The Hospital Antimicrobial Use Process: From Beginning to End

Authors

William R. Truong, St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, CA
Jason Yamaki, Chapman UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-28-2018

Abstract

Hospital antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs are responsible for ensuring that all antimicrobials are utilized in the most appropriate and safe manner to improve patient outcomes, prevent adverse drug reactions, and prevent the development of antimicrobial resistance. This Perspectives article outlines the hospital antimicrobial use process (AUP), the foundational system that ensures that all antimicrobials are utilized in the most appropriate and safe manner. The AUP consists of the following steps: antimicrobial ordering, order verification, preparation and delivery, administration, monitoring, and discharge prescribing. AMS programs should determine how each step contributes to how an antimicrobial is used appropriately or inappropriately at their institution. Through this understanding, AMS programs can integrate stewardship activities at each step to ensure that every opportunity is taken to optimize antimicrobial use during a patient’s treatment course. Hence, approaching AMS through the framework of a hospital’s AUP is essential to improving appropriate antimicrobial use.

Comments

This article was originally published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, volume 5, issue 6, in 2018. DOI: 10.1093/ofid/ofy098

Recommended Citation

Truong WR, Yamaki J. The hospital antimicrobial use process: From beginning to end. Open Forum Infect Dis.. 2018;5(6):ofy098. doi:10.1093/ofid/ofy098

Copyright

The authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.