Attitudes of pharmacists and physicians to antibiotic policies in hospitals

Background: Antibiotic therapy in hospitals has substantial impact on patie nt outcome and the pharmacy drug budget. Antibiotic policies have been impl emented by some hospitals to improve the quality of patient outcome and cos t of antibiotic therapy. Antibiotic policies impose certain requirements on pharmacists and physicians. Pharmacists' and physicians' attitudes to and opinions about antibiotic policies are likely to affect the usefulness of s uch policies. Aim: To determine the attitudes of pharmacists and physicians to antibiotic policies in New South Wales (NSW) hospitals. Methods: Pharmacists and physicians in NSW public hospitals were surveyed t o determine their attitudes to and opinions on antibiotic policies. A simpl e one-stage cluster sample of 241 pharmacists and a two-stage cluster sampl e of 701 physicians were obtained. Factor analysis was used to identify the attitudinal dimensions. General linear modelling was used to investigate t he effects of predictor variables on outcome variables. Results: The response rates were 91% and 77% for pharmacists and physicians , respectively. Factor analysis identified three dimensions of attitude to anti biotic policies: that they encourage rational antibiotic use; that the y improve the quality of antibiotic prescribing and that they are associate d with some problems. The reliability of these factors (Cronbach's alpha) r anged from 0.71 to 0.74, and was 0.90 for the overall attitude scale. Pharm acists and physicians had a positive overall attitude to antibiotic policie s. Whereas physicians recognize that antibiotic policies improve the qualit y of prescribing, this was highly correlated with identification of problem s (alpha = 0.71). In urban hospitals, pharmacists were more likely than phy sicians to associate antibiotics with problems. Conclusion: There was a positive overall attitude to hospital antibiotic po licies expressed by pharmacists and physicians.