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Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent public health threat, and despite significant consumption of antimicrobials in pregnancy, there remain opportunities for improvement of their use in the obstetric population. Improvement in antimicrobial utilization can be streamlined by assessing baseline characteristics, utilization of diagnostic testing, awareness of peripartum protocols, and recognition of penicillin allergies. In a single healthcare system including 8 obstetric hospitals, an administrative review identified 199 different regimens used among 8,528 patients based on American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists (ACOG) guidelines. Other notable factors include 65.6% of patients having no cultures obtained despite being started on empiric antibiotics, duplicative coverage when multiple clinical scenarios overlap, and a high incidence of reported penicillin allergies with obstetric providers lacking comfort to reconcile and de-label allergies. By reviewing these individual aspects, this can highlight opportunities for improvement of antimicrobial use and stewardship in obstetric populations.
To evaluate performance of registered nurse assessments of the PEN-FAST penicillin allergy clinical decision rule compared to antimicrobial stewardship pharmacists.
This study took place across 4 inpatient hospitals within a large health system in Houston, Texas.
Methods:
We implemented PEN-FAST rule questions into the electronic health record (EHR) for registered nurses to perform. Patients were randomly selected in a prospective fashion, with nurse documented scores hidden, for re-assessment by antimicrobial stewardship pharmacists to compare risk stratification and scores.
Results:
Overall agreement of high risk and low risk results was 84.3%. Registered nurse evaluations with the PEN-FAST clinical decision rule for detecting a high-risk patient demonstrated a sensitivity of 67%, specificity of 89.8%, positive predictive value of 67.9%, and negative predictive value of 89.5%. Additionally, 34.4% of patients with a documented penicillin allergy admitted to tolerating amoxicillin or amoxicillin/clavulanate since their last recalled reaction to penicillin.
Conclusions:
Registered nurse assessment of the PEN-FAST clinical decision rule demonstrated good performance and can effectively be used to screen for low-risk penicillin allergy patients. Incorporation of the PEN-FAST rule into EHR can be scaled into large health systems to help appropriately stratify patients with low- and high-risk penicillin allergies and improve documentation.
Staphylococcus aureus bacteriuria (SABU) may represent bacteremia in a subset of patients. We describe the impact of a microbiology alert recommending follow-up blood cultures (FUBC) for patients with SABU in a large integrated health system.
Methods:
We conducted a quasi-experimental implementation study in adult ambulatory patients with documented SABU. We excluded patients with confirmed SAB up to 14 days prior to index SABU culture and with blood cultures obtained on the day of SABU. The primary outcome was rate of FUBC (collected between 1 and 5 days of SABU) among all cases of SABU. Secondary outcomes included percentage of patients with early SAB (collected between 1 and 5 days of SABU). We used interrupted time series analysis to compare rates of FUBC pre vs postintervention.
Results:
A total of 2 540 patients were identified; 1 213 (48%) were male. By the end of the postintervention period, the rate of FUBC (20.6%) had increased by 6.3 percentage points (P = .005) compared to the counterfactual (14.2%) had no intervention taken place (44.5% relative increase). Early SAB detection due to FUBC increased from .6% preintervention to 2.0% postintervention (P = .004).
Conclusion:
The microbiology alert initiative increased FUBC in patients with SABU by 44%, but the overall rate of FUBC remained low. The intervention increased early SAB detection. Risk-targeted strategies are needed to optimize FUBC collection in patients with SABU.
Routine immunization programs may reduce antibiotic use, but few studies have comprehensively examined their impact on antibiotic utilization. We aimed to explore temporal trends in vaccination and antibiotic use among young children in the United States.
Design:
Ecological study using the Merative® MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database.
Methods:
We analyzed claims data on pediatric vaccine uptake (pneumococcal conjugate, Haemophilus influenzae type b, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, and influenza) and antibiotic prescriptions and antibiotic-treated respiratory tract infections among US children <5 years during 2000–2019. Vaccination status was assessed annually, and children were categorized based on receipt of all four vaccines, 1–3 vaccines, or no vaccines. Antibiotic prescriptions were classified by spectrum and drug class. Respiratory infections included otitis media, pharyngitis, pneumonia, sinusitis, and viral infections.
Results:
Among 6.7 million children, vaccine uptake increased from 32.5% receiving all four vaccines in 2004 to 66.8% in 2019. During this period, overall antibiotic prescriptions decreased from 1.89 to 1.01 per person-year, with the greatest reductions in macrolides (73.3%) and broad-spectrum antibiotics (57.0%). Antibiotic-treated respiratory tract infections declined from 2.43 to 1.61 episodes per person-year, with the largest decreases in sinusitis (64.7%) and pharyngitis (39.8%).
