• Rodney James, Lydia Upjohn, Menino Cotta, Susan Luu, Caroline Marshall, Kirsty Buising, and Karin Thursky.
• Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia Victorian Infectious Disease Service, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia rod.james@mh.org.au.
• J. Antimicrob. Chemother. 2015 Jan 1; 70 (6): 1912-8.

ObjectivesAntimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes have been developed with the intention of reducing inappropriate and unnecessary use of antimicrobials, while improving the quality of patient care and locally helping prevent the development of antimicrobial resistance. An important aspect of AMS programmes is the qualitative assessment of prescribing through antimicrobial prescribing surveys (APS), which are able to provide information about the prescribing behaviour within institutions. Owing to lack of standardization of audit tools and the resources required, qualitative methods for the assessment of antimicrobial use are not often performed. The aim of this study was to design an audit tool that was appropriate for use in all Australian hospitals, suited to local user requirements and included an assessment of the overall appropriateness of the prescription.MethodsIn November 2011, a pilot APS was conducted across 32 hospitals to assess the usability and generalizability of a newly designed audit tool. Following participant feedback, this tool was revised to reflect the requirements of the respondents. A second pilot study was then performed in November 2012 across 85 hospitals.ResultsThese surveys identified several areas that can be targets for quality improvement at a national level, including: documentation of indication; surgical prophylaxis prescribed for >24 h; compliance with prescribing guidelines; and the appropriateness of the prescription.ConclusionsBy involving the end users in the design and evaluation, we have been able to provide a practical and relevant APS tool for quantitative and qualitative data collection in a wide range of Australian hospital settings.© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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