Unnecessary Antibiotic Use in Hospitals Responsible for $163 Million in Potentially Avoidable Healthcare Costs

New Research Finds Need for Improvement in Antibiotic Use to Safely Treat Infections


CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 10, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Premier, Inc. (Nasdaq:PINC) released new research on the widespread use of unnecessary and duplicative antibiotics in U.S. hospitals, which could have led to an estimated $163 million in excess costs.

The inappropriate use of antibiotics can increase risk to patient safety, reduce the efficacy of these drugs and drive up avoidable healthcare costs. The study was published in the October issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

"The overuse of antibiotics is an industry-wide public health issue that is occurring across all care settings," said Leslie Schultz, RN, PhD, the lead author of the study and director of the Premier Safety Institute®, Premier, Inc. "Sometimes in an effort to 'do whatever it takes' to fight a serious infection, clinicians use multiple antibiotics to treat the same infection. This practice can contribute to antimicrobial resistance, put patient safety at risk and increase costs. We hope these findings help to enhance the antimicrobial stewardship initiatives that the majority of U.S. hospitals already have in place today."

Researchers found that 70 percent of potential unnecessary therapies represented three specific drug combinations used to treat anaerobic infections. The drug combination metronidazole and piperacillin-tazobactam accounted for more than 50 percent of the variation. These findings can help hospitals focus and improve their antimicrobial usage efforts by pointing clinicians to areas where potential overuse is highest.

Specifically, researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of inpatient pharmacy data from more than 500 U.S. hospitals from 2008-2011 to identify the potential inappropriate usage of 23 intravenous antimicrobial combinations. The analysis showed that 78 percent of hospitals had evidence of potentially unnecessary combinations of antibiotics being administered for two or more days, with a total of 32,507 cases of redundant antibiotics treatment.

Overall, these cases represented 148,589 days of potentially inappropriate antibiotic therapy, resulting in nearly $13 million in potentially avoidable healthcare costs for antimicrobial drugs alone. If these cases were representative of all U.S. hospitals over the same time period, an estimated $163 million could have been saved through appropriate prescribing. These costs do not include other operational factors, such as the associated supply and labor costs, or patient safety complications.

"Improving the way antibiotics are prescribed not only helps reduce rates of Clostridium difficile infection and antibiotic resistance, but can also improve individual patient outcomes, all while reducing healthcare costs," said Arjun Srinivasan, MD, associate director for Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Programs in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at CDC. "Eliminating these unnecessarily duplicative antibiotic therapies is a simple way that all facilities can both protect their patients and save healthcare dollars."

In addition to antimicrobial resistance and excess costs, unnecessary intravenous combinations can increase the risk of adverse drug events. Each drug has a risk of side effects, and combinations increase those risks, as well as the risks for drug-drug interactions.

Antimicrobial stewardship is an effective strategy for reducing antimicrobial resistance, patient harm and unjustified variation in healthcare costs. These interventions help physicians choose the right antibiotic, at the right dose and for the right duration.

A policy statement by SHEA, Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society outlines recommendations for the mandatory implementation of antimicrobial stewardship throughout healthcare, suggests process and outcome measures to monitor these interventions, and addresses deficiencies in education and research in this field as well as the lack of accurate data on antimicrobial use in the United States.

About the study

Leslie Schultz, Timothy Lowe, Arjun Srinivasan, Dwight Neilson, Gina Pugliese. "Economic Impact of Redundant Antimicrobial Therapy in U.S. Hospitals." Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology [35:10] (October 2014).

About the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC works 24/7 saving lives and protecting people from health threats to have a more secure nation. Whether these threats are chronic or acute, manmade or natural, human error or deliberate attack, global or domestic, CDC is the U.S. health protection agency.

About Premier, Inc.

Premier, Inc. (Nasdaq:PINC) is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of more than 3,000 U.S. hospitals and 110,000 other providers to transform healthcare. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, and advisory and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. Premier, a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient, plays a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, collaborating with members to co-develop long-term innovations that reinvent and improve the way care is delivered to patients nationwide. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier is passionate about transforming American healthcare. Please visit Premier's news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com; as well as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Foursquare and Premier's blog for more information about the company.

About SHEA

SHEA is a professional society representing more than 2,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals globally with expertise in and passion for healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention. SHEA's mission is to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections and advance the field of healthcare epidemiology. The society promotes science and research, develops expert guidelines and guidance for healthcare workers, provides high-quality education, promotes antimicrobial stewardship, encourages transparency in public reporting related to HAIs, works to ensure a safe healthcare environment, and facilitates the exchange of knowledge. SHEA upholds the value and critical contributions of healthcare epidemiology to improving patient care and healthcare worker safety in all healthcare settings. Visit SHEA online at www.shea-online.org, www.facebook.com/SHEApreventingHAIs and @SHEA_Epi.

Premier contact: Morgan Bridges-Guthrie / Morgan_Bridges@PremierInc.com

CDC contact: Melissa Brower / ggk5@cdc.gov