Reducing Antibiotic Misuse for Sinusitis in a Pediatric Urgent Care

Antibiotic misuse has been linked to increased health care costs, potential adverse reactions, and antibiotic resistance (Weddle, 2017). The purpose of this DNP project is to examine if implementation of an Antibiotic Stewardship checklist and algorithm at two After Hours Pediatrics (AHP) urgent care clinics, would affect provider knowledge and prescribing practices in the management of sinusitis. Antibiotic stewardship is the effort to measure antibiotic prescribing, improve antibiotic prescribing by clinicians, minimize diagnoses, and ensure the correct antibiotics are selected when needed (Sanchez et al., 2021). The overall goal is to minimize unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions for sinusitis to reduce the risks of antibiotic resistance and adverse reactions. To achieve this, a quality improvement (QI) project that included a diagnostic criteria checklist and management algorithm was tailored and implemented for healthcare providers at two AHP clinics.