TOC pharmacists reduce discharge days of therapy for CAP treatment

Interventions by transitions of care (TOC) pharmacists have significantly shortened discharge days of therapy (DOT) and total DOT for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) therapy, reports a study.

The analysis involved 196 patient records, of which 80 had a TOC pharmacist intervention and 116 did not. Among the interventions, 62 were accepted and 18 were rejected.

The mean final discharge DOT was 3.8 days in the nonintervention group and 3.4 days in the intervention group (p=0.231), and the mean total DOT was 6.8 and 6.8 days, respectively (p=0.963). The percentage of patients with appropriate total DOT was 59.5 percent in the nonintervention group and 66.3 percent in the intervention group (p=0.337).

A three-group analysis revealed a mean final discharge DOT of 2.9 days in the accepted group and 4.2 days in the rejected group (p=0.030), with a mean total DOT of 6.4 and 8.1 days, respectively (p=0.009). The corresponding percentage of patients with appropriate total DOT was 82.3 percent and 11.1 percent (p<0.001).

“These findings emphasize the impact TOC pharmacists can have with antimicrobial stewardship initiatives,” the authors said.

In this retrospective, multi-hospital analysis of discharge antibiotic prescribing conducted between 1 December 2022 and 30 June 2023, TOC pharmacists intervened to reduce DOT for CAP therapy. The authors compared records of CAP patients with a TOC antibiotic stewardship intervention to those without. They also performed a three-group analysis to compare patients with an accepted intervention to those with a rejected intervention.