Just 64 percent of hospitals had an antimicrobial stewardship program in place in 2011, according to results from a nationwide survey published in the January edition of Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
Survey results were based on responses from 1,015 hospitals to an online survey in fall 2011. Hospitals were asked if they had a policy regarding antimicrobial stewardship and, if they did, they were asked to indicate their specific policies.
Below are five more key findings from the survey:
- Of the 64 percent of hospitals that had a policy in place, 83 percent provided clinicians with hospital- or unit-based antibiograms and 65 percent had antimicrobial restriction policies in place
- Policies like requiring a consult prior to prescribing antibiotics (35 percent) or requiring that prescribers specify an indication for antimicrobial orders (23 percent) were reported less often
- Hospitals in California were more likely to have an antimicrobial policy in place than hospitals in any other state
- Larger, urban or teaching hospitals were more likely to have a policy in place
- Having a full-time medical director of hospital epidemiologist and/or infection preventionist certified in infection control was also associated with having a policy in place