1. This study aimed to describe the appropriateness of antibiotic prescriptions in emergency departments (EDs).
2. A retrospective observational study was conducted, involving patients who visited EDs and were prescribed at least one antibiotic during the study period.
3. The results showed that over a third of antibiotic prescriptions were deemed inappropriate, highlighting the need for measures to improve antibiotic prescription in order to prevent patient and community harm associated with antibiotics.
The article is generally reliable and trustworthy, as it provides a detailed description of the research methods used and presents the results in an unbiased manner. The authors have also provided a comprehensive discussion of their findings, which includes potential limitations such as the retrospective nature of the study and its reliance on expert opinion rather than evidence-based guidelines.
However, there are some areas where the article could be improved upon. For example, while the authors note that adults were more likely to receive inappropriate prescriptions than children, they do not provide any explanation for this difference or explore possible reasons why this might be the case. Additionally, while they mention that qSOFA criteria was used to assess appropriateness of prescriptions, they do not provide any further details about how this assessment was conducted or what criteria were used.
In conclusion, overall this article is reliable and trustworthy but could benefit from further exploration into certain aspects such as differences between adults and children in terms of appropriateness of prescriptions and details regarding qSOFA criteria assessment.