Antibiotic Overuse and Stewardship at Hospital Discharge: The Reducing Overuse of Antibiotics at Discharge Home Framework

Hospital discharge is an important source of antibiotic overuse. In this review, we discuss what is currently known about antibiotic overuse at discharge, detail key targets for improvement, and introduce the Reducing Overuse of Antibiotics at Discharge (ROAD) Home Framework. Though opportunities exist to improve antibiotic prescribing across the care spectrum, discharge from acute hospitalization is an increasingly recognized source of antibiotic overuse. Antimicrobials are prescribed to more than 1 in 8 patients at hospital discharge; approximately half of which could be improved. Key targets for antibiotic stewardship at discharge include unnecessary antibiotics, excess duration, avoidable fluoroquinolones, and improving (or avoiding) intravenous antibiotic therapy. Barriers to discharge antibiotic stewardship include the perceived high stakes of care transitions during which patients move from intense to infrequent observation, difficulties in antibiotic measurement to guide improvement at discharge, and poor communication across silos, particularly with skilled nursing facilities. In this review, we discuss what is currently known about antibiotic overuse at hospital discharge, key barriers, and targets for improving antibiotic prescribing at discharge and we introduce an evidence-based framework, the Reducing Overuse of Antibiotics at Discharge Home Framework, for conducting discharge antibiotic stewardship.

Automated summary

Hospital discharge is a significant contributor to antibiotic overuse. Improving antibiotic prescribing at discharge, including reducing unnecessary use and excessive duration, is crucial. However, there are barriers such as risk perception, measurement challenges, and poor communication between different healthcare settings.