Health Care Providers
The Antibiotics Problem:
Our Problem, Our Responsibility
This study was followed by a 2014 WebMd/Medscape survey that found a staggering 95% of US prescribers write for antibiotics when they are unclear if they are necessary. One third of this group admitted to writing antibiotics when unclear of their necessity at least 25% of the time.
Concurrently, the prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria as well as the incidence of complicated antibiotic-associated colitis has risen.
This table on reasons why patients request antibiotics is from the same survey:
A 2014 Brigham and Women’s study finding that providers write more antibiotic prescriptions in the afternoons than mornings suggested “decision fatigue” on the part of providers, many of whom state they are bombarded daily with patient requests for antibiotics. Some physician groups even recommend writing antibiotic prescriptions for viral URIs to satisfy the patient request and then discouraging them from filling their prescriptions. This is less than ideal.
It’s clear that we’re approaching a cliff with antibiotic resistance…Clinicians and health care systems need to improve prescribing practices. And patients need to recognize that there are both risks and benefits to antibiotics — more medicine isn’t best; the right medicine at the right time is best. CDC
According to the CDC, there are now 2 million drug resistant infections and 23,000 related deaths annually in the US. The WHO released a statement calling worldwide drug resistance, “an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society.” This was the societal level call to action around the EZC Pak. The EZC Pak is a physician-developed supplement for providers dealing with patient pressure for prescriptions they do not deem necessary. By providing a health care provider-directed tangible solution, we aim to assist providers with reducing inappropriate prescribing patterns while also maintaining or improving patient satisfaction. It is important to emphasize that the EZC Pak is not a substitute or replacement for any prescription drug or treatment, antibiotic or otherwise, when deemed appropriate by an individual’s treating physician or licensed medical provider.
E + ZC is recommended at higher frequency at initiation then subsequently tapered off over 5 days. The EZC Pak suggested use is as follows:
An extra E + ZC is provided in the pack for future use. By using high quality ingredients that are appropriately formulated, the EZC Pak is designed to be well tolerated and minimize side effects. Real time data is transparent and is available to you at ezcpak.com/data.
"With EZC Pak, you now have a quick, tangible, and evidence-based option when patients come to you expecting antibiotics that are not clinically indicated and you know they don’t need. Depending on healthcare system & your geography, 46-86% of antibiotics Rx’d for URIs do not meet clinical criteria for an Rx.
With EZC Pak, we’ve cut antibiotic prescribing to ~5% in patients who did not meet clinical criteria for a prescription at initial visit. At the same time, EZC Pak improved our patient satisfaction scores to a remarkable 95%. Ultimately, our professional satisfaction comes from doing the right thing and seeing patients get better."Sarath Malepati, MD, Medical Director, EZC Pak Creator