Quality of antibiotic prescription during office hours and out-of-hours in Flemish primary care, using European quality indicators

AbstractBackground: European disease-specific antibiotic prescribing quality indicators (APQI) were proposed for seven acute indications (bronchitis, upper respiratory infection, cystitis, tonsillitis, sinusitis, otitis media and pneumonia): (a) the percentage of patients prescribed an antibiotic; (b) the percentage of patients receiving the guideline recommended antibiotic; (c) the percentage of patients receiving quinolones.Objectives: To assess the feasibility of calculating values for these 21 APQI using primary care databases; and to assess the quality of antibiotic prescribing in office hours and out-of-hours general practice.Methods: Data was extracted from a morbidity registration network (http://www.intego.be) and the out-of-hours service centre in Flanders. Within both databases diagnoses are labelled using the revised second edition of International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2-R) and antibiotic prescriptions using Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification.Results: Both dat...