The majority of patients were referred to the hospital by general practitioners or primary care pediatricians due to respiratory tract infections (RTI) (Table 2). Among RTI cases, the most common diagnoses were: pneumonia (82 %), bronchitis (10 %), bronchiolitis (2 %), tonsillitis (1 %), laryngitis (2 %), sinusitis (2 %), and otitis media (1 %). The second biggest cause of admission to the hospital was gastrointestinal infection: gastroenterocolitis of unknown etiology (51 %), gastroenterocolitis of rotavirus or adenovirus etiology (36 %), and gastroenterocolitis of bacterial etiology (13 %). After the implementation of HAP, the proportion of children with RTI treated with antibiotics significantly decreased (91 % vs. 86 %, p < 0.05). The proportions of patients receiving antibiotics for the treatment of other infections (e.g., urinary tract or gastrointestinal infections) remained unchanged (p > 0.05). The total proportion of patients treated with antibiotics was significantly reduced after the implementation of HAP (72 % vs. 65 %, p < 0.05) (Table 2).

None of the restricted antibiotics (including glycopeptides or monobactams) were used either before or after HAP’s implementation (Table 3). After implementation of HAP, a decreased use of ceftriaxone and cefuroxime was observed. The most commonly used antibiotic was amoxicillin with clavulanic acid (Table 3). The DU100% remained the same before and after implementation of HAP (8 antibiotics), while DU90% increased after implementation of HAP (5 vs. 3 antibiotics) (Table 4).