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

...Intervent...

...preauthorization and/or prospective a...


...suggest against relying solely on didactic...


...1. Comparison of Preauthorization and Prospec...


...antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs)...


...ASPs implement interventions to improve an...


...ntibiotic stewardship interventions de...


...use of strategies (e.g., antibiotic t...


...est incorporation of computerized clinica...


...against the use of antibiotic cycling as...


Optimization

...Optimization...

...at hospitals implement pharmacokin...


and suggest the same for vancomycin. (W - Wea...


...ed patients, we suggest ASPs advoca...


...mend ASPs implement programs to increase both appr...


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


...nd that ASPs implement guidelines and strate...


Microbiology and Laboratory Diagnostics

...Microbiology a...

...st development of stratified antibiogra...


...selective and cascade reporting of anti...


...e suggest the use of rapid viral testing for...


...diagnostic testing in addition to co...


...s with suspected infection, we suggest t...


...n patients with hematologic malignancy a...


Measurement

...Measurement...

...nitoring antibiotic use as measured by d...


...recommend measuring antibiotic costs base...


...consider the goals and size of th...


...ible Metrics for Evaluation of Intervent...


Special Populations

...Special Populatio...

...ASPs develop facility-specific guideline...


...est implementation of ASP interventions to improv...


...nursing homes and skilled nursing facilit...


...plementation of antibiotic stewards...


...n terminally ill patients, we suggest ASPs provi...