Hospital antibiotic management in Austria--results of the ABS maturity survey of the ABS International group.

Background: The ABS International group conducted a survey to estimate the prevalence and characteristics of country-specific hospital antibiotic management programs. This paper summarizes the results for Austria.
Methods: The survey was conducted in April and May 2007. A questionnaire with various items related to hospital antibiotic management was sent to 160 Austrian hospitals.
Main Findings: Of 160 questionnaires sent, 80 were returned and evaluable. The mean total score for all items and all hospitals was 3.29 (median: 3.42; range 1.35-4.74). The larger the hospital the higher were the reported scores concerning diagnostics, antibiotic-related organization and antibiotic-consumption control, but the lower the scores for antibiotic-related personnel development and antibiotic-related relationships to relevant environments. The maturity figure for large hospitals (>500 beds) was 3.57, for medium hospitals 3.34, and for small hospitals (<200 beds) 3.01.
Conclusions: The self-reported results of our questionnaire-based survey clearly show that there is still need for improvement. In all five categories surveyed, Austrian hospitals scored their antibiotic maturity lower than the international averages. The establishment of an antibiotic officer enables the development of antibiotic stewardship tools such as antibiotic lists. Such tools can be seen as quality indicators.