Objectives. - To describe trends in antibiotic use between 2006 and 2008 in French healthcare facilities and to examine how these trends relate to policies on the appropriate use of antibiotics. Method.- Use of standardized reports on activities to combat nosocomial infections from 2006 to 2008 (antibiotic consumption, healthcare facilities’ policies on the appropriate use of antibiotics). Analysis of trends using linear regression for correlated data with a random intercept at the healthcare facility level, adjusting antibiotic consumption for the legal status and activity of the facilities. Results. - After excluding healthcare facilities not covered by the composite indicator of appropriate antibiotic use (ICATB) (7.2%), null or missing values (21.2%), or outliers (23.4%), the analysis included 4,062 observations (48.2%). Between 2006 and 2008, overall antibiotic consumption was 343 defined daily doses (DDD) per 1,000 hospital days (HD) and varied little. However, the multivariate analysis showed an increase of 5.7 ADDs/1,000 HD per year (p < 0.001), and there was a positive association between antibiotic consumption and the ICATB score, particularly its ICATB-action and ICATB-organization subscores. Conclusion. - The lack of a decrease in hospital antibiotic consumption is consistent with other available national data, but the exclusion of a significant portion of the data limits the scope of this analysis. The relationships between rational antibiotic use policies and antibiotic consumption remain difficult to clarify, due to the limited follow-up period (three years) and the composite nature of the ICATB indicator, which only partially reflects rational antibiotic use policies. (R.A.)