Pediatric Antibiotic Prescribing and Utilization Practices for RTIs at Private Urgent Care Centers

Data on pediatric antibiotic prescribing and utilization practices at urgent care centers (UCC) remain limited. In this study, an electronic medical record–based review of UCC encounters for respiratory tract infections (RTI) of patients belonging to one mid-sized pediatric practice was performed. Antibiotic prescribing and guideline adherence were compared between UCCs that were staffed exclusively by pediatric-trained providers to those staffed otherwise. Of a total of 457 RTI visits, 330 (72%) occurred at the pediatric UCC. Across all bacterial RTIs, 82% of encounters at the pediatric UCC were guideline-adherent versus 59% at nonpediatric UCCs (P <.001). At nonpediatric UCCs, pharyngitis was the most common RTI encounter diagnosis (40%), and full streptococcal management guideline adherence was 41%. While 93% of RTI-UCC encounters for <2 years were at pediatric UCCs, the majority of children >10 presented to nonpediatric UCCs. RTI guideline education to UCCs should be a focus of ambulatory stewardship efforts.