Conclusions:
The findings suggest a temporal association between routine childhood immunization uptake and reduced antibiotic utilization. Although immunization programs are primarily aimed at protecting children from vaccine-preventable diseases, their potential role in complementing antimicrobial stewardship efforts and other factors influencing antibiotic reduction warrants further investigation through more rigorous study designs.
Surgical site infections (SSI) result in significant patient morbidity and excess healthcare costs. Colorectal surgeries have the highest SSI risk, as they manipulate the organ with the largest endogenous bioburden. This risk can be mitigated through complex prevention bundles, shown effective at reducing SSI in multiple studies, although little is known about their “real-world” use.
Methods:
To obtain further insight into the implementation of SSI prevention bundles consisting of guideline-recommended infection control elements in colorectal surgery, we distributed a multiple-choice survey to the hospitals within the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Research Network from November 2022 to December 2023.
Results:
A total of 42 (45%) hospitals completed the survey. The bundle elements most used were intravenous pre-operative antibiotic prophylaxis (88%) and skin prep with an alcohol-chlorhexidine solution (86%). Infection control elements of surgical closure such as glove change and separate instrument tray were reported by 67% and 64%, respectively. Combined oral antibiotics with mechanical bowel prep were reported by 52%. Less than 50% of hospitals reported consistent bundle audit and feedback to frontline surgical staff. The most persistent barriers to implementation were a general culture resistant to change (40%) and clinicians’ lack of compliance with the institutional bundle (38%).
Conclusions:
Our study found significant variability in the implementation of bundles consisting of multiple infection control elements to prevent SSI in clinical practice. Further research is needed to determine the strategies most effective in optimizing high-fidelity adoption of complex prevention bundles and to study their effect on SSI in colorectal surgery.
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens present significant challenges to global health, exacerbated by emerging threats such as SARS-CoV-2 and the growing immunocompromised population. While isolation precautions are critical for infection prevention and control (IPC), their indiscriminate application can strain resources and impact patient well-being. This review proposes a patient-centered framework for optimizing isolation strategies by integrating pathogen-related factors, individual patient risks, and healthcare facility resources to optimize isolation precautions. By incorporating targeted risk assessments, advanced analytics (e.g., omics and machine learning), and infection preventionist leadership, this approach aligns isolation measures with clinical and operational realities. It aims to enhance IPC efficacy while balancing patient needs and resource efficiency. We highlight strategies to ensure isolation precautions remain evidence-based, adaptable, and sustainable within healthcare settings. A patient-focused approach to isolation improves both infection prevention and overall quality of patient care.
Assess the efficacy of staged interventions aimed to reduce inappropriate Clostridioides difficile testing and hospital-onset C. difficile infection (HO-CDI) rates.
Design:
Interrupted time series.
Setting:
Community-based.
Methods/Interventions:
National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) C. difficile metrics from January 2019 to November 2022 were analyzed after three interventions at a community-based healthcare system. Interventions included: (1) an electronic medical record (EMR) based hard stop requiring confirming ≥3 loose or liquid stools over 24 h, (2) an infectious diseases (ID) review and approval of testing >3 days of hospital admission, and (3) an infection control practitioner (ICP) reviews combined with switching to a reverse two-tiered clinical testing algorithm.
Results:
After all interventions, the number of C. difficile tests per 1,000 patient-days (PD) and HO-CDI cases per 10,000 PD decreased from 20.53 to 6.92 and 9.80 to 0.20, respectively. The EMR hard stop resulted in a (28%) reduction in the CDI testing rate (adjusted incidence rate ratio ((aIRR): 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53 to 0.96)) and ID review resulted in a (42%) reduction in the CDI testing rate (aIRR: 0.58; 95% CI, 0.42–0.79). Changing to the reverse testing algorithm reduced reported HO-CDI rate by (95%) (cIRR: 0.05; 95% CI; 0.01–0.40).
Conclusions:
Staged interventions aimed at improving diagnostic stewardship were effective in overall reducing CDI testing in a community healthcare system.
In this manuscript, we highlight current literature on environmental hygiene techniques to combat reservoirs of antibiotic resistant organisms in the healthcare environment. We discuss several topics for each strategy, including mechanism of action, assessment of effectiveness based on studies, cost, and real-world translatability. The techniques and topics summarized here are not inclusive of all available environmental hygiene techniques but highlight some of the more popular and investigated strategies. We focus on the following: Ultraviolet radiation, hydrogen peroxide vapor, copper-coated surfaces, phages, interventions involving sinks, and educational initiatives.
