Better medical record-keeping needed to fight antibiotic overuse

  • 📰 ScienceDaily
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 67 sec. here
  • 11 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 58%
  • Publisher: 53%

Today's Healthcare News

Infectious Diseases,Diseases And Conditions,Bacteria

A lack of detailed record-keeping in clinics and emergency departments may be getting in the way of reducing the inappropriate use of antibiotics, a pair of new studies suggests.

In one of the studies, about 10% of children and 35% of adults who got an antibiotic prescription during an office visit had no specific reason for the antibiotic in their record.

Without information about what drove these inappropriate prescriptions, it will be even harder for clinics, hospitals and health insurers to take steps to ensure that antibiotics are prescribed only when they're really needed, the researchers say. Ladines-Lim worked with U-M pediatrician and health care researcher Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., on the new studies. The one on outpatient prescribing by insurance status is in theChua and colleagues recently published findings about trends in inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in outpatients under age 65, suggesting about 25% were inappropriate.

So some of those 9% to 22% of all people receiving antibiotics may have also had a secondary bacterial infection that the clinician suspected based on symptoms.As for those with no infection-related diagnoses or symptoms in their records who got antibiotics, the researchers suggest that clinicians may not have bothered to add these diagnoses or symptoms to the patient record inadvertently -- or even deliberately, to try to avoid the scrutiny of antibiotic watchdogs.

He said that private and public insurers, and health systems, may need to incentivize accurate diagnosis coding for antibiotic prescriptions -- or at least make it easier for providers to document why they're giving them.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

Infectious Diseases Diseases And Conditions Bacteria Microbes And More Biology Public Health STEM Education Disaster Plan

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 452. in US

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

F1 Miami Grand Prix Just Keeps Getting Better and BetterMiami Grand Prix managing partner Tom Garfinkel happy with the controlled growth of 3-year-old event.
Source: AutoweekUSA - 🏆 229. / 63 Read more »

Win-Win ParentingBetter partners make better parents.
Source: PsychToday - 🏆 714. / 51 Read more »

Meta’s Ray-Ban Glasses Are Now AI Enabled And Better Than AI PinsI have been recognized as one of the leading industry consultants, analysts and futurists, covering the field of personal computers and consumer technology.
Source: ForbesTech - 🏆 318. / 59 Read more »

Lilly rides Mounjaro, Zepbound to better-than-expected 1Q profit despite supply issuesRapidly climbing sales of the new obesity drug Zepbound and its counterpart for diabetes, Mounjaro, pushed Eli Lilly to a better-than-expected first quarter profit.
Source: wjxt4 - 🏆 246. / 63 Read more »

Lilly rides Mounjaro, Zepbound to better-than-expected 1Q profit despite supply issuesRapidly climbing sales of the new obesity drug Zepbound and its counterpart for diabetes, Mounjaro, pushed Eli Lilly to a better-than-expected first quarter profit.
Source: ksatnews - 🏆 442. / 53 Read more »

Here are 5 easy ways you can become better at leaving the past in the past.Here are 5 easy ways you can become better at leaving the past in the past.
Source: PsychToday - 🏆 714. / 51 Read more »