Situation of using antibiotics in treatment of pneumonia for adult patients in

Abstract

It is universal knowledge that pneumonia is one of the most common diseases in the world. This disease can progress rapidly and cause severe consequence to patients who are not treated timely. Rational use of antibiotics is considered as a deciding factor for the success of pneumonia treatment. That is why we conducted a research to aim at describing the situation of using antibiotics for pneumonia treatment in adult patients in the "Nong Nghiep I" hospital. Cross sectional method has been used in this research. We collected information from patients' records. In addition, we

interviewed some involved people such as physicians, director of Pharmaceutical department and the chairman of "Pharmacy and Treatment Council". As many as 138 medical records of patients hospitalized with pneumonia from 1/1/2011 to 31/12/2011 were selected for the survey. The main conclusions of the study are stated as follows: (1) The duration of using antibiotics is reasonable (an average of 8.9 days); (2) Treatment therapies have been selected appropriately with 97.8% of patients being prescribed with β-lactam antibiotics; (3) The rate of patients being treated by single antibiotic on the first therapy was suitable (50%); and (4) The rate of patients whose treatment therapies had been changed during their duration of treatment was fairly low (30%). Beside the above-mentioned advantages, there are some disadvantages on using antibiotic in "Nong Nghiep I" hospital. Firstly, the proportion of prescriptions having drug-interaction was 34%. Secondly, the selection of antibiotics was mainly based on physicians' experiences and recommendations of medical literature, not on the culture-direct antibiotic therapy. In general, using antibiotics in "Nong Nghiep I" hospital is correspondent with recommendations in the medical references and treatment guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health.