Impact of an antimicrobial formulary and restriction policy in the largesthospital in Italy

We have analysed the expenditure on antimicrobial drugs in the largest hosp ital in Italy; over this period, a committee prepared an antibiotic policy document. This formulary lists ail antimicrobial drugs available in the hos pital. Some drugs were removed from the list and others are only available on special request for a named patient. In the hope of optimising drug util isation, we included all the reasons for the choice of agent in the documen t. The introduction of this formulary resulted in an immediate saving and p erhaps in the future we shall also observe an improvement in bacterial resi stance patterns. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. and International Society o f Chemotherapy. All rights reserved.