Implementation of a multidisciplinary infectious diseases team in a tertiary hospital within an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program.

BACKGROUND: In January 2011, as part of an antimicrobial stewardship program the Antimicrobial Management Team (AMT) at the Ghent University Hospital initiated a multidisciplinary Infectious Diseases Team (MIT) consisting of infectious diseases physicians, clinical microbiologists, and clinical pharmacists. The aim of this study is to describe the type and acceptance rate of recommendations provided by the MIT. METHOD: Prospective, observational study in a tertiary care, university teaching hospital with 1062 beds in non-consecutive hospitalized adult patients, excluding intensive care units and paediatrics. RESULTS: The MIT communicated 432 recommendations in 87 days observed. Of the 293 patients for whom a recommendation was made, the median age was 57 years (range: 16-91 years) and 169 (57·7%) were male. Skin or soft tissue infections (14%), respiratory tract infections (13%), infections without known focus (11%), abdominal infections (11%), and bone infections (8%) were most common. Recommendations were made to perform additional clinical investigation(s) [N = 137 (27%)], to adjust the dose of an antimicrobial drug [N = 42 (8%)], to stop an antimicrobial drug [N = 104 (21%)], to switch from a parenteral to an oral drug [N = 39 (8%)] or to initiate an antimicrobial drug [N = 178 (36%)], with an acceptance rate of 73·0%, 83·3%, 81·7%, 76·9%, and 84·0%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The MIT formulated about five recommendations a day primarily focusing on pharmacotherapy, but also on clinical investigations. In both fields, a high acceptance rate was observed.

Development and validation of potential structure indicators for evaluating antimicrobial stewardship programmes in European hospitals.

This study describes the development of structure indicators for hospital antimicrobial stewardship programmes and pilot validation across European hospitals. A multi-disciplinary panel from four European countries developed structure indicators in three steps: identification and listing of indicators, remote ranking of indicators using multi-criteria scoring, selection of indicators in a face-to-face consensus meeting. Additionally, the top-ten indicators were identified as a minimal set of key indicators. A survey was sent to the directors of antimicrobial stewardship programmes in European hospitals. The yes/no answers for the indicators were transformed into numbers in order to calculate the total scores. A list of 58 indicators was selected and categorised into the following topics: antimicrobial stewardship services (12 items), tools (16 items), human resources and mandate (6 items), health care personnel development (4 items), basic diagnostic capabilities (6 items), microbiological rapid tests (2 items), evaluation of microbiological drug resistance data (3 items), antibiotic consumption control (5 items) and drug use monitoring (4 items). The indicator scores, reported by 11 pilot hospitals from five European countries, ranged from 32 to 50 (maximum score = 58) and from 5 to 10 points (maximum score = 10) for, respectively, the complete and the top-ten list. An international panel selected 58 potential structure indicators, among which was a minimal set of ten key structure indicators, that could be useful for assessment of the comprehensiveness and resource-intensity of antimicrobial stewardship programmes. There was significant heterogeneity among participating centres with regard to their score for structural components of effective antimicrobial stewardship.

A survey of beta-lactam antibiotics and vancomycin dosing strategies in intensive care units and general wards in Belgian hospitals.

Extended and continuous infusions with beta-lactam antibiotics have been suggested as a means of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic optimisation of antimicrobial therapy. Vancomycin is also frequently administered in continuous infusion, although more for practical reasons. A survey was undertaken to investigate the recommendations by the local antibiotic management teams (AMTs) in Belgian acute hospitals concerning the administration (intermittent, extended or continuous infusion) and therapeutic drug monitoring of four beta-lactam antibiotics (ceftazidime, cefepime, piperacillin-tazobactam, meropenem) and vancomycin for adult patients with a normal kidney function. A structured questionnaire survey comprising three domains was developed and approved by the members of the Belgian Antibiotic Policy Coordination Committee (BAPCOC). The questionnaire was sent by e-mail to the official AMT correspondents of 105 Belgian hospitals, followed by two reminders. The response rate was 32 %, with 94 %, 59 %, 100 %, 100 % and 100 % of the participating Belgian hospitals using ceftazidime, cefepime, piperacillin-tazobactam, meropenem and vancomycin, respectively. Comparing intensive care unit (ICU) with non-ICU wards showed a higher implementation of extended or continuous infusions for ceftazidime (81 % vs. 41 %), cefepime (35 % vs. 10 %), piperacillin-tazobactam (38 % vs. 12 %), meropenem (68 % vs. 35 %) and vancomycin (79 % vs. 44 %) on the ICU wards. A majority of the hospitals recommended a loading dose prior to the first dose. For vancomycin, the loading dose and the trough target concentration were too low based on the current literature. This survey shows that extended and continuous infusions with beta-lactams and vancomycin are widely implemented in Belgian hospitals.

Prospective multicentre feasibility study of a quality of care indicator for intravenous to oral switch therapy with highly bioavailable antibiotics.

BACKGROUND: Enhanced oral (po) bioavailability of antimicrobial drugs allows conversion to po therapy once a patient meets defined clinical criteria. This can reduce length of hospital stay, healthcare costs and risk of complications related to intravenous (iv) access. We developed a quality indicator for assessing the appropriate iv-to-po switch of bioavailable antibiotics and evaluated its feasibility and clinical relevance across acute healthcare systems. METHODS: The study was designed as a multicentre, multinational observational audit. The indicator was the proportion of inappropriate iv treatments at any point in time in adult patients treated with fluoroquinolones, clindamycin, linezolid or metronidazole. Treatments were prospectively evaluated by a trained physician or clinical pharmacist using predefined clinical criteria. The feasibility of the indicator was evaluated by measuring data availability, data collection workload and sensitivity to improvement RESULTS: Data were collected over a 3 month period in five university hospitals in Austria, Belgium and Germany and iv treatment was assessed in 211 patients. The indicator was measurable in 99.1% of cases. By intention-to-treat analysis, 37.0% (95% CI 30.5-43.9) of treatments were inappropriate, ranging from 17.5% to 53.8% across hospitals. The median time needed for case assessment and documentation was 29 min. CONCLUSIONS: This quality indicator was found to be generally feasible in hospitals across three European countries, and informative about the local need for clinical quality improvement.