Feasibility evaluation to expand a collaborative practice agreement and discontinue antibiotics after an emergency department or urgent care visit

Abstract Purpose The impact of pharmacist-led culture follow-up programs for positive cultures is well established. The benefits and feasibility of evaluating negative cultures and deprescribing unnecessary antibiotics after emergency department (ED) and urgent care (UC) visits are unknown; therefore, this evaluation characterized the burden of negative urine cultures and chlamydia tests and estimated how many potential antibiotic days could be saved with deprescribing. Methods This retrospective, descriptive study evaluated patients discharged from an ED or UC location with a pharmacist-led culture follow-up program. The primary objective was to characterize the proportion of patients with a negative urine culture or chlamydia test where an opportunity would exist to deprescribe antibiotics at follow-up. Secondary endpoints included estimating the number of potential antibiotic days that could be saved, postvisit healthcare utilization, and documented adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Results For a 1-month period, pharmacists reviewed 398 cultures, of which 208 (52%) were urine cultures or chlamydia tests with negative results. Fifty patients (24%) with negative results had been prescribed empiric antibiotics. The median duration of antibiotic treatment was 7 days (interquartile range [IQR], 5-7 days), while the median time to culture finalization was 2 days (IQR, 1-2 days). There was an opportunity to save a median of 5 antibiotic days per patient. Thirty-two patients (15.3%) followed up with their primary care physician within 7 days; of these patients, 1 (0.05%) had their antibiotic prescription discontinued by the primary care physician. There were no documented ADRs. Conclusion Expansion of pharmacist-led culture follow-up programs to deprescribe antibiotics for patients with negative cultures has the potential to save significant antibiotic exposure.