Skip to main content

Table 1 Outcome measures

From: Use of microbiology tests in the era of increasing AMR rates– a multicentre hospital cohort study

Outcome

Description

Primary outcomes

1: Microbiology test ordering practices

Measured by

a. Degree of compliance with test ordering recommendations in the Norwegian national antibiotic guideline, by diagnoses [6].

b. Degree of microbiology test ordering, i.e. the proportion of patients who had different specimens obtained within the first three days after initiation of antibiotic treatment, by diagnoses and hospital sites

2: Clinical use of microbiology test results

The proportion of microbiology tests ordered on the day of admission used to guide antibiotic treatment. Use was assessed within the first two days after tests results were available to clinicians.

For an antibiotic regime to be defined as adjusted in accordance with microbiology test result, it had to be susceptible to the identified pathogen and the regime least prone to drive antibiotic resistance. The evaluation took into account glomerular filtration rate and allergic reactions to antibiotics as recorded on admittance.

Secondary outcomes

1: Yield of microbiology tests

The proportion of patients for which a specific test

was positive and identified the potential causative pathogen. Reported by test and diagnoses.

2: Turnaround time for microbiology tests

Time in hours from the specimen was registered as received at the laboratories to final test results were available to clinicians in the electronic medical record. For blood cultures; time when gram stain results were made available to clinicians.