An evaluation of a new approach to reduce antimicrobial prescribing in care home residents

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Infections in care home residents and antimicrobial prescribing; Infections and Infestations

• Registration Number: ISRCTN10441831
• Lead Sponsor: Queen's University Belfast (UK)

Brief Summary

2020 Results article in https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32101392 results (added 27/02/2020)

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Results First Posted: 1900-01-01
• Study Start: 2016-04-25
• Study Completion: 2018-04-30
• Last Update Posted: 6 February 2023

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 50

Inclusion Criteria

Care homes:
1. Care homes (some with/without nursing care), principally providing 24 hour care for older residents
2. A minimum of 20 (permanent) residents
3. Associated with a small number of general practices (up to four per home providing care for a minimum of 80% of residents within a home)
4. An exclusive arrangement with one pharmacy for dispensing medications

Care home staff:
1. Working in the participating care homes
2. Willing to participate in focus group discussions

General Practitioners:
1. Working with the participating care homes
2. Willing to participate in interviews

Exclusion Criteria

1. Not meeting the inclusion criteria
2. Not providing written informed consent

Study & Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<br> Because this is a feasibility study, we are unable to judge effectiveness. The outcomes that we are interested in for this feasibility study are predominantly process-related and outlined as follows:<br> 1. Acceptability of the intervention in terms of recruitment and delivery of training as assessed by collecting data on recruitment of care homes (3 months from the start of the project, based on the number of homes approached and the number recruited) and attendance at training events (after the training events have taken place during months 9-12)<br> 2. The feasibility of measuring appropriateness of prescribing and collecting dispensing data from community pharmacies (12 months pre-baseline and 6 months from baseline)<br> 3. Comprehensive overview of the implementation of the intervention as measured through process evaluation (observation, interviews and focus groups) over the course of the study (over 6 months).<br>

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<br> There will be two main secondary outcomes for this feasibility study:<br> 1. The costs of implementing the intervention which will be recording resource used associated with labour, training, intervention materials, equipment and space. These data will be collected over the course of the study through the use of documentation that will be prepared for the study.<br> 2. The likelihood of being able to recruit to a larger definitive study will be assessed by distributing a short questionnaire (providing details about a proposed definitive study) to care homes in selected geographic areas (month 21)<br>