Antimicrobial stewardship program improved patient care, saved costs

Implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship program in a hospital with relatively few resources improved patient care and resulted in significant cost savings.

“Antimicrobial stewardship is an important strategy for improving patient safety, but many hospitals have limited resources to devote to antimicrobial stewardship,” John Michael Boyce, MD, of the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues wrote in the study abstract.

Boyce and colleagues initiated an antimicrobial stewardship program headed by a pharmacist and infectious disease physician at a 400-bed hospital with limited resources. The researchers assessed drug utilization and the use of high-cost piperacillin-tazobactam. An antimicrobial stewardship form for listing clinical data and recommendations was placed in patient charts; the pharmacist and physician provided recommendations to caregivers.

Compared with the previous year, the hospital experienced cost per adjusted patient-day reductions of:

22% for broad-spectrum agents.
20% for piperacillin-tazobactam.
19% for vancomycin.
11% for anti-infectives.
10% for levofloxacin.

In addition, the number of new, nosocomial Clostridium difficile diarrhea cases per 10,000 patient-days decreased by 28%; and 90% of hospital recommendations were accepted by caregivers.

For more information:

Boyce JM. #O41. Presented at: The International Conference on Prevention and Infection Control; June 29-July 2, 2011; Geneva.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.

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