A Pilot Study for Antimicrobial Stewardship Post-Discharge: Avoiding Pitfalls at the Transitions of Care.

PURPOSE: Lack of patient follow-up is a major concern during care transitions, and the role of an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) in assessing antimicrobial regimens after hospital discharge is not well described. We implemented an expanded ASP to include patients recently discharged from the hospital and measured its impact on inappropriate antimicrobial therapy 72 hours after inpatient culture data were finalized. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted at a 583-bed tertiary care center in the Upper Midwest of America. All patients discharged from our facility on antimicrobial therapy with pending culture results between February 3, 2016, and March 2, 2016, were included for review. If a pathogen nonsusceptible to all prescribed antimicrobials was identified post-discharge, a recommendation for therapy modification was communicated to the prescriber. RESULTS: Thirty-eight patients discharged from our hospital on antimicrobial therapy with pending culture results were evaluated for intervention. When final culture susceptibilities were considered, 5 of 38 patients had been prescribed an inappropriate antimicrobial agent. An ASP pharmacist intervened on 4 of 5 patients, resulting in 3 of 5 patients transitioning to appropriate antimicrobial therapy. When compared to a historical cohort, our transitions-of-care ASP yielded a 3.6-fold increase in antimicrobial-related interventions among discharged patients while reducing inappropriate outpatient antimicrobial therapy by 39%. CONCLUSION: We believe this is the first pharmacist-driven ASP represented in the medical literature which evaluated all available inpatient culture data to serve patients discharged from the hospital. Antimicrobial stewardship for patients in care transitions may provide an opportunity to increase ASP interventions and reduce inappropriate antimicrobial therapy.

Ketamine Infusion Therapy as an Alternative Pain Control Strategy in Patients with Multi-Trauma including Rib Fracture; Case Report and Literature Review.

Ketamine is a promising alternative agent for pain control that offers benefit to traditional strategies, particularly in the setting of rib fracture. Current pharmacologic therapies have clear adverse effects, and other options may be invasive, cost prohibitive, or marginally effective. We describe three consecutive patients with traumatic injuries including rib fracture for which a ketamine infusion was utilized as part of their pain control strategy.  For each patient, use of a ketamine infusion trended toward reduced opioid requirements with stable pain scores. One patient experienced a dissociative adverse effect prompting decrease and discontinuation of ketamine. No pulmonary complications in the form of emergent intubation or new diagnosis of pneumonia were observed. We believe the addition of ketamine infusion to be a valid alternative strategy for managing pain associated with rib fracture.