Background
Ensuring that patients receive the correct dose of an antimicrobial agent is of the utmost importance in the proper treatment of bacterial infections. However, local surveys in Cork hospitals have shown that doses of the antimicrobial agents gentamicin and vancomycin are often calculated incorrectly, and doses are often below optimal. Correct prescription of these drugs requires the calculation of both a loading dose and a maintenance dose, and requires knowledge of the patient’s body weight and renal function. Our belief is that the mathematical complexity of these dosage calculations is leading to prescription errors.
Research Question
To determine if a dosage calculator (accessible by smart-phone, tablet or desktop computer) can be used to reduce errors in hospital prescriptions of gentamicin and vancomycin.
Methods
A cohort study will be carried out at Mercy University Hospital (MUH, Cork) and Cork University Hospital (CUH). The cohort will consist of doctors at MUH, and the control group will consist of doctors at CUH. The doctors from MUH will be trained in the use of a dosage calculator for the antimicrobial drugs gentamicin and vancomycin. This calculator is already in development and will be approved by the Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee at MUH prior to use. The control group from CUH will not be trained in the use of the calculator.
Main Outcome
This project will determine if there is a difference in the proportions of dosage errors by doctors at MUH compared to CUH, in the month following introduction of the calculator at MUH.
