Parental and physician's point-of-view towards antibiotic prescriptions and discharge conversations in the pediatric emergency department.

Background: Within Europe, the Netherlands has one of the lowest antibiotic consumption rates. We aimed to gain insight into attitudes of Dutch physicians and parents towards information provided during discharge conversations in the emergency department (ED) and towards antibiotic use in children, in order to obtain information on the assumptions and beliefs that underlie a practice of low prescription rates.

Methods: Discharge conversations of 70 children presenting with an infectious disease at the ED were observed.