In collaboration with the Greater New York Hospital Association
A multidisciplinary team-based approach is helping hospitals and nursing homes advance their antibiotic stewardship programs to ensure more judicious prescribing.
Antibiotic resistance and the need to control multi-drug-resistant organisms, particularly in health care settings, are among the major issues confronting health care providers today. With studies showing that up to 50 percent of antibiotic use is inappropriate, antibiotic stewardship has become a top federal priority as well; the Obama administration announced a National Action Plan on the issue in March 2015.
To help combat the serious problem of antibiotic-resistant organisms in greater New York area health care systems, United Hospital Fund and the Greater New York Hospital Association created the Antibiotic Stewardship Certificate Program in 2015. The program, which was supported by grants from UHF, used a multidisciplinary team-based approach to help hospitals take their antibiotic management programs to a more advanced level.
In the program’s first phase, each participating hospital assigned a team to assess their institution’s current antibiotic stewardship program, including an analysis of barriers to optimal antibiotic use. In addition, the program partnered with the New York State Council of Health–System Pharmacists to offer three sessions of an Antibiotic Stewardship Certificate Program to clinical teams from GNYHA’s member hospitals (usually an infectious disease physician and a clinical pharmacist). One hundred and forty-eight clinicians from 52 hospitals completed the certificate program—and returned to their hospitals to implement core strategies based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s publication Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs. Hospital teams also participated in UHF/GNYHA-sponsored educational webinars on antibiotic stewardship implementation strategies and shared experiences with other hospitals to encourage peer-to-peer learning.
In the program’s second phase, UHF and GNYHA expanded this work to the nursing home setting, offering a certificate program and additional educational programming focused specifically on the judicious use of antibiotics in those facilities. Approximately 40 nursing homes participated in the June 2017 certificate program.
Contact: Joan Guzik