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© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ Group.Aim To integrate the quantitative and qualitative data collected as part of the PEACH (Procalcitonin: Evaluation of Antibiotic use in COVID-19 Hospitalised patients) study, which evaluated whether procalcitonin (PCT) testing should be used to guide antibiotic prescribing and safely reduce antibiotic use among patients admitted to acute UK National Health Service (NHS) hospitals. Design Triangulation to integrate quantitative and qualitative data. Setting and participants Four data sources in 148 NHS hospitals in England and Wales including data from 6089 patients. Method A triangulation protocol was used to integrate three quantitative data sources (survey, organisation-level data and patient-level data: data sources 1, 2 and 3) and one qualitative data source (clinician interviews: data source 4) collected as part of the PEACH study. Analysis of data sources initially took place independently, and then, key findings for each data source were added to a matrix. A series of interactive discussion meetings took place with quantitative, qualitative and clinical researchers, together with patient and public involvement (PPI) representatives, to group the key findings and produce seven statements relating to the study objectives. Each statement and the key findings related to that statement were considered alongside an assessment of whether there was agreement, partial agreement, dissonance or silence across all four data sources (convergence coding). The matrix was then interpreted to produce a narrative for each statement. Objective To explore whether PCT testing safely reduced antibiotic use during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results Seven statements were produced relating to the PEACH study objective. There was agreement across all four data sources for our first key statement, € During the first wave of the pandemic (01/02/2020-30/06/2020), PCT testing reduced antibiotic prescribing'. The second statement ... |