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Abstract
Background: In the long-term care facility setting, there is little information about correlation
of antibiotic use with care delivered or with the occurrence of fever or use of Foley
catheters. The objectives of this study were to compare various measures of quantitating
antibiotic use and to correlate these measures with febrile morbidity and Foley catheter
use in a hospital-based, long-term care facility.
Methods: This was a prospective study in which the number of residents with fever (rectal
temperature of 100.5° F or greater) or a Foley catheter was documented daily. Antibiotic
use was measured in several ways: incidence (courses per 100 resident care days),
proportion of resident care days that were antibiotic days, the number of antibiotic
courses per month, and the number of residents treated per month.
Results: Between January and December 1989, 111 (71%) of 156 residents were prescribed 263
antibiotic courses. Incidence of antibiotic use was 0.61 courses per 100 resident
care days. On average only about 5% of resident care days per month were associated
with antibiotic use, whereas an average of 18 residents per month received antibiotic
therapy. Trimethoprim/sulfa and ciprofloxacin together accounted for 55% of the courses
prescribed. No significant correlations were found between any antibiotic use measure
and febrile days or Foley catheter days each month.
Conclusions: In the long-term care facility setting, monitoring the number of residents treated
with antibiotics per month is a more practical and useful measure of use than measurement
of resident care days on antibiotics per month.
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© 1996 Published by Elsevier Inc.
