Antibiotic switch is helping patients get home faster

Nurse drawing medication out of a bottle

An initiative at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust to move patients from intravenous to oral antibiotics earlier in their treatment is helping to get people back home faster.

Since April this year, patients who have been on IV antibiotics for three days are reviewed for their suitability for switching to oral medication, as many antibiotics offer no added benefit when given intravenously.

In the first 12 weeks of the pilot, 83 per cent of patients at the Trust who were reviewed were switched onto oral antibiotics or had the medication stopped altogether.

Debby Wainwright, Lead Specialist Nurse for Antimicrobial Stewardship at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, said: “There are so many benefits of reducing unnecessary IV antibiotics, including better patient care, freeing up nursing time, reducing waste, and saving money.

“Patients taking oral antibiotics are less likely to experience line-related infections, to miss any doses and to suffer adverse effects from medications. It also reduces patient discomfort and enables improved mobility, all of which mean they are likely to have shorter stays in hospital.

“Earlier switching also frees up nursing time. It takes an average of 22 minutes for a nurse to administer a dose of IV antibiotics, compared to around 80 seconds for the same medication to be given orally. This is a huge increase in nursing capacity and time-to-care for our patients.

“It also reduces waste, which is great from a sustainability point of view as the Trust continues to explore ways to reduce its carbon footprint.”

Stuart Bond, Director of Innovation at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust, added: “This initiative is a fantastic example of how changing one process can bring a multitude of benefits across a number of key areas.

“As well as getting patients back home quicker, the potential for savings in both nursing time and drug cost is quite exciting and we are already seeing impressive results. We are currently in the process of creating a decision-making tool to make it easier for nursing and medical staff to assess when patients are ready to make the switch.”