low-empathy GPs. This was true for most penicillin subcategories. The intra-profile variation index and confidence intervals showed less prescribing uncertainty among GPs with high empathy.
There were no significant differences in age, practice setting (urban vs rural), practice type (partnership vs solo), overall job satisfaction, or GP’s value of prestige and economic profit for their job satisfaction.
The authors say the findings suggest that high-empathy GPs may be more likely to spend time explaining to patients why they don't need an antibiotic rather than simply comply with the patient's request.
"Practitioners with a degree of empathy may prescribe less penicillin as they take better time to explain, meet the patient's fears and expectations, and evaluate antibiotic choice in their community with reference to local resistance patterns," the authors wrote. "A likely explanation may be that high empathy GPs better identify patient’s concerns and expectations and are able to contextualize the patient’s infection in the community."
Sep 20 BMC Prim Care study