ABSTRACT Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in dentistry has been widely reported but local studies are scarce. We aimed to evaluate antibiotic prescribing practices among dental officers in a public dental primary care clinic against current guidelines: specifically assessing the number, appropriateness, accuracy of prescriptions, type of antibiotics prescribed and repeated prescribing of the same type of antibiotics within a specific duration. A retrospective audit consisting of two cycles (1st cycle: July to September 2018, 2nd cycle: July to September 2019) was carried out by manually collecting relevant data of patients (aged 18 and above) who were prescribed antibiotics from carbon copies of prescription books. Between each cycle, various interventions such as education through a continuous professional development (CPD) session, presentation of preliminary findings and making guidelines more accessible to dental officers were implemented. When the 1st and 2nd cycles were compared, the number of antibiotic prescriptions issued reduced from 194 to 136 (–30.0%) whereas the percentage of appropriate prescriptions increased slightly by 4.1%. Inaccurate prescriptions in terms of dosage and duration decreased (–0.5% and –13.7%, respectively) whilst drug form and frequency of intake increased (+15.7% and +0.7%, respectively). Repeated prescribing of the same antibiotics by the same officer within a period of ≤6 weeks no longer occurred. Amoxicillin and metronidazole were most commonly prescribed in both cycles. Overall, the antibiotic prescribing practices did not closely adhere to current guidelines. However, clinical audit in conjunction with targeted interventions resulted in improvement in the antibiotic prescribing patterns. Thus, further intervention and re-audit is necessary.
Anti-Bacterial Agents--administration & ; dosage ; Dental Clinics ; Clinical Audit

INTRODUCTION: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unprecedented impact in Asia and has placed significant burden on already stretched healthcare systems. We examined the impact of COVID-19 on the safety attitudes among healthcare workers (HCWs), as well as their associated demographic and occupational factors, and measures of burnout, depression and anxiety. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey study utilising snowball sampling was performed involving doctors, nurses and allied health professions from 23 hospitals in Singapore, Malaysia, India and Indonesia between 29 May 2020 and 13 July 2020. This survey collated demographic data and workplace conditions and included three validated questionnaires: the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), Oldenburg Burnout Inventory and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. We performed multivariate mixed-model regression to assess independent associations with the SAQ total percentage agree rate (PAR). RESULTS: We obtained 3,163 responses. The SAQ total PARs were found to be 35.7%, 15.0%, 51.0% and 3.3% among the respondents from Singapore, Malaysia, India and Indonesia, respectively. Burnout scores were highest among respondents from Indonesia and lowest among respondents from India (70.9%-85.4% vs. 56.3%-63.6%, respectively). Multivariate analyses revealed that meeting burnout and depression thresholds and shifts lasting ≥12 h were significantly associated with lower SAQ total PAR. CONCLUSION Addressing the factors contributing to high burnout and depression and placing strict limits on work hours per shift may contribute significantly towards improving safety culture among HCWs and should remain priorities during the pandemic.
Humans ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Pandemics ; COVID-19/epidemiology* ; Burnout, Psychological ; Health Personnel