Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi has proved after a 2-year study that it is possible to cut overprescription of antibiotics, save money, without negatively affecting patient lives.

The hospital managed to cut down the use of restricted antibiotics which were found to be unnecessarily prescribed by 86% in the last 2 years with no adverse effects in the number of patient deaths. The hospital had listed 19 antibiotics as restricted therapy and found 2,776 situations where they were inappropriately prescribed. But with daily monitoring, the institute managed to save close to Rs. 2.3 crores per year.

Hinduja hospital also followed a similar protocol and has begun to ask patients to take antibiotics only one day prior to surgery as opposed to the older protocol which required them to be on antibiotics for a few days.

Information for the article was sourced from Times of India. Read the original here.