Nursing Home Infections
Publication Date: December 9, 2020
Key Points
Key Points
- Antibiotics are among the most common medications prescribed in nursing homes.
- The annual prevalence of antibiotic use in residents of nursing homes ranges from 47% to 79%. More than half of antibiotic courses initiated in nursing home settings are unnecessary or prescribed inappropriately (wrong drug, dose, or duration).
- Inappropriate antibiotic use is associated with a variety of negative consequences including Clostridioides difficile (formerly Clostridium difficile) infection, adverse drug effects, drug-drug interactions, and antimicrobial resistance.
- In response to this problem, public health authorities have called for efforts to improve the quality of antibiotic prescribing in nursing homes.
- The guidance1 is intended to reflect an assessment of the strength of association between bacterial infections and geriatric manifestations and should not be used as the basis for excluding a diagnosis of respiratory viral pathogens.
Management
...Managem...
...Symptoms That Should Prom...
Fever The authors recommend that criteria...
...The authors recommend that clinicians use t...
...The authors recommend that clinicians define hy...
...mia Individualized approach. The authors...
...um The authors recommend that clinici...
Practical Suggestions for Evaluation of Nursing Home Residents with Non-Localizing Signs or Symptoms
...Practical Suggestions...
...A New-onset symptom, present...
...New-onset symptom, presenting in...
Isolated Symptoms that Should NOT Prompt Further Evaluation for Infection
...Iso...
...ral Changes Exclusive of Delirium The author...
...tional Decline The authors do NOT recommen...
...hors do NOT recommend that clinicians evaluat...
...orexia The authors do NOT recom...
Source
...1 Rowe TA, et al. (2020). Reliability of non-loca...