Antibiotic Stewardship

Publication Date: April 13, 2016

Background

Background

Approaches to optimize the use of both existing antibiotics and newly developed antibiotics are of critical importance to ensure that we continue to reap their benefits and provide the best care to patients.

Antibiotic stewardship has been defined as “coordinated interventions designed to improve and measure the appropriate use of antibiotic agents by promoting the selection of the optimal antibiotic drug regimen including dosing, duration of therapy, and route of administration.”

The benefits of antibiotic stewardship include improved patient outcomes, reduced adverse events including Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), improvement in rates of antibiotic susceptibilities to targeted antibiotics, and optimization of resource utilization across the continuum of care.

IDSA and SHEA strongly believe that antibiotic stewardship programs are best led by infectious disease physicians with additional stewardship training.

Interventions

Interventio...

...recommend preauthorization and/or prospective au...


...st relying solely on didactic educational materia...


...son of Preauthorization and Prospective A...


...st antibiotic stewardship programs (ASP...


...t ASPs implement interventions to imp...


...d antibiotic stewardship interventio...


...ggest the use of strategies (e.g., an...


...corporation of computerized clinical de...


...ainst the use of antibiotic cycling...


Optimization

Optimiza...

...mmend that hospitals implement phar...


...suggest the same for vancomycin. (W - Weak, L...


...talized patients, we suggest ASPs advocate for...


...recommend ASPs implement programs to incre...


...nts with a history of β-lactam allergy, we sug...


...hat ASPs implement guidelines and st...


Microbiology and Laboratory Diagnostics

Microbiology and Laboratory D...

...suggest development of stratified antibiograms ove...


...elective and cascade reporting of antib...


...gest the use of rapid viral testing for...


...d diagnostic testing in addition t...


...n adults in ICUs with suspected inf...


...th hematologic malignancy at risk...


Measurement

...easurement

...monitoring antibiotic use as measured by days...


...easuring antibiotic costs based on prescr...


...nsider the goals and size of the syndrome-speci...


...ble Metrics for Evaluation of Interventions to...


Special Populations

...pecial Population...

...gest ASPs develop facility-specific gui...


...lementation of ASP interventions to improve the ap...


...homes and skilled nursing facilities, we...


...lementation of antibiotic stewardship intervention...


...ally ill patients, we suggest ASPs pr...