Of 313 patients whose outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy was managed by an ID physician, only 39 [12.5%, 95% CI (8.8%–16.1%)] had clinical decisions influenced by erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), C-reactive protein (CRP), or both. ESR/CRP ordering was associated with $530 in excess cost per treatment course (average duration 5.1 weeks) representing a diagnostic stewardship opportunity.
Patients discharged from emergency departments (ED) with antibiotics for common infections often receive unnecessarily prolonged durations, representing a target for transition of care (TOC) antimicrobial stewardship intervention.
Methods:
This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of TOC pharmacists’ review on decreasing the duration of discharge oral antibiotics in patients discharged from the ED at an academic medical center. Pharmacist interventions were guided by an antibiotic duration of therapy guidance focused on respiratory, urinary, and skin infections developed and implemented by the antimicrobial stewardship program. Pharmacist interventions from January 27, 2023, to December 29, 2023, were analyzed to quantify the total number of antibiotic days saved and the percentage of provider acceptance.
Results:
The ED TOC pharmacists reviewed a total of 157 oral antibiotic prescriptions. 86.6% percent of the reviews required pharmacist interventions. The most common indications for the discharge antibiotics were urinary tract infections (50.0%) and skin infections (23.4%). The total number of antibiotic days saved was 155 days with the provider acceptance rate of 76.5%. In 21% of cases, providers did not count the antibiotic doses administered in the ED, contributing to unnecessarily prolonged duration. 10.2% of patients re-presented to the ED while 6.4% of patients were hospitalized within 30 days of index ED discharge.
Conclusion:
The transitions of care pharmacist-led intervention was successful in optimizing the duration of discharge oral antibiotics in the ED utilizing prospective audit and feedback based on institutional guidance. The ED represents a high-yield setting for TOC-directed antimicrobial stewardship.
The high cost of antimicrobials presents critical challenges for healthcare providers managing infections amidst the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). High costs hinder access to necessary treatments, disproportionately affecting disadvantaged populations and exacerbating health disparities. High drug prices necessitate the use of less effective or more toxic alternatives, leading to suboptimal outcomes and prolonged hospitalizations. This, in turn, increases healthcare costs and undermines efforts to combat AMR. Equitable policies, national formularies, and cost caps for essential antimicrobials can ensure universal access to life-saving treatments and enable antimicrobial stewardship programs to ensure the best possible outcomes.
Rapid blood culture identification is most effective with antimicrobial stewardship feedback, which is limited during non-business hours. We implemented overnight review of Blood Culture Identification 2 panel results by intensive care unit pharmacists and demonstrated reduced time to evaluation (3.6 vs 9.3 hours, P < .01).
To evaluate the impact of implementing a clinical care guideline for uncomplicated gram-negative bloodstream infections (GN-BSI) within a health system.
Design:
Retrospective, quasi-experimental study.
Setting:
A large academic safety-net institution.
Participants:
Adults (≥18 years) with GN-BSI, defined by at least one positive blood culture for specific gram-negative organisms. Patients with polymicrobial cultures or contaminants were excluded.
Interventions:
Implementation of a GN-BSI clinical care guideline based on a 2021 consensus statement, emphasizing 7-day antibiotic courses, use of highly bioavailable oral antibiotics, and minimizing repeat blood cultures.
Results:
The study included 147 patients pre-intervention and 169 post-intervention. Interrupted time series analysis showed a reduction in the median duration of therapy (–2.3 days, P = .0016), with a sustained decline (slope change –0.2103, P = .005) post-intervention. More patients received 7 days of therapy (12.9%–58%, P < .01), oral antibiotic transitions increased (57.8% vs 72.2%, P < .05), and guideline-concordant oral antibiotic selection was high. Repeat blood cultures decreased (50.3% vs 30.2%, P < .01) without an increase in recurrent bacteremia. No significant differences were observed in 90-day length of stay, rehospitalization, recurrence, or mortality.
Conclusions:
Guideline implementation was associated with shorter antibiotic therapy durations, increased use of guideline-concordant oral antibiotics, and fewer repeat blood cultures without compromising patient outcomes. These findings support the effectiveness of institutional guidelines in standardizing care, optimizing resource utilization, and promoting evidence-based practices in infectious disease management.
Evaluate prescribing practices and risk factors for treatment failure in obese patients treated for purulent cellulitis with oral antibiotics in the outpatient setting.
Design:
Retrospective, multicenter, observational cohort.
Setting:
Emergency departments, primary care, and urgent care sites throughout Michigan.
Patients:
Adult patients with a body mass index of ≥ 30 kg/m2 who received ≥ 5 days of oral antibiotics for purulent cellulitis were included. Key exclusion criteria were chronic infections, antibiotic treatment within the past 30 days, and suspected polymicrobial infections.
