Impact of collaborative physician-pharmacist stewardship strategies on prophylactic antibiotic practices: a quasi-experimental study.

Background: An effective use of surgical antibiotic prophylaxis (SAP) appears essential to prevent the development of infections linked to surgery while inappropriate and excessive prescriptions of prophylactic antibiotics increase the risk of adverse effects, bacterial resistance and Clostridium difficile infections. In this study, we aimed to analyze SAP practices in an acute secondary hospital in Belgium during the years 2016-2021 in order to evaluate the impacts of combined stewardship interventions, implemented thanks to a physician-pharmacist collaboration.

Methods: A quasi-experimental study on SAP practices was conducted during 5 years (2016-2021) in a Belgian University Hospital.