November 15, 2011
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CDC launches new antibiotic tracking system for hospitals

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As part of this year’s “Get Smart About Antibiotics Week,” from Nov. 14-20, the CDC is launching a new antibiotic tracking system that allows hospitals to monitor antibiotic use electronically.

Officials at the CDC said they are hoping this system will help health care providers make better decisions about how to improve use and compare themselves to other hospitals. Before this new tracking system, the CDC was only able to track antibiotic use in doctors’ offices.

“Antibiotic use leads to antibiotic resistance, which is a major public health problem,” Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the CDC, said in a press release. “Hospitals and other health care facilities should monitor the antibiotics used in their facilities. This new system is a powerful tool that will enhance providers’ ability to monitor and improve patterns of antibiotic use so that these essential drugs will still be effective in the years to come.”

The antibiotic use tracking system is part of the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network, a tool that includes more than 4,800 hospitals and is used for monitoring infections in health care facilities. The CDC has funded four health departments and their academic partners to implement the tracking system in 70 hospitals. Any hospital that participates in the National Healthcare Safety Network can utilize this tool by working directly with its pharmacy software vendor to transmit data electronically from drug administration or bar coding records, according to an agency press release.

Arjun Srinivasan
Arjun Srinivasan

“The threat of untreatable infections is real,” Arjun Srinivasan, MD, head of the CDC’s Get Smart for Healthcare program, said in the release. “Although previously unthinkable, the day when antibiotics don’t work in all situations is upon us. We are already seeing germs that are stronger than any antibiotics we have to treat them, including some infections in health care settings.”

This week’s campaign is an international collaboration that coincides with European Antibiotic Awareness Day and Canada’s Antibiotic Awareness Week. In addition, the CDC is part of the Federal Interagency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, which is scheduled to meet this week in Washington, D.C., to discuss next steps toward meeting goals of the recently revised “A Public Health Action Plan to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance,” according to the CDC.

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