Electronic medication systems simplify antimicrobial prescription review by clinical pharmacists and facilitate complex antimicrobial stewardship interventions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flaminia Olearo
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Stewardship ◽  
Clinical Pharmacists ◽  
Medication Systems ◽  
Antimicrobial Prescription

scholarly journals Impact of Antimicrobial Stewardship Interventions on Antimicrobial Utilization in Asymptomatic Bacteriuria

2019 ◽  
pp. 001857871988891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Punit J. Shah ◽  
Chiamaka Ike ◽  
Meghan Thibeaux ◽  
Emilyn Rodriguez ◽  
Shermel-Edwards Maddox ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Antimicrobial Stewardship ◽  
Antimicrobial Therapy ◽  
Asymptomatic Bacteriuria ◽  
Control Phase ◽  
Clinical Pharmacists ◽  
Antimicrobial Utilization ◽  
Positive Urine ◽  
Interdisciplinary Interventions ◽  
The Impact

Background: Antimicrobial therapy for asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) is often unnecessary and is a common reason for inappropriate antimicrobial use in hospitalized patients. Unnecessary ASB treatment leads to collateral damage such as resistance, and Clostridium difficile infections. This study evaluated the impact of interdisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship interventions on antimicrobial utilization in ASB. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental institutional review board (IRB)-approved study evaluating the impact of antimicrobial stewardship on antibiotic utilization for ASB in a pilot medical-surgical unit. The control phase was from August-October 2017 and the postintervention phase was from December-March 2018. In the control phase, electronic medical records of patients with positive urine cultures were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were classified as either having ASB or urinary tract infection (UTI) based on the absence or presence of UTI symptoms documented in the medical record. The intervention phase consisted of educational in-services to providers, nurses, and pharmacists. Clinical pharmacists for the pilot unit utilized an electronic real-time surveillance system to identify patients with positive urine cultures. With nurses’ collaboration, clinical pharmacists classified these patients as either having UTI or ASB. Stewardship interventions were made in real-time to discontinue antibiotics in patients with ASB. Results: There were 65 and 77 patients with bacteriuria in the pre- and postintervention phases. Among these, ASB was present in 29 (45%) and 27 (35%) patients, respectively. After excluding those receiving antibiotics for concurrent nonurinary indications, the combination of education with pharmacist and nursing interventions decreased unnecessary ASB treatment from 18 (62%) to 6 (22%) patients (relative risk: 0.36, 95% confidence interval: 0.16-0.72, P = .003). Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight the importance of interdisciplinary interventions in reducing unnecessary antimicrobial therapy for the treatment of ASB. With increasing antimicrobial resistance, healthcare institutions should evaluate the role of these interdisciplinary interventions to reduce unnecessary treatment for ASB.

scholarly journals Determinants of antimicrobial use practices among veterinary clinicians at The University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Eddie Ekakoro ◽  
Chika C Okafor
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Stewardship ◽  
Medical Center ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Antimicrobial Use ◽  
Antimicrobial Drugs ◽  
University Of Tennessee ◽  
Modifiable Factors ◽  
Cumulative Logit ◽  
The University ◽  
Antimicrobial Prescription

