Jason Doctor, Daniella Meeker, and their colleagues conducted a study asking physicians to display a personalized poster publicizing their commitment to judicial prescribing of antibiotics. The results of their study showed physicians that displayed the poster had a 20 percentage point reduction relative to the control group.
Since publication, Doctor and his team have been contacted by states and clinicians across the country and abroad to assist them with implementing their own versions of the commitment poster. States implementing a version of the commitment poster include Illinois, Texas, and New York.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show cased their work and the impact it is having on their website:
A commitment from all healthcare team members to prescribe antibiotics appropriately and engage in antibiotic stewardship is critical to improving antibiotic prescribing. Clinicians can demonstrate commitment to appropriate antibiotic prescribing by writing and displaying public commitments in support of antibiotic stewardship. For example, inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions for acute respiratory infections were reduced after clinicians displayed, in their examination rooms, a poster showing a letter from the clinician to their patients committing to prescribing antibiotics appropriately.
Displaying a personalized commitment poster is a promising, low cost quality improvement intervention that can be used to improve patient satisfaction. The study indicates there is greater provider “buy-in” to the concept when their professional reputation is on the line. The study’s authors, including Drs. Daniella Meeker, Jeffrey Linder, and Jason Doctor, have assisted states and clinicians across the country to implement their own versions of this commitment to appropriate antibiotic prescribing. Read the full post here.
Read more at the USC Schaeffer Center web site, healthpolicy.usc.edu.