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# ‘Alarmingly High’ Antibiotic Scripts Not Infection Related
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/alarmingly-high-antibiotic-scripts-not-infection-related/
- Published: 2020-02-06T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T16:02:05.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5146033

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and Northwestern University say their evaluation of hundreds of millions of antibiotic prescriptions dispensed to Medicaid recipients “revealed an alarmingly high proportion of prescriptions that were not infection-related or visit based.” Writing in *Health Affairs*, the researchers [say](https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/pdf/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00545?ref=fdaweb.com) that identifying the risks associated with such prescribing and designing interventions to improve the quality of antibiotic care will be important priorities for future study.

“From a policy standpoint,” they conclude, “current antibiotic stewardship recommendations and programs are missing a huge proportion of antibiotic prescribing.”

The report says that among 298 antibiotic fills (62% for children) for 53 million patients, 55% were for clinician visits with an infection-related diagnosis, 17% were for clinician visits without an infection-related diagnosis, and 28% were not associated with a visit.