Background. Antimicrobial drugs in veterinary medical practice are primarily prescribed for the purposes of maintaining or improving health and increasing productivity. However, their value is being eroded by antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Indiscriminate use of antimicrobial drugs is suggested as one of the modifiable factors contributing to the development of AMR. To reduce indiscriminate use and to improve antimicrobial use, veterinary practices are encouraged to adopt good stewardship practices. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: to identify factors influencing clinician decisions to begin using antimicrobials as well as the choice of antimicrobials used at The University of Tennessee Veterinary Medical Center (UTVMC); to evaluate the practices, perceptions, opinions and concerns of veterinary clinicians at UTVMC concerning antimicrobial use, antimicrobial stewardship, and AMR. Methods. This study’s protocol was approved by the University of Tennessee Knoxville IRB for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research. Survey software was used to send a questionnaire to 121 eligible participants, where all were UTVMC faculty with clinical appointments and house officers. Cumulative logit models were fitted to investigate associations between categorical explanatory variables and ordinal response variables. Results. A response rate of 51.24% was achieved. Of the 62 respondents, 47 (75.81%) reported that bacteriological culture and antimicrobial susceptibility test results were extremely important in their antimicrobial prescription decision-making. Thirty-two (51.61%) respondents believed antimicrobials are being over-prescribed. The cephalosporin class was the most preferred antimicrobial class, while the lincosamide class was the least preferred. From the multivariable cumulative logit model, year of graduation from veterinary school (P = 0.034) and clinicians’ primary patient load (P = 0.009) were significantly associated with clinicians’ degree of concern about AMR. Conclusions and clinical relevance. The findings suggest a need for more awareness about AMR among veterinary clinicians. Improvements in antimicrobial stewardship are needed, especially among veterinary clinicians who graduated after 1999. Educational practices that target modification of antimicrobial prescription practices of veterinary clinicians would likely improve a Good Stewardship Practice (GSP) mindset. GSP is important in prolonging the efficacy of currently available antimicrobial drugs.

scholarly journals Mechanisms affecting the implementation of a national antimicrobial stewardship programme; multi-professional perspectives explained using Normalisation Process Theory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay Currie ◽  
Rebecca Laidlaw ◽  
Valerie Ness ◽  
Lucyna Gozdzielewska ◽  
William Malcom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Stewardship ◽  
Process Analysis ◽  
Process Theory ◽  
Normalisation Process Theory ◽  
Antibiotic Prescribing ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Clinical Pharmacists ◽  
Barriers And Enablers ◽  
Professional Perspectives ◽  
Health Boards

Abstract Background Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) describes activities concerned with safe-guarding antibiotics for the future, reducing drivers for the major global public health threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), whereby antibiotics are less effective in preventing and treating infections. Appropriate antibiotic prescribing is central to AMS. Whilst previous studies have explored the effectiveness of specific AMS interventions, largely from uni-professional perspectives, our literature search could not find any existing evidence evaluating the processes of implementing an integrated national AMS programme from multi-professional perspectives.Methods This study sought to explain mechanisms affecting the implementation of a national antimicrobial stewardship programme, from multi-professional perspectives. Data collection involved in-depth qualitative telephone interviews with 27 implementation lead clinicians from 14/15 Scottish Health Boards and 15 focus groups with doctors, nurses and clinical pharmacists (n=72) from five Health Boards, purposively selected for reported prescribing variation. Data was first thematically analysed, barriers and enablers were then categorised, and Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) was used as an interpretive lens to explain mechanisms affecting the implementation process. Analysis addressed the NPT questions ‘ which group of actors have which problems , in which domains, and what sort of problems impact on the normalisation of AMS into everyday hospital practice’ .Results Results indicated that major barriers relate to organisational context and resource availability. AMS had coherence for implementation leads and prescribing doctors; less so for consultants and nurses who may not access training. Conflicting priorities made obtaining buy-in from some consultants difficult; limited role perceptions meant few nurses or clinical pharmacists engaged with AMS. Collective individual and team action to implement AMS could be constrained by lack of medical continuity and hierarchical relationships. Reflexive monitoring based on audit results was limited by the capacity of AMS Leads to provide direct feedback to practitioners.Conclusions This study provides original evidence of barriers and enablers to the implementation of a national AMS programme, from multi-professional, multi-organisational perspectives. The use of a robust theoretical framework (NPT) added methodological rigour to the findings. Our results are of international significance to healthcare policy makers and practitioners seeking to strengthen the sustainable implementation of hospital AMS programmes in comparable contexts.

scholarly journals Potential Impact of the Involvement of Clinical Pharmacists in Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs on the Incidence of Antimicrobial-Related Adverse Events in Hospitalized Patients: A Multicenter Retrospective Study

Antibiotics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 853
Author(s):  
Yewon Suh ◽  
Young-Mi Ah ◽  
Ha-Jin Chun ◽  
Su-Mi Lee ◽  
Hyung-sook Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Stewardship ◽  
Antimicrobial Agents ◽  
Adverse Drug Events ◽  
Multivariate Logistic Regression Analysis ◽  
Hospitalized Patients ◽  
Teaching Hospitals ◽  
Hematologic Toxicity ◽  
Clinical Pharmacists ◽  
Tertiary Teaching ◽  
Potential Impact

