While hospitals have been increasingly on alert for drug-resistant bacteria, the problem may be just as bad in outpatient or ambulatory care settings, Oregon researchers have found.
A team from Oregon State University, Oregon Health & Science University and Kaiser Permanente Northwest conducted testing on bacterial resistance in both hospital and outpatient settings. The testing found that the problem can be equally bad in both, depending on which antibiotic is involved.
Oregon uses fewer antibiotics than many states, and has less of a problem with drug-resistant bugs. But doctors still must balance concerns of curing patients with inadvertently increasing antibiotic resistance by prescribing antibiotics that are either too strong or unnecessary," says Jessina McGregor, an assistant professor in the OSU College of Pharmacy who led the study: "We have to think twice."
The country's health care system needs more research to ensure that the appropriate antibiotic is being prescribed in outpatient settings such as clinics and doctors' offices, the study found. Studies have shown that as much as 55 percent of antibiotics prescribed to outpatients for acute respiratory infections are unnecessary.
The Oregon research appeared in the journal Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease.
-- Nick Budnick