Unnecessary IV Antibiotic Days Using General Criteria for Antibiotic Switch

The study is a comparison of the use of intravenous antibiotics before and after the implementation of switch criteria. Switch is defined as a change in administration route from intravenous to oral.

Patients administered to medical department at Sorlandet hospital in Kristiansand and Arendal are included if they are receiving intravenous antibiotics. Pediatric department is not included. Patients that are already hospitalized and given intravenous antibiotics are also included.

Patients that are excluded are those with CNS-infection, endocarditis, bone/joint infection, deep undrainable abscesses and those with foreign body infection.

Switch criteria are made from a thorough investigation on earlier switch studies. We have collected several studies on this topic, but none from the nordic countries.

The intervention contributes the following: The implementation of a registration form where doctors are prone to answer six questions when they evaluate antibiotic administration form.