Although specialized pharmacists have been suggested to be essential members of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs), not all hospitals in Korea operate ASPs with pharmacists involved. We aimed to evaluate the association of involvement of clinical pharmacists as team members of multidisciplinary ASPs with the incidence of antimicrobial-related adverse drug events (ADEs). Five tertiary teaching hospitals participated in this retrospective cohort study. At each participating hospital, we randomly selected 1000 participants among patients who had received systemic antimicrobial agents for more than one day during the first quarter of 2017. We investigated five categories of antimicrobial-related ADEs: allergic reactions, hematologic toxicity, nephrotoxicity, hepatotoxicity, and antimicrobial-related diarrhea. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the potential impact of pharmacist involvement in ASPs on the incidence of ADEs. A total of 1195 antimicrobial-related ADEs occurred in 618 (12.4%) of the 4995 patients included in the analysis. The overall rate of ADE occurrence was 17.4 per 1000 patient days. Hospitals operating ASPs with pharmacists showed significantly lower AE incidence proportions than other hospitals (8.9% vs. 14.7%; p < 0.001). Multidisciplinary ASPs that included clinical pharmacists reduced the risk of antimicrobial-related ADEs by 38% (adjusted odds ratio 0.62; 95% confidence interval 0.50–0.77). Our results suggest that the active involvement of clinical pharmacists in multidisciplinary ASPs may contribute to reduce the incidence of antimicrobial-related ADEs in hospitalized patients.

scholarly journals 1055. Addition of Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Weekend Coverage Increases Interventions while Reducing Antimicrobial Duration and Cost

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S372-S373
Author(s):  
Natasha N Pettit ◽  
Jennifer Pisano ◽  
Cynthia T Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Antimicrobial Stewardship ◽  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Total Duration ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Antimicrobial Stewardship Program ◽  
Clinical Pharmacists ◽  
Duration Of Therapy ◽  
Stewardship Program ◽  
Secondary Outcomes ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Expansion of Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) activities to include coverage of weekends has been shown to facilitate further optimization of antimicrobial usage. Beginning July 2018, we implemented full ASP coverage on weekends from 0700–1530 by infectious diseases (ID) clinical pharmacists and pharmacy residents. We sought to evaluate the impact of the addition of weekend ASP coverage on the number of interventions, antimicrobial duration and cost of target broad-spectrum antimicrobials. Methods Antimicrobials reviewed by ASP on a weekend day between July 14, 2018 and December 16, 2018 were included in the analysis. The primary outcome was the number and type of documented interventions associated with the antimicrobials reviewed. Secondary outcomes included the total duration of meropenem, daptomycin, and micafungin initiated on a weekend, estimated expenditures on these target broad-spectrum antimicrobials, and comparison of the average number of interventions performed per day by ID clinical pharmacists vs. pharmacy residents. For comparison, we also evaluated these secondary outcomes prior to ASP weekend coverage, between July 16, 2017 and December 9, 2017. Results A total of 688 antimicrobials were reviewed on weekend days during the included time-frame with 753 interventions (average number of interventions/day: 37). Table 1 summarizes the type of interventions. The acceptance rate for interventions was 99%. The average number of interventions per day for ID clinical pharmacists vs. pharmacy residents was 57.9 and 26.2, respectively. Table 2 shows the total duration of therapy (DOT) and total expenditures on target antimicrobials before and after ASP weekend coverage. The total DOT of target antimicrobials agents decreased from 21 days to 7 days, with an estimated 3,165 dollar decrease in expenditures during the included time-frame. Conclusion Expansion of ASP coverage to include weekends allowed us to provide 753 interventions over 4 months that would not otherwise have been made when no ASP coverage was available. This was associated with a reduction in broad-spectrum antimicrobial duration of therapy and expenditures when compared with weekends where ASP weekend coverage was not available. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.

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