Point Prevalence Study of Antibiotic Use in a Governmental Hospital in Al-Qassim Region

SUMMARY. The present study was conducted in a governmental hospital in Al Qassim Province to describe the pattern of antibiotic use in the hospital during the first 5 days of January 2021. The collected data included the type of pharmacies that dispense antibiotics, the antibiotics that were dispensed commonly by outpatient and inpatient pharmacies, dosage forms of the prescribed antibiotics, the department that prescribed anti-biotics, and the personal data of the patients who received antibiotics. More than 55% of the patients were females and more than 84 % of them were from Saudi Arabia. The age of 56.39% of the patients was between 20 and 49 years. Most of the prescriptions were written by the emergency department (29.05%), obstetrics and gynecology department (23.11%), and internal medicine department (18.05%). The most prescribed anti-bacterial agents were metronidazole (23.73%), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (16.69%), and amoxicillin (9.15%), ciprofloxacin (8.65), and azithromycin (7.79%). The results of the study may serve as a helpful baseline for developing antimicrobial stewardship programs and facilitating the implementation of appropriate stewardship strategies in Al Qassim hospitals.