In early 1992, a multidisciplinary task force was created to address the issue of rapidly increasing cost of antimicrobial utilization at the Children's Hospital of Denver. Analysis of available data confirmed increased utilization even when purchase cost increases and patient day effects were factored out. An intervention strategy was implemented in April, 1992 which included publishing the relative cost of comparable (therapeutically equivalent) antibiotics, targeting amikacin and ceftriaxone. An institution-wide education program included pocketsized reference cards and displaying these relative costs with all antimicrobial susceptibility patterns on bacterial isolates. We then compared the utilization of antibiotics for the two years prior to April, 1992 to the subsequent two years. In the two year period following widespread educational efforts focusing on therapeutically equivalent alternatives for the aminoglycosides and third generation cephalosporins, there was a significant (p <.005) decrease in the total purchase cost for parenteral antibiotics at The Children's Hospital of Denver($200,000 yearly). Adjusted for patient days, this savings was predominately due to the targeted change of antimicrobial selection within the aminoglycoside and third generation cephalosporin groups.Table

Table 1
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