Antimicrobial Stewardship Program & Services

Training and Education

Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions identifies areas of improvement and utilizes facility specific antimicrobial use and resistance data to develop custom education.  Infectious Diseases Clinical Pharmacists and Infectious Diseases Physicians lead in-person and online training for pharmacy, prescribers, nursing, quality, infection control and new hires.

Following are some of the education and training lectures that cover core topics on antimicrobial resistance, and antimicrobial stewardship as it relates to specific disease states. In addition, custom lectures are provided based on client needs, assessment and resistance trends.

Core:

  • Overview of Antimicrobial Stewardship
  • Antimicrobial Resistance
  • Antibiogram and Resistance Patterns
  • Renal Function Assessment for Antimicrobial Dosing
  • Vancomycin Pharmacy Dosing Service
  • Optimizing Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamics to Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance
  • Antimicrobial Spectrum of Activity

Disease States:

  • Pneumonia
  • Urinary Tract Infections
  • Skin and Soft Tissue Infections & Osteomyelitis
  • Intra-abdominal Infections
  • Bloodstream Infections
  • C. difficile Infections, Prevention, and Treatment

Therapeutic Drug Monitoring:

  • Renal Function Assessment for Antimicrobial Dosing
  • Vancomycin Pharmacy Dosing Service
  • Aminoglycosides: Optimizing Efficacy & Minimizing Toxicity 

We generate participant reports for each lecture so your organization can track attendance and document for internal and external reporting requirements such as Joint Commission surveying.

Clients also incorporate the core stewardship education topics as part of their new employee orientation and training program for physicians, pharmacists, and nursing staff.

Program Management

One-on-one conferences with ARS and facility liaisons to discuss patient cases for therapy optimization, alternative antibiotics, and follow up to referral physicians and specialists.

Multidisciplinary protocols and order sets are customized to be facility specific and designed to impact patients throughout the continuum of care from pre-admission to post discharge.

Referral facility outreach to improve covering transitions of care and communication, infection prevention measures, disease state management and collaborating on resistance trends.

Data Analysis and Reporting

ARS will conduct an initial detailed evaluation of facility data & practice that includes:

  • Antimicrobial expenditures and antimicrobial use
  • Review antimicrobial policies and practices
  • Antimicrobial outcome measures (antimicrobial resistance, CDI, adverse events, cost)
  • Evaluation of contracted services (pharmacy, laboratory, etc.)
  • Provider model
  • Identification of facility appointed clinical contact person(s)

We work with internal or 3rd party data sources to gather, report and analyze antimicrobial resistance program benchmark metrics.  Program analysis reports include total antibiotic expense and trends, resistance tracking for identified problems, lab utilization (C. diff testing, antibiotic levels, cultures) and education delivered, including participant tracking.

Additionally, each year ARS compiles annual antibiograms and empiric antimicrobial recommendations that can be easily and securely accessed through our website and app for mobile devices.