Background Confronted with the increase in consumption of fluoroquinolones in our hospital during the past 2 years, an evaluation of professional practices of the prescription of fluoroquinolones was done.

Purpose Development of an innovative and attractive training programme for prescribers to promote the correct use of fluoroquinolones.

Material and methods The training was organised in two parts: a 1 h30 group session and an e-learning over 3 months, available on the intranet of the hospital (one survey per month). The programme was accredited as a Continuing Professional Development programme by the organisation concerned. Prior to this training, a first audit was carried out in 2014 (47 prescriptions) and another was conducted in 2017 (48 prescriptions). Five criteria were analysed: the indication of the prescription, the choice of the fluoroquinolone molecule, the dosage, duration of treatment and the use of intravenous drug.

Results Sixty-five per cent of the doctors attended the group session and seven physicians participated in all e-learnings. All of participants found this training useful. An increase in the percentage of global conformity of prescriptions was observed in 2017 (18%) compared with 2014 (15%) indicated an improvement in practices. In addition, the audit in 2017 (77 days) was longer than 2014 (43 days) for the same number of prescriptions, showing a decrease of 43% in the use of fluoroquinolones.

Conclusion This initiative, conducted by a chemist, a physician specialised in infectious diseases and a quality expert, has led to the development of training for prescribers, combining traditional and digital tools. It responds to one of the strategic objectives of the global plan of action developed by the World Health Organisation which is ‘to optimise the use of antimicrobial agents in human health’. Valorisation in a ‘Continuing Professional Development Programme’ is a real argument which attracts more participants and allows sustainability of this project.

References and/or acknowledgements Rughoo L, Lacombe K, et al. showed an improvement in fluoroquinolones prescriptions after intervention. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Relevance+of+Fluoroquinolone+Use+in+a+French+Teaching+Hospital https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Optimizing+Fluoroquinolone+Utilization+in+a+Public+Hospital+%3A+A+Prospective+Study+of+Educational+Intervention

Futhermore, the warning issued by the European Medicines Agency of potentially permanent side effects of quinolone and fluoroquinolone antibiotics may continue to influence the restriction in prescriptions. For us, it is an argument to pursue this training programme.

https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/referrals/quinolone-fluoroquinolone-containing-medicinal-products#key-facts-section

No conflict of interest.