While much effort on the critical issue of antibiotic resistance focuses on the inpatient setting, UHF's Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship Initiative Stage I—started in February 2016 with $310,000 in UHF funding—engaged hospital-owned outpatient practices in analyzing prescribing practices and developing action plans based on CDC Core Strategies. Data was collected from 31 clinics across nine health systems in New York City, revealing revealing considerable variation in prescribing practices for adult patients with acute respiratory infections (ARIs), even within a single health system.
Stage II will build on that work and assist participants to develop best practices as they design, implement, and evaluate their own strategies to decrease overuse and misuse of antibiotics, specifically for adults with acute respiratory infections. Seven hospitals and health systems, with a total of 35 outpatient sites, are involved:
Medisys Health Network (10 sites)
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (5 sites)
Montefiore Medical Center (6 sites)
Mount Sinai Health System (2 sites)
NewYork-Presbyterian/Queens (5 sites)
NYU Langone (5 sites)
Wyckoff Heights Medical Center (2 sites)