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CompletedNCT05226260SSTIBEUpdated Apr 8, 2025

Decreasing Antibiotic Duration for Skin and Soft Tissue Infection Using Behavioral Economics in Primary Care

An interventional study of Default Duration order Panel in Cellulitis, Abscess and Drain Abscess, sponsored by Nationwide Children's Hospital. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 3 Months to 99 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-04-08.

Sponsored by Nationwide Children's Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
1,634
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
3 Months to 99 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Study the efficacy of a package of behavioral economics strategies (versus an education-only control condition) in altering clinician behavior regarding antibiotic prescription duration for skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI).

Read the detailed description

The investigators propose a prospective, cluster randomized trial of Epic order panels in the 14 Nationwide Children's Hospital (NCH) primary care clinics. Investigators have designed user-friendly Epic order panels from which providers may select guideline concordant antibiotics by simply typing in a diagnosis (cellulitis) or antibiotic name. These order panels are prepopulated with the default, short-course (guideline-concordant) antibiotic duration, saving clinicians several clicks within the electronic medical record (EMR). If a provider changes the prescribed duration from the one defaulted, a free text box will appear for them to write an acknowledgement reason (accountable justification). All 14 clinics will receive baseline education (control condition) about common infections and local and national guidelines for antibiotic choice and duration of treatment. Clinician prescribers will also be instructed about the presence of a basic order panel. The full functionality of the default [short/desired] duration order panel will only be released to intervention clinics. The order panels will be restricted in Epic to clinics randomized to the intervention. The investigators hypothesize that clinics with the intervention will have higher rates of short course antibiotics for SSTI versus control clinics.

02

Conditions studied

  • Cellulitis
  • Abscess
  • Drain Abscess
  • Impetigo
  • Skin Infection
  • Antibiotic Duration
  • Behavioral Economics
03

In context

Cellulitis

160 studies on the registry are indexed under Cellulitis; 14 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 1,634 is above the median of 157 across 124 interventional studies indexed under Cellulitis.

Browse Cellulitis studies →

Lead sponsor

Nationwide Children's Hospital is the lead sponsor of 233 studies on the registry; 43 are open to participants now.

Of its 17 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 9 (53%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
3 Months to 99 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • diagnosis codes A46 (cellulitis), L03 (cellulitis and acute lymphangitis), J34 or L02 (abscess, furuncle), or L01 (impetigo) AND
  • those who received a prescription for an enteral antibiotic
  • patient's treated in Nationwide Children's Hospital primary care clinics

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients less than 3 months of age
  • Animal bite
  • Human bite
  • Foreign body
  • Diagnosis of hidradenitis suppurativa
  • Immunocompromising conditions (primary immune deficiency, chemotherapy, etc)
  • burns
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Triple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator)
Enrollment
1,634 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Intervention

    Intervention clinics receiving fully functional Epic order panel with set default \[short\] duration by diagnosis: for cellulitis and drained abscess, 5 days. For impetigo and undrained abscess, 7 days.

    Behavioral: Default Duration order Panel

  • No intervention
    Control

    Control clinics receiving basic Epic order panel with antibiotic doses by diagnosis but duration free text (must be entered manually by clinician prescriber).

Interventions

  • BehavioralDefault Duration order Panel

    The SSTI order panel will present itself when a provider types in either a drug name or diagnosis (cellulitis, impetigo, etc). Clinicians in control clinics will have access to a basic order panel which will include diagnosis and corresponding antibiotic of choice. Clinicians in intervention clinics will have access to order panels with the following additional components: prepopulated order duration fields that default to the recommended treatment duration.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Rate of short antibiotics

    Rates of long and short antibiotics will be analyzed on the clinic and provider level for both intervention and control groups

    Time frame: 12 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Nationwide Children's Hospital Primary Care Clinics
    Columbus, Ohio 43205, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Broussard KA, Chaparro JD, Erdem G, Abdel-Rasoul M, Stevens J, Watson JR. Default Antibiotic Order Durations for Skin and Soft Tissue Infections in Outpatient Pediatrics: A Cluster Randomized Trial. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2025 Jan 20;14(1):piae127. doi: 10.1093/jpids/piae127. PubMed 39665614 ↗

Study documents

PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 8, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05226260
Responsible party
Joshua Watson (Principal Investigator, Nationwide Children's Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
Feb 7, 2022
Start date
Nov 1, 2021
Primary completion
Jan 20, 2025
Completion
Jan 20, 2025
Last update
Apr 8, 2025

Study contacts

Kali Broussard, MD
principal investigator · Nationwide Children's Hospital
Joshua Watson, MD
principal investigator · Nationwide Children's Hospital

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Apr 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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