GENERAL PRACTITIONERS’ VIEWS ON THE ACCEPTABILITY OF USING QUALITY INDICATORS TO REDUCE UNNECESSARY PRESCRIPTION OF ANTIBIOTICS IN SOUTH-AMERICA

Introduction and Objective Use of quality indicators has been advocated to be a good tool to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics. Quality improvement is context dependent, thus we aimed to explore GPs views about the acceptability of using quality indicators to reduce the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics in patients with suspected Respiratory Tract Infections (RTIs) across 4 countries in South-America. Method In March 2015, General Practitioners (GPs) from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay participating in a quality improvement program were invited to participate in focus groups in which a previously developed discussion guide was followed. Data was analyzed through systematic text condensation with an inductive approach Results and conclusions 171 GPs were invited to the focus groups and 48 % participated. There were not statistically significant differences between those attending or not de focus groups. The breadth of acceptability ranged from totally acceptable to slightly acceptable. The reasons behind this can be classified into the following domains: a) Health system barriers and facilitators, b) GPs as a professional group, c) Decision-making process and d) doctor-patient relationship. In general, there was a positive view toward the use of quality indicators as a tool to help GPs to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics. Nonetheless, applicability challenges arisen from the above-mentioned domains have to be taken into consideration and hopefully sorted out in order to consider the use of quality indicators an effective tool to be implemented in General Practice within the South-American context.