Abstract
BACKGROUND: Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) urinary tract infections (UTI) are traditionally treated with therapies like linezolid or daptomycin. Multiple recent studies have demonstrated that aminopencillins (APs) have equivalent clinical efficacy outcomes as these therapies are able to achieve high urinary drug concentrations and may also have favorable comparative safety profiles and lower costs. Our institution implemented a standardized microbiology report for urine cultures positive for VRE which encouraged prescribing of APs and blinded sensitivity results. METHODS: This was a single-center, retrospective, observational study evaluating the impact of this microbiology report on prescribing outcomes in patients being treated for VRE UTI at a community regional medical center. The study was conducted over 7.5 years with January 2011 to September 2014 representing the pre-intervention cohort and October 2014 to July 2018 representing the post-intervention cohort. Patients were included if they were 18 years or older and received antibiotic therapy for a diagnosed VRE UTI. The primary outcome measure was terminal antibiotic therapy. RESULTS: Out of 388 patients with VRE positive urine cultures, 102 were included for analysis, 38 in the pre-intervention cohort and 64 in the post-intervention cohort. Cohorts were similar in terms of age, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), β-lactam allergy, ID consultation, and urologic abnormalities. AP prescribing significantly increased from 3% (1/38) in the pre-intervention cohort to 44% (28/64) in the post-intervention cohort both in univariate (OR 29.8, 95% CI 3.7–222.8) and multivariate (OR 38.7, 95% CI 4.8–312.3) analyses. In the post-intervention cohort, age, gender, CCI, β-lactam allergy, and urologic abnormalities were not significantly associated with differences in aminopenicillin prescribing. There was no difference in in-hospital mortality between cohorts. CONCLUSION: The results from this study demonstrate that a simple microbiology report for VRE positive urine cultures encouraging AP prescribing is significantly associated with an increase in AP prescribing for diagnosed VRE UTI and should be considered as a supplementary antimicrobial stewardship intervention. DISCLOSURES: All authors: No reported disclosures.