Antibiotic prescribing during office hours and out-of-hours: a comparison of quality and quantity in primary care in the Netherlands.

Background: Unnecessary and non-first-choice antibiotic prescribing is a significant problem in primary care. It is often argued that irrational prescribing is higher during out-of-hours (OOH) consultations.

Aim: To obtain insight into the quantity and quality of OOH antibiotic prescribing for commonly presented infectious diseases.