Community Healthcare System Antimicrobial Stewardship Program
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Joint Commission and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are part of a concerted effort to slow the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria while strengthening antibiotic stewardship in health care settings, as outlined in the White House’s National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. Their work inspired a committee of infectious disease physicians, pharmacists, lab staff, infection control nurses, pathologists, chief nursing officers, Epic IT staff and many more from Community Healthcare System to develop an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP). The program’s goals include achieving optimal outcomes related to antimicrobial use, minimizing toxicity and other adverse events, reducing the costs of health care for infections and limiting the selection of antimicrobial resistant strains. The Antimicrobial Stewardship Program has proven to be very effective in many ways including 48 hour review of antibiotics along with 48 hour time out notification for extension, ensuring antibiotic use for bacterial infections and not viral infections and a reduction of days of therapy. IHA is proud to recognize Community Healthcare System as a 2017 Patient Safety Innovation Award nominee for their collaborative, multidisciplinary efforts. Koula Tsahas, director of pharmacy, recently spoke with IHA regarding the team’s nomination. She recommends that anyone interested in implementing an ASP begin with the CDC Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs Checklist.
“Start with what you already have in place and take the survey to determine what areas to focus on,” Tsahas said. The organization also participated in the CDC’s Get Smart About Antibiotics Week last November as another way to increase awareness about increased antibiotic resistance. For more information, contact Koula Tsahas.
Pre-operative Wellness Program Interdisciplinary Team at IU Health
Indiana University Health was nominated for the 2017 Patient Safety Innovation Award for its pre-operative wellness intrdisciplianary team. Dr. William Wooden, one of the pre-operative wellness program interdisciplinary team’s leaders and creators, has been a champion of patient safety for most of his surgical career. By emphasizing a necessity for preventative medicine, Dr. Wooden has worked diligently to improve the health outcomes for Hoosiers. Fueled by a drive to continue giving back to the community and improving patient safety, Dr. Wooden and his surgical team developed the pre-operative wellness program and wellness kits to combat complications from elective surgeries, decrease the rate of surgical acquired infections and decrease lengths of stay in the hospital. The program began by helping surgeons recognize medical conditions of patients and the direct route to health improved outcomes and safety. This allowed the surgical care team to collaborate more efficiently with the patient’s primary care doctor in order to develop better outcomes and a faster recovery for the patient. The pre-operative wellness program also offers wellness kits that combat infection. Wellness kits consist of a specialty formulated immune-nutrition drink, an oral analgesic and hygiene treatment for pre-operative use. In 2016, more than 4,000 pre-operative kits were distributed to Indiana University Health University and Methodist Hospital patients. Since the program began nearly three years ago, Indiana University Health has seen a 9 percent reduction in readmission rates and a decrease in surgical acquired infections from 34 percent to 16 percent. After receiving a quality award from the Indiana University Health’s Board of Directors, Dr. Wooden’s pre-operative program will be implemented at all Indiana University Health hospitals by the end of 2017. For more information, contact Dr. Wooden.
