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

...terventions

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


...ainst relying solely on didactic educationa...


...rison of Preauthorization and Prospecti...


...suggest antibiotic stewardship programs...


...suggest ASPs implement interventions to...


...ecommend antibiotic stewardship interventions...


...se of strategies (e.g., antibiotic...


...est incorporation of computerized clinical...


...gest against the use of antibiotic cycli...


Optimization

...imizatio...

...end that hospitals implement pharmacokine...


...gest the same for vancomycin. (W - Wea...


...ized patients, we suggest ASPs advo...


...recommend ASPs implement programs to increas...


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


...that ASPs implement guidelines and strategi...


Microbiology and Laboratory Diagnostics

...crobiology and Laboratory Diag...

...development of stratified antibiograms over...


...ggest selective and cascade reporting of an...


...uggest the use of rapid viral testing for re...


...t rapid diagnostic testing in addit...


...s with suspected infection, we suggest the us...


...ith hematologic malignancy at risk of contra...


Measurement

...surement...

...nitoring antibiotic use as measured by days of...


...suring antibiotic costs based on prescri...


...hat consider the goals and size of the...


...le Metrics for Evaluation of Interventions t...


Special Populations

...l Populations...

...est ASPs develop facility-specific guidelines fo...


...gest implementation of ASP intervention...


...homes and skilled nursing facilit...


...suggest implementation of antibiotic stewa...


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