In a recent post to the reSOURCEs section of its public website, HealthTrust focused in on Boston Medical Center's pharmacy-based antimicrobial stewardship team.
The roll out of the program began in 2004, according to the post, with one of it's first initiatives being to revise the antibiotic restriction policy.
Since then, the team has created 17 specific clinical pathways for conditions such as
- Skin/Soft tissue infections
- Urinary Tract Infections
- Acute Bacterial Meningitis
- Pelvic Inflammatory Disease.
All of these pathways are available to BMC staff on the Internet and the hospital's EHR.
With guidelines, pathways and policies set, what is next for the team?
Patient-level recommendations and employing a prospective audit and feedback method.
Chief Pharmacy Officer at BMC, David Twitchell, noted on the program's future.
"At first, the antimicrobial stewardship program was largely retrospective, big-picture review of past usage and misadventures, trying to education people to do better in the future...Today, we're targeting areas of misuse, and reports issued each morning enable Dana and Kelly to immediately intervene."
Dana Whitney and Kelly Wright are on the program's core team.
To read more about BMC and its program, click here.