ANTIBIOTIC THERAPEUTIC INTERCHANGE PROGRAM - 6 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

To assess the long-term impact of a therapeutic interchange program on the use of target antimicrobial drugs, we conducted a retrospective s tudy of target drug utilization at our institution-a 1,000-bed Canadia n tertiary care teaching hospital. Data were assessed to determine tar get drug utilization, incidence of therapeutic interchanges, and patie nt-target drug exposures. Results showed that the incidence of therape utic interchanges per patient-target drug exposure decreased from a me an of 23% to 2%, resulting in a total net savings for the target drugs of approximately $1.07 million (Canadian) over 6 years. Prescriber ac ceptance and low manpower requirements combined to make this a useful method of altering prescribing patterns and reducing drug and drug del ivery costs.