Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Monitoring antibiotic use cuts millions in wasteful spending, study finds

The research is published in the April issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, in a special topic issue focused on antimicrobial stewardship. Antimicrobial stewardship programs and interventions help prescribers know when antibiotics are needed and what the best treatment choices are for a particular patient.

According to the study, which evaluated a seven-year antimicrobial stewardship program at University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), the program eliminated $3 million from the hospital's annual budget for antimicrobials by its third year. After seven years, it had cut antibiotic spending per-patient day nearly in half. Cost savings were evident across hospital departments, including the cancer center, trauma center, surgical and medical intensive care units and transplant service.

Importantly, these savings did not compromise quality of patient care. The study found no increases in mortality, length of stay, or readmission to the hospital.

Despite its success, however, the program was terminated in 2008 in favor of providing more infectious diseases consults. The consequences of that decision were immediate. Antimicrobial costs increased by 32 percent—nearly $2 million—within two years after the program was terminated according to the research.

"Our results clearly show that an antimicrobial stewardship program like the one at UMMC is safe, effective, and makes good financial sense," said Harold Standiford, MD, medical director for antimicrobial effectiveness at UMMC and the study's lead author.

The central component of the UMMC program was an antimicrobial monitoring team (AMT) that included an infectious diseases physician and a clinical pharmacist with infectious diseases training. The AMT made daily rounds and provided real time monitoring of antimicrobial use with active intervention and education when changes in treatment were recommended. The team also provided leadership in discussions about changes to antibiotics on the formulary and the development of relative policies and guidelines.

When the program was terminated, the AMT was disbanded in favor of additional personnel who provided infectious diseases consults throughout the hospital including in areas caring for highly specialized patients. It was believed that these additional personnel, though decentralized, would provide appropriate stewardship and render the AMT redundant. That decision proved costly, however, and in light of this study's findings the medical center has restarted a modified stewardship program including an AMT.

"Our research shows that investing in stewardship not only helps preserve our dwindling antibiotic tools, it can also help to eliminate wasteful healthcare spending," Dr. Standiford said. "We believe it's an important lesson to keep in mind when considering the allocation of resources to stewardship programs."

SHEA is a professional society representing more than 2,000 physicians and other healthcare professionals around the world with expertise in healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control. SHEA's mission is to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections and advance the field of healthcare epidemiology. The society leads this field by promoting science and research and providing high-quality education and training in epidemiologic methods and prevention strategies. SHEA upholds the value and critical contributions of healthcare epidemiology to improving patient care and healthcare worker safety in all healthcare settings. Visit SHEA online at www.shea-online.org

Tamara Moore | EurekAlert!
Further information:
http://www.shea-online.org

Im Focus: Goodbye, silicon? On the way to new electronic materials with metal-organic networks

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz (Germany) together with scientists from Dresden, Leipzig, Sofia (Bulgaria) and Madrid (Spain) have now developed and characterized a novel, metal-organic material which displays electrical properties mimicking those of highly crystalline silicon. The material which can easily be fabricated at room temperature could serve as a replacement for expensive conventional inorganic materials used in optoelectronics.

Silicon, a so called semiconductor, is currently widely employed for the development of components such as solar cells, LEDs or computer chips. High purity...

Im Focus: Storage & Transport of highly volatile Gases made safer & cheaper by the use of “Kinetic Trapping"

Augsburg chemists present a new technology for compressing, storing and transporting highly volatile gases in porous frameworks/New prospects for gas-powered vehicles

Storage of highly volatile gases has always been a major technological challenge, not least for use in the automotive sector, for, for example, methane or...

Im Focus: Disrupting crystalline order to restore superfluidity

When we put water in a freezer, water molecules crystallize and form ice. This change from one phase of matter to another is called a phase transition. While this transition, and countless others that occur in nature, typically takes place at the same fixed conditions, such as the freezing point, one can ask how it can be influenced in a controlled way.

We are all familiar with such control of the freezing transition, as it is an essential ingredient in the art of making a sorbet or a slushy. To make a cold...

Im Focus: Micro energy harvesters for the Internet of Things

Fraunhofer IWS Dresden scientists print electronic layers with polymer ink

Thin organic layers provide machines and equipment with new functions. They enable, for example, tiny energy recuperators. In future, these will be installed...

Im Focus: Dynamik einzelner Proteine

Neue Messmethode erlaubt es Forschenden, die Bewegung von Molekülen lange und genau zu verfolgen

Das Zusammenspiel aus Struktur und Dynamik bestimmt die Funktion von Proteinen, den molekularen Werkzeugen der Zelle. Durch Fortschritte in der...