An Audit-Based, Infectious Disease Specialist-Guided Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Profoundly Reduced Antibiotic Use Without Negatively Affecting Patient Outcomes.

ABSTRACT: Background.  Antimicrobial stewardship programs are increasingly implemented in hospital care. They aim to simultaneously optimize outcomes for individual patients with infections and reduce financial and health-associated costs of overuse of antibiotics. Few studies have examined the effects of antimicrobial stewardship programs in settings with low proportions of antimicrobial resistance, such as in Sweden. Methods.  An antimicrobial stewardship program was introduced during 5 months of 2013 in a department of internal medicine in southern Sweden. The intervention consisted of audits twice weekly on all patients given antibiotic treatment. The intervention period was compared with a historical control consisting of patients treated with antibiotics in the same wards in 2012. Studied outc

SUBMITTER: Nilholm H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4567088 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature