Physicians' utilization of microbiologic reports and determinants of their preference to order culture in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Of the total 369 patients observed, 91 (24.7%) had microbiologic reports (culture and gram stain). About 12% of the patients had culture reports of which majority (77.8%) were available after 72 h of the initial antibiotic start. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was done for 83.3% of the positive cultures. Although 99.5% of the patients were initially placed on empiric therapy, adjustment was done in 114 (30.9%) of the patients. Among these patients with adjusted therapy, changes were unrelated to microbiologic reasons in 103 (90.4%) patients. None of these changes were for the reason of streamlining therapy. Prolonged hospital stay (AOR = 2.9, 95% CI 1.2-6.7), senior physician consultation (AOR = 4.1, 95% CI 1.1-17.7) and suspicion of new site of infection (AOR = 2.6, 95% CI 1.1-6.2) were positive independent predictors for physicians' preference in ordering culture.