Variation in antibiotic use among neonatal intensive care units in the United States

Author(s):  
Hillary J.J. Spencer ◽  
Keerti L. Dantuluri ◽  
Cary Thurm ◽  
Hannah Griffith ◽  
Carlos G. Grijalva ◽  
...  

Abstract Antibiotics are widely used in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of antibiotic use across US NICUs to evaluate overall, broad-spectrum, and combination antibiotic use. Patterns of antibiotic use varied by medical versus surgical service line, hospital, and geographic location.

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (05) ◽  
pp. 484-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashish Gupta ◽  
Martin Keszler

Objective To provide current data on ventilation practices and use of volume-targeted ventilation (VTV) in neonatal intensive care units of the United States and Canada, to identify the perceived barriers to the implementation of VTV, and to assess the knowledge base of appropriate initial tidal volume (VT ) settings for different hypothetical clinical scenarios. Study Design This was a cross-sectional online survey of individual neonatologists practicing in the United States and Canada. Results We received 387 responses (estimated response rate: ∼20%). Use of VTV was much higher in Canada (81%) compared with 39% in the United States. In the United States, VTV use is highest in the Northwest at 77% and lowest in the Northeast at 32.5%. The chief barrier to use of VTV was lack of knowledge about VTV and lack of appropriate equipment. The five clinical scenarios revealed that the majority of responders failed to select appropriate evidence-based VT for the specific scenario. Conclusion Pressure-controlled ventilation remains the predominant approach to neonatal ventilation in the United States, while VTV is the preferred mode in Canada. Despite available data and important pathophysiological differences between patients, there is insufficient understanding of how to choose an appropriate VT in a variety of common clinical scenarios among users of VTV.


2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mansooreh Azzizadeh Forouzi ◽  
Marjan Banazadeh ◽  
Jila Soltan Ahmadi ◽  
Farideh Razban

Objective: Neonatal nurses face numerous barriers in providing end-of-life (EOL) care for neonates and their families. Addressing neonatal nurses’ attitudes could provide insight into barriers that impede neonatal palliative care (NPC). This study thus conducted to examine neonatal nurses’ attitude toward barriers in providing NPC in Southeast Iran. Method: In this cross-sectional study, a translated modified version of Neonatal Palliative Care Attitude Scale was used to examine attitudes of 70 nurses toward barriers of palliative care in 3 neonatal intensive care units in Southeast Iran. Results: Findings indicated that overall 42.63% of nurses were strongly agreed or agreed with the proposed barriers in NPC. Among all categories, the highest and the lowest scores belonged to the categories of “insufficient resources” (3.42 ± 0.65) and “inappropriate personal and social attitudes” (2.33 ± 0.48), respectively. Neonatal nurses who had less education and study regarding NPC reported the presence of more barriers to NPC in the categories of “inappropriate organizational culture” and/or “inadequate nursing proficiency.” Also, younger nurses had more positive attitudes toward the category of inappropriate organizational culture as being a barrier to provision of NPC (4.62). Conclusion: The findings suggest that developing a context-based instrument is required to represent the barrier more precisely. Neonatal palliative care can be improved by establishing a special environment to focus on infants’ EOL care. This establishment requires standard palliative care guidelines and adequate NPC-trained nurses.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 659-668
Author(s):  
Joshua W. Branstetter ◽  
Leanna Barker ◽  
April Yarbrough ◽  
Shannon Ross ◽  
Jeremy S. Stultz

The goals of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are to optimize antimicrobial prescribing habits in order to improve patient outcomes, reduce antimicrobial resistance, and reduce hospital costs. Multiple society-endorsed guidelines and government policies reinforce the importance of ASP implementation. Effective antimicrobial stewardship can impact unique patients, hospitals, and societal antibiotic-resistance burden. The role and subsequent success of these programs has largely been reported in the adult population. Pediatric and neonatal intensive care units present unique challenges for traditional antimicrobial stewardship approaches. The purpose of this review article is to explore the challenges of appropriate antibiotic use in the pediatric and neonatal intensive care units and to summarize strategies ASPs can use to overcome these challenges. These problems include non-specific disease presentations, limited evidence for definitive treatment durations in many pediatric infections, fewer pediatric-trained infectious disease physicians, and applicability of intensive laboratory obtainment, collection, and interpretation. Additionally, many ASP implementation studies evaluating the efficacy of ASPs exclude the PICU and NICU. Areas of focus for pediatric ASPs should likely include appropriate antibiotic initiation, appropriate antibiotic duration, and appropriate antibiotic de-escalation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 171 (3) ◽  
pp. e164396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey D. Horbar ◽  
Erika M. Edwards ◽  
Lucy T. Greenberg ◽  
Kate A. Morrow ◽  
Roger F. Soll ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 1531-1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timofey L. Galankin ◽  
Alexey S. Kolbin ◽  
Sergey V. Sidorenko ◽  
Alexey A. Kurylev ◽  
Elena A. Malikova ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaveh Eslami ◽  
Fateme Aletayeb ◽  
Seyyed Mohammad Hassan Aletayeb ◽  
Leila Kouti ◽  
Amir Kamal Hardani

Abstract Background This study aimed to assess the types and frequency of medication errors in our NICUs (neonatal intensive care units). Methods This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on two neonatal intensive care units of two hospitals over 3 months. Demographic information, drug information and total number of prescriptions for each neonate were extracted from medical records and assessed. Results A total of 688 prescriptions for 44 types of drugs were checked for the assessment of medical records of 155 neonates. There were 509 medication errors, averaging (SD) 3.38 (+/− 5.49) errors per patient. Collectively, 116 neonates (74.8%) experienced at least one medication error. Term neonates and preterm neonates experienced 125 and 384 medication errors, respectively. The most frequent medication errors were wrong dosage by physicians in prescription phase [WU1] (142 errors; 28%) and not administering medication by nurse in administration phase (146 errors; 29%). Of total 688 prescriptions, 127 errors were recorded. In this regard, lack of time and/or date of order were the most common errors. Conclusions The most frequent medication errors were wrong dosage and not administering the medication to patient, and on the quality of prescribing, lack of time and/or date of order was the most frequent one. Medication errors happened more frequently in preterm neonates (P < 0.001). We think that using computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system and increasing the nurse-to-patient ratio can reduce the possibility of medication errors.


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