CDC draft antibiotic stewardship checklist: Is there a doctor in the house?

January 12th, 2015

All hospitals should take action to improve antibiotic use by implementing an antimicrobial stewardship program, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends in draft guidelines outlined recently in in Atlanta at a meeting of the CDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee.

With the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the threat of untreatable infections, stewardship programs to carefully monitor and control drug use have become a top public health priority

A proposed stewardship checklist discussed at the meeting includes six questions for hospitals:

1. Does this facility have a physician leader identified to optimize antibiotic use?

2. Does this facility have a pharmacist leader identified to optimize antibiotic use?

3. Does facility leadership support efforts to optimize antibiotic use at this facility?

4. Is there at least one intervention to optimize antibiotic use integrated into clinical care at this facility?

5. Does this facility monitor antibiotic use?

6. Is information on optimizing antibiotic use provided to prescribers at least annually?

For more on this story see the December 2013 issue of Hospital Infection Control & Prevention