P036: A clinical decision support intervention to increase usage of probenecid in the ED

Abstract

Introduction: In certain circumstances, skin and soft tissue infections are managed with intravenous (IV) antibiotics. In our center, patients initiated on outpatient IV antibiotics are followed up by a home parental therapy program the following day. A significant number of these patients require a repeat visit to the ED because of clinic hours. Probenecid is a drug that can prolong the half-life of certain antibiotics (such as cefazolin) and can therefore avoid a repeat ED visit, reducing health care costs and improve ED capacity. Our goal was to increase probenecid usage in the ED in order to optimize management of skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) in the ED. The primary outcome was to compare the usage of probenecid in the pre and post-intervention phase. Secondary outcomes were to compare revisit rates between patients receiving cefazolin alone vs cefazolin + probenecid. Methods: Using administrative data merged with Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), we extracted data 90 days pre- and 90 post-intervention (February 11, 2015 to August 11, 2015). The setting for the study is an urban center (4 adult ED’s with an annual census of over 320,000 visits per year). Our CPOE system is fully integrated into the ED patient care. The multi-faceted intervention involved modifying all relevant SSTI order sets in the CPOE system to link any cefazolin order with an order for probenecid. Physicians and nurses were provided with a 1 page summary of probenecid (indications, contra-indications, pharmacology), as well as decision support with the CPOE. Any patients who were receiving outpatient cefazolin therapy were included in the study. Results: Our analysis included 2512 patients (1148 and 1364 patients in the pre/post phases) who received cefazolin in the ED and were discharged during the 180 day period. Baseline variables (gender, age, % admitted) and ED visits were similar in both phases. In the pre-intervention phase 30.2% of patients received probenecid and in the post-intervention phase 43.0%, for a net increase of 12.8% (p=<0.0001). Patients who received probenecid had a 2.2% (11.4% vs 13.6%, p=0.014) lower re-visit rate in the following 72H. Conclusion: We have implemented a CPOE based clinical decision support intervention that demonstrated significant increase in probenecid usage by emergency physician and resulted in a decrease in ED revisits. This intervention would result in health care cost-savings.