Methods:
Obese patients receiving oral antibiotics for purulent cellulitis between February 1, 2020, and August 31, 2023, were assessed. The primary objective was to describe outpatient prescribing trends. Secondary objectives included comparing patient risk factors for treatment failure and safety outcomes between patients experiencing treatment success and those experiencing treatment failure.
Results:
Two hundred patients were included (Treatment success, n = 100; Treatment failure, n = 100). Patients received 11 antibiotic regimens with 26 dosing variations; 45.5% were inappropriately dosed. Sixty-seven percent of patients received MRSA-active therapy. Treatment failure was similar between those appropriately dosed (46.4%) versus under-dosed (54.4%) (P = 0.256), those receiving 5–7 days of therapy (47.1%) versus 10–14 days (54.4%) (P = 0.311), and those receiving MRSA-active therapy (52.2%) versus no MRSA therapy (45.5%) (P = 0.367). Patients treated with clindamycin were more likely to experience treatment failure (73.7% vs 47.5%, P = 0.030).
Conclusions:
Nearly half of antimicrobial regimens prescribed for outpatient treatment of cellulitis in patients with obesity were suboptimally prescribed. Opportunities exist to optimize agent selection, dosing, and duration of therapy in this population.
The overuse and inappropriate use of antimicrobials have led to environmental waste and drug shortages. This challenges the ecological and economical sustainability of our healthcare system and worsens antimicrobial resistance.
Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP) commonly consider the cost of drug acquisition but may be failing to recognize the hidden costs of multi-dose intravenous regimens including additional nursing administration time, tubing and fluids, and potentially increased hospital length of stay. They also rarely consider the environmental impact of medical waste creation and disposal, which contributes to the global antimicrobial resistance crisis. These costs are harder to calculate but crucial to a comprehensive assessment of a medication’s total impact. In this invited commentary, we provide an example of a stewardship evaluation at our institution focused on changing from meropenem (MER) to ertapenem (ETP) for infections caused by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing organisms. We found that despite an increase in acquisition costs, changing from MER to ETP is associated with overall savings and decreased waste production. A secondary analysis suggests that stay length may also be improved with this substitution.
We present a holistic approach to antimicrobial stewardship that considers the total cost of an antimicrobial. By broadening their view to include hidden costs and secondary effects, ASPs can further demonstrate their value to the healthcare system, reduce resistance, and improve their environmental impact.
At Saint George Hospital University Medical Center in Beirut, Lebanon, we determine (1) annual blood culture (BC) contamination (BCC) and utilization (BCU) rates vs international benchmarks, (2) identify blood culture contaminants, (3) bloodstream infections episodes in patients with and without COVID-19 after the pandemic onset, and (4) any epidemiologic trends in BCC and BCU.
Design:
Retrospective observational study.
Setting:
Private tertiary referral center, from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2022.
Methods:
We define a contaminated BC as the growth of a typical contaminant/skin flora in 1-2/4 BC bottles. We calculate BCC rates as a percentage of the contaminated BC/total BC during the period and BCU rates as the number of BC/1000 patient days (PD).
Results:
The average BCU rate of 85.9/1000 PD in 2010–2019 increased to 106.6/1000 PD in 2020–2022. On average, patients with COVID-19 had a higher BCU rate of 185.9/1000 PD, corresponding to an additional 100 blood cultures/1000 PD. The average BCC rate was 7%, ranging from 6% in 2010–2019 to 8% in 2020–2022. We observed the highest BCC rate of 9% in patients with COVID-19, likely due to the higher BCU. The most frequently isolated contaminants were coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (96%), of which 65% were Staphylococcus epidermidis.
Conclusion:
We saw a multifactorial, persistently elevated rate of BCC over 13 years as unaffected by strict infection control practices. We think that further research targeting a standardized, low BCU rather than inevitable BCC while advocating for diagnostic stewardship of low-middle-income countries is essential, especially where the lack of appropriate resource allocation and awareness are problematic.
A β–lactam plus a macrolide or a respiratory fluoroquinolone alone is recommended as standard empiric antibacterial therapy for non-severe adults hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) per Infectious Diseases Society of America guidelines. However, the evidence in support of adding empiric atypical antibacterial therapy, and specifically the addition of a macrolide, is conflicting and should be balanced with additional factors: the necessity of covering atypical organisms, benefits of macrolide-associated immunomodulation, harms associated with antibiotic use, and selection for antibiotic-resistant organisms. In this review, we examine the role of atypical coverage in standard treatment regimens for patients admitted with non-severe CAP and specifically focus on the addition of macrolides to β–lactams. We conclude that a subset of patients should not be given atypical coverage as part of their regimen.