Reducing unnecessary testing on sputum specimens from patients with cystic fibrosis: pathology stewardship in microbiology.

Chronic respiratory tract infection by Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the hallmark of established lung disease in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Antibiotic therapy can usually only suppress but not eradicate infection. In recent years, pulmonary infection with non-tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) species has also been increasing. These patients are often colonised with multiple isolates and determination of clinical significance of each isolate is difficult. The clinical value of frequent routine susceptibility testing of individual isolates is unproven, particularly since a delay in susceptibility testing is inevitable when purification of multiple cultured isolates is required to test each isolate separately. From August 2019 until December 2020 we ceased routine susceptibility testing on P. aeruginosa respiratory tract isolates from patients with CF if a previous isolate from the patient had susceptibility testing performed. We found that the proportion of P. aeruginosa isolates that had susceptibility testing performed dropped from 97% to 11% as a result of this change in laboratory process. During this time, we also ceased routine culture for acid-fast bacilli if this had been performed within the previous 6 months. We present the cost and resource savings for these changes in laboratory process and assess for clinical impact measured as hospital admissions, length of stay in hospital and mortality.

Long-Term Outcomes in Patients on Life-Long Antibiotics: A Five-Year Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the impacts at an individual level of long-term antibiotic consumption. We explored health outcomes of long-term antibiotic therapy prescribed to a cohort of patients to suppress infections deemed incurable. METHODS: We conducted a 5-year longitudinal study of patients on long-term antibiotics at Monash Health, a metropolitan tertiary-level hospital network in Australia. Adults prescribed antibiotics for >12 months to suppress chronic infection or prevent recurrent infection were included. A retrospective review of medical records and a descriptive analysis was conducted. RESULTS: Twenty-seven patients were followed up during the study period, from 29 patients originally identified in Monash Health in 2014. Seven of the 27 patients (26%) died from causes unrelated to the suppressed infection, six (22%) ceased long-term antibiotic therapy and two (7%) required treatment modification. Fifteen (56%) were colonised with multiresistant microorganisms, including vancomycin resistant Enterococci, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaciae. CONCLUSIONS: This work highlights the potential pitfalls of long-term antibiotic therapy, and the frailty of this cohort, who are often ineligible for definitive curative therapy.

Potential interventions for an antimicrobial stewardship bundle for Escherichia coli bacteraemia.

INTRODUCTION: Escherichia coli is the most commonly identified bacteraemia, and causes a broad spectrum of diseases. The range of clinical conditions associated with E. coli bacteraemia mean that antimicrobial therapy is highly variable. This study aimed to determine the workload, efficiency and potential impact of an antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) bundle approach to E. coli bacteraemia. METHODS: An observational cohort study of patients with E. coli bacteraemia was performed, and a review of each case's entire medical record was undertaken. A number of AMS interventions were modelled on this cohort to assess their impact on overall days of antimicrobial therapy and time to optimized antimicrobial therapy. RESULTS: In total, 566 episodes of E. coli bacteraemia were identified. A number of AMS interventions were modelled to assess their impact. The strict implementation of guideline-based therapy was found to increase the number of patients receiving ineffective empirical therapy to 38/266 (14.3%) compared with 27/266 (10.2%) patients when w hen non-guideline-adherent therapy was allowed. A scheduled review by an AMS team on day 3 of empirical therapy could lead to a narrower-spectrum intravenous antibiotic in 237/515 (46%) cases, and 386 cases (68.2% of cohort) could have their duration of therapy reduced by a median of 7 days. CONCLUSION: This study provides detailed description of a large cohort of patients with E. coli bacteraemia. There remains significant variability in empirical treatment, choice of step-down therapy and antimicrobial duration. A significant opportunity exists for AMS programmes to impact the management of E. coli bacteraemia through a bundled approach.

Medical student psychological distress and academic performance.

INTRODUCTION: The impact of medical student psychological distress on academic performance has not been systematically examined. This study provided an opportunity to closely examine the potential impacts of workplace and study related stress factors on student's psychological distress and their academic performance during their first clinical year. METHODS: This one-year prospective cohort study was performed at a tertiary hospital based medical school in Melbourne, Australia. Students completed a questionnaire at three time points during the year. The questionnaire included the validated Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) and the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28), as well as items about sources of workplace stress. Academic outcome scores were aggregated and correlated with questionnaire results. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty six students participated; 126 (94.7%), 102 (76.7%), and 99 (74.4%) at time points one, two, and three, respectively. 33.1% reported psychological distress at time point one, increasing to 47.4% at time point three. There was no correlation between the K10 scores and academic performance. There was weak negative correlation between the GHQ-28 at time point three and academic performance. Keeping up to date with knowledge, need to do well and fear of negative feedback were the most common workplace stress factors. CONCLUSIONS: Poor correlation was noted between psychological distress and academic performance.

Surveillance of life-long antibiotics: a review of antibiotic prescribing practices in an Australian Healthcare Network.

BACKGROUND: The rise of antimicrobial use in the twentieth century has significantly reduced morbidity due to infection, however it has also brought with it the rise of increasing resistance. Some patients are on prolonged, if not "life-long" course of antibiotics. The reasons for this are varied, and include non-infectious indications. We aimed to study the characteristics of this potential source of antibiotic resistance, by exploring the antibiotic dispensing practices and describing the population of patients on long-term antibiotic therapy. METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study of antibiotic dispensing records was performed at a large university hospital-based healthcare network in Melbourne, Australia. Outpatient prescriptions were extracted from the hospital pharmacy database over a 6 month period in 2014. Medical records of these patients were reviewed to determine the indication for prescription, including microbiology, the intended duration, and the prescribing unit. A descriptive analysis was performed on this data. RESULTS: 66,127 dispensing episodes were reviewed. 202 patients were found to have been prescribed 1 or more antibiotics with an intended duration of 1 year or longer. 69/202 (34%) of these patients were prescribed prolonged antibiotics for primary prophylaxis in the setting of immunosuppression. 43/202 (21%) patients were prescribed long-term suppressive antibiotics for infections of thought incurable (e.g. vascular graft infections), and 34/43 (79%) were prescribed by Infectious Diseases doctors. 66/202 (33%) patients with cystic fibrosis were prescribed prolonged courses of macrolides or fluoroquinolones, by respiratory physicians. There was great heterogeneity noted in indications for prolonged antibiotic courses, as well as antibiotic agents utilised. CONCLUSION: Our study found that that continuous antibiotic therapy represented only a small proportion of overall antibiotic prescribing at our health network. Prolonged courses of antibiotics were used mainly to suppress infections thought incurable, but also as primary and secondary prophylaxis and as anti-inflammatory agents. More research is needed to understand the impact of long-term antibiotic consumption on both patients and microbial ecology.

The impact of a multidisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship team on the timeliness of antimicrobial therapy in patients with positive blood cultures: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial stewardship teams play an important role in assisting with the optimization of antimicrobial use in acute care settings. We aimed to determine whether a rapid review by a multidisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship team would improve the timeliness of optimal antimicrobial therapy for patients with positive blood cultures. METHODS: This prospective randomized controlled trial was undertaken in two Australian hospitals. Patients received either standard care (a clinical microbiologist, registrar or laboratory scientist communicating the positive blood culture by phone to the treating doctor) or intervention (standard care plus rapid review by a multidisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship team). Outcomes included time to appropriate and/or active antimicrobial therapy and in-hospital mortality. The trial was registered on the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12614000258651). RESULTS: A total of 160 patients were enrolled in this study: 81 in the standard care arm and 79 in the intervention arm. Patients in the intervention arm were commenced earlier on active (HR 8.02, 95% CI: 2.15-29.91) and appropriate antimicrobials (HR 1.95, 95% CI: 1.13-3.38), with a higher proportion of patients allocated to the intervention arm receiving active therapy at 48 h (96% versus 82%) and appropriate therapy at 72 h (70% versus 54%). The majority of patients where the blood culture was a contaminant were not started on antimicrobial therapy, and there were no significant differences in time to cessation of antimicrobial therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Antimicrobial stewardship team review of patients with pathogenic positive blood cultures improved the time to both active and appropriate antimicrobial therapy.

Yoghurt consumption and damaged colonic mucosa: a case of Lactococcus lactis liver abscess in an immunocompetent patient.

Lactococcus lactis is an uncommon cause of invasive disease in humans. We present a case of L. lactis liver abscess in an immunocompetent adult, apparently related to consumption of live culture yoghurt.