Quality improvement: Antimicrobial stewardship in pediatric primary care

BACKGROUND

Antimicrobial resistance is the resistance of microorganisms to antibacterial, antiviral, antiparasitic, and antifungal medication resulting in increased healthcare costs with extended hospital stays in the United States. The goals of this quality improvement project were to increase the understanding and importance of antimicrobial stewardship by nurses and health care staff and increase pediatric parents'/guardians' knowledge of the proper use of antibiotics and differences between viruses and bacterial infections.

METHODS

A retrospective pre-post study was conducted in a midwestern clinic to determine if an antimicrobial stewardship teaching leaflet increased parent/guardian antimicrobial stewardship knowledge. The two interventions for patient education were a modified United States Center for Disease Control antimicrobial stewardship teaching leaflet and a poster regarding antimicrobial stewardship.

RESULTS

Seventy-six parents/guardians participated in the pre-intervention survey, with 56 being included in the post-intervention survey. There was a significant increase in knowledge between the pre-intervention survey and the post-intervention survey with a large effect size, p < .001, d = 0.86. This effect was also seen when comparing parents/guardians with no college education, who had a mean knowledge increased change score of 0.62, to those parents/guardians with a college education, whose mean knowledge increase was 0.23, p < .001 with a large effect size of 0.81. Health care staff thought the antimicrobial stewardship teaching leaflets and posters were beneficial.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

The use of an antimicrobial stewardship teaching leaflet and a patient education poster may be effective interventions for improving healthcare staff's and pediatric parents'/guardians' knowledge of antimicrobial stewardship.

Handshake stewardship reduces carbapenem prescription in a pediatric critical care setting

BACKGROUND

Intensive care unit (ICU) settings typically have a high-volume prescription of carbapenems. Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) aim to promote appropriate antibiotic use. Handshake stewardship (HS) is adapted from ASPs but focuses on direct feedback to physicians who prescribed antibiotics regarding the appropriateness of antibiotic prescription. This study aimed to evaluate the impact and acceptability of HS on carbapenem consumption in pediatