ASHP Releases New Educational Activities on Antimicrobial Stewardship

ASHP today announced the release of two new educational activities focused on antimicrobial stewardship in a virtual poster format. This new educational content is based on the experiences of organizations that completed ASHP’s MENTORED QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IMPACT PROGRAMSM: Accelerating Antimicrobial Stewardship Activities. As a nationwide healthcare priority, antimicrobial stewardship has been the focus of not only federal agencies, but also individual hospitals doing their part to reduce antibiotic resistance.

In the newly released activities, team members from six participating healthcare organizations highlight outcomes of their quality improvement efforts in antimicrobial stewardship and lessons learned. Team members discuss their virtual posters with William A. Zellmer, former ASHP deputy executive vice president, consultant, writer, and leader on strategic and professional issues in pharmacy practice and education.

The new educational activities and participating sites are as follows:

Implementing Change in Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs: Focus on New Laboratory Procedures, Time to Effective Therapy, and Incidence of C. difficile Infection

St. Francis Hospital, Federal Way, Wash.

Straub Clinic & Hospital, Honolulu, Hawaii

TIRR Memorial Hermann, Houston, Texas

Implementing Change in Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs: Focus on Time to Effective Therapy, Asymptomatic Bacteriuria in the Emergency Department, and Pneumonia Risk Assessment

Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, Wis.

Shelby Baptist Medical Center, Alabaster, Ala.

St. Mary Medical Center, Langhorne, Pa.

ASHP’s MENTORED QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IMPACT PROGRAM provides customized mentoring to selected groups on a specific topic. In late 2013, a steering committee comprising experts in antimicrobial stewardship and outcomes management selected nine organizations from a nationwide pool to participate in this mentorship program designed to accelerate the success of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs). The program included personalized mentoring by a team of pharmacist-physician experts who worked with the teams via an onsite visit and follow-up teleconferences to evaluate the site’s ASP, challenges and opportunities, and proposed activities for improvement. Following the site visit, participants implemented recommendations and tracked data on the effectiveness of their changes for one year.

Just as implementing change in ASPs requires a team approach that engages professionals across the healthcare system, these educational activities were developed with an interprofessional audience in mind. They are accredited for pharmacists, physicians, physician assistants, nurses, and nurse practitioners. The activities are available at www.teamasp.org.

This series of educational activities is supported by an educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline.