Utility of a Benchmarking Report for Balancing Infection Prevention and Antimicrobial Stewardship in Children with Complicated Appendicitis.

Objective: To develop a severity-adjusted, hospital-level benchmarking comparative performance report for postoperative organ space infection and antibiotic utilization in children with complicated appendicitis.
Background: No benchmarking data exist to aid hospitals in identifying and prioritizing opportunities for infection prevention or antimicrobial stewardship in children with complicated appendicitis.
Methods: This was a multicenter cohort study using NSQIP-Pediatric data from 16 hospitals participating in a regional research consortium, augmented with antibiotic utilization data obtained through supplemental chart review. Children with complicated appendicitis who underwent appendectomy from 07/01/2015 to 06/30/2020 were included. Thirty-day postoperative OSI rates and cumulative antibiotic utilization were compared between hospitals using observed-to-expected (O/E) ratios after adjusting for disease severity using mixed effects models. Hospitals were considered outliers if the 95% confidence interval for O/E ratios did not include 1.0.
Results: 1790 patients were included. Overall, the OSI rate was 15.6% (hospital range: 2.6-39.4%) and median cumulative antibiotic utilization was 9.0 days (range: 3.0-13.0). Across hospitals, adjusted O/E ratios ranged 5.7-fold for OSI (0.49-2.80, P=0.03) and 2.4-fold for antibiotic utilization (0.59-1.45, P<0.01). Three (19%) hospitals were outliers for OSI (1 high and 2 low performers), and eight (50%) were outliers for antibiotic utilization (5 high and 3 low utilizers). Ten (63%) hospitals were identified as outliers in one or both measures.
Conclusions: A comparative performance benchmarking report may help hospitals identify and prioritize quality improvement opportunities for infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship, as well as identify exemplar performers for dissemination of best practices.
Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest.
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