Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing Among United States Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants

Guillermo V Sanchez; Adam L Hersh; Daniel J Shapiro; James F Cawley; Lauri A Hicks

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofw168

Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing Among United States Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2016 Aug 10;3(3):ofw168. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofw168. eCollection 2016 Sep.

Authors

Guillermo V Sanchez¹, Adam L Hersh², Daniel J Shapiro³, James F Cawley⁴, Lauri A Hicks¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Atlanta, Georgia.
² Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases , University of Utah , Salt Lake City.
³ School of Medicine , University of California, San Francisco.
⁴ School of Medicine and Health Sciences , George Washington University , Washington, District of Columbia.

Abstract

We examined US nurse practitioner (NP) and physician assistant (PA) outpatient antibiotic prescribing. Antibiotics were more frequently prescribed during visits involving NP/PA visits compared with physician-only visits, including overall visits (17% vs 12%, P < .0001) and acute respiratory infection visits (61% vs 54%, P < .001). Antibiotic stewardship interventions should target NPs and PAs.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance; family practice; physician's practice patterns/trends; primary care; respiratory tract infections/drug therapy.