Fifty hospitals across 24 states that are members of Premier, Inc., a healthcare improvement company, have formed a collaborative to fight the growing threat of antibiotic resistance.
The antimicrobial stewardship collaborative aims to reduce patient harms specifically associated with inappropriate use of redundant combinations of intravenous antibiotics. The collaborative has three main goals:
- Reduce at least one of the potentially inappropriate IV redundant antibiotic drug combinations by 20 percent
- Use an antibiotic "time out"
- Adopt or advance at least three of the CDC's Core Elements for Hospital Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs by June 30, 2016
"Patient harm from hospital-acquired infections and adverse drug events, antibiotic resistance and excesses costs can all be serious consequences of inappropriate antibiotic therapy," said Dayna McManus, PharmD, infectious diseases clinical pharmacy specialist at Inova Fairfax (Va.) Medical Center. "In joining this effort, we will work with fellow Premier member hospitals to share data and define evidence-based practices, pinpoint opportunities for improvement and assess our progress in reducing antibiotic resistance."
Hospitals in the collaborative are limited to members of Premier's QUEST quality improvement collaborative.
"These leading hospitals are leveraging [research from the CDC and Premier] to target and implement real-world change, as well as share lessons learned, metrics developed and best practices gleaned from the collaborative that will serve to broadly inform healthcare providers," said Gina Pugliese, RN, vice president of the Premier Safety Institute.