Abstract
Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in rural primary care clinics can cause adverse effects leading to poor patient outcomes (Talkington, Hyun, Zetts, & Kothari, 2016). These unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions contribute to the major global health threat of antimicrobial resistance (World Health Organization, 2018). More than two million people become ill and 23,000 deaths occur in the United States from antibiotic-resistant bacteria (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Rural clinicians prescribe antibiotics at a higher rate than urban clinicians (Chua, Fischer, & Linder, 2019). Antibiotic stewardship improves the appropriate usage of antimicrobials through adherence to treatment guidelines and monitoring programs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). The purpose of this quality improvement project is to promote antibiotic stewardship in a rural primary care clinic. This will be accomplished by the following aims:|1. Analyze provider antibiotic prescribing patterns using data collected via the clinic’s electronic health record.|2. Develop and disseminate an antibiotic stewardship module for care providers in a rural primary care clinic.|3. Develop and disseminate patient teaching materials related to antibiotic stewardship.|4. Develop and implement policy and procedural guidelines and a data tracking protocol for antibiotic prescribing practices in a rural primary care clinic.|5. Disseminate findings of the pre/post data collection to the care providers in a rural primary care clinic.