Sepsis guidelines recommend daily review to de-escalate or stop antibiotics in appropriate patients. This randomized controlled trial evaluated an opt-out protocol to decrease unnecessary antibiotics in patients with suspected sepsis.
The team evaluated non-ICU adults on broad-spectrum antibiotics despite negative blood cultures at ten U.S. hospitals from September 2018 through May 2020. A 23-item safety check excluded patients with ongoing signs of systemic infection, concerning or inadequate microbiologic data, or high-risk conditions. Eligible patients were randomized to the opt-out protocol vs. usual care. The primary outcome was 30-day post-enrollment antibacterial days of therapy (DOT). Clinicians caring for intervention patients were contacted to encourage antibiotic discontinuation using opt-out language. If antibiotics were continued, clinicians discussed rationale for continuing antibiotics and de-escalation plans. To evaluate those with zero post-enrollment DOT, hurdle models provided two measures: 1) the odds ratio of antibiotic continuation and 2) ratio of mean DOT among those who continued antibiotics.
This article by Dr. Rebekah Moehring et al. was published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.