Impact of a stewardship-focused culture follow-up initiative on the treatment of pharyngitis in the emergency department and urgent care settings.

A culture follow-up program with an emphasis on symptom assessment may limit antibiotic exposure in patients with Group A Streptococcus on throat culture. A quasi-experimental study of such patients was conducted in our Emergency Department and Urgent Care centers. During the prestewardship initiative phase (March 2011-June 2012), the standard of care for culture follow-up did not include symptom assessment prior to prescribing antibiotics. During the stewardship initiative phase (March 2015-June 2016), culture follow-up was completed with a focus on symptom assessment and antibiotic avoidance. Two-hundred eighty patients were included. Antibiotic prescribing at follow-up decreased from 97.0% to 71.3% (P < 0.001); overall appropriateness of therapy at follow-up, including symptom assessment, increased from 6.0% to 81.5% (P < 0.001). There was no difference in 72-h revisit between the pre- and poststewardship initiative groups (P = 0.121). This study demonstrated improved antimicrobial prescribing with initiation of a stewardship-focused culture follow-up program in the Emergency Department and Urgent Care centers.