Organisational quality and hospital pharmacists' roles of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) in Belgian hospitals: a national survey.

Objectives: Implementation of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT), also known as intravenous (IV) antimicrobial treatment at home, has increased in recent years. Ensuring OPAT quality is crucial to achieve positive patient outcomes. However, data on the Belgian quality of OPAT organisation is lacking.

Retrospective analysis of a flucloxacillin oral absorption test in patients requiring flucloxacillin therapy: results and determination of factors associated with adequate absorption.

Objectives: Flucloxacillin has the most narrow spectrum to treat staphylococcal infections, but has a large variability in bioavailability which hampers its intravenous (iv) to oral switch. To identify patients with adequate absorption, the use of an oral absorption test (OAT) measuring total plasma concentrations of flucloxacillin before and after an oral dose of 1 gram flucloxacillin, was previously published. The current pilot study aims to evaluate the fraction of patients with adequate absorption using a similar OAT; to assess the therapeutic consequences and to identify potential factors associated with adequate absorption.

Impact of model-informed precision dosing in adults receiving vancomycin via continuous infusion: a randomized, controlled clinical trial.

Background: Vancomycin is a commonly prescribed antibiotic to treat gram-positive infections. The efficacy of vancomycin is known to be directly related to the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) index of the area under the concentration-time curve (AUC) divided by the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the pathogen. However, in most countries, steady-state plasma concentrations are used as a surrogate parameter of target AUC/MIC, but this practice has some drawbacks.

Development of quality indicators for antimicrobial stewardship in Belgian hospitals: a RAND - modified Delphi procedure.

Introduction: Inappropriate antibiotic use is a major cause of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, optimizing antibiotic usage is essential. In Belgium, optimization of antimicrobials for the fight against multidrug resistant organisms (MDROs) is followed up by national surveillance by public health authorities.

In-hospital antibiotic use for severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations: a retrospective observational study.

Background: The use of antibiotics in mild to severe acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains controversial.

Aim: To explore in-hospital antibiotic use in severe acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD), to analyze determinants of in-hospital antibiotic use, and to investigate its association with hospital length of stay (LOS) and in-hospital mortality.

Methods: A retrospective, observational study was conducted in Ghent University Hospital.