Antimicrobial stewardship is increasingly recognized as an important part of quality healthcare. One area of focus for the stewardship program at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak is through participation in the Michigan Hospital Medicine Safety Consortium, an effort to improve care for hospitalized medical patients at risk for adverse events. HMS has previously worked on reducing overuse of PICC lines and decreasing rates of venous thromboembolic events, and has now turned to antibiotic stewardship.
The initial efforts are focused on reducing antibiotic use/overuse in pneumonia and urinary tract infections. The specific goals for 2018 are:
- fewer than 40 percent of all positive urine cultures be from asymptomatic bacteriuria patients
- fewer than 80 percent of asymptomatic bacteriuria patients receive antibiotics
- greater than 20 percent of cases with uncomplicated community acquired pneumonia receive only five days of antibiotics
The stewardship team’s focus for these metrics will be on educating providers, chart audits, provider notification of improvement opportunities (Urinary Tract Infection) (Pneumonia) and problem solving options through the electronic medical record. If you have questions, please contact Paul Chittick at paul.chittick@beaumont.edu.