A new toolkit from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) helps acute-care hospitals create and improve antibiotic stewardship programs to improve patient safety.
Leveraging the experiences of more than 400 hospitals that participated in AHRQ’s Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use, the toolkit walks users through “Four Moments of Antibiotic Decision Making,” including:
- make the diagnosis;
- order appropriate cultures and select an empiric antibiotic treatment regimen;
- decide whether to stop, narrow, or switch to oral antibiotics; and
- document the planned duration of the treatment regimen.
In addition to best practices for infection diagnosis and treatment, the toolkit includes strategies to convey the value of an antibiotic stewardship program to hospital administrators and prescribers.
Contact Senior Director of Policy Erin O’Malley at eomalley@essentialhospitals.org or 202.585.0127 with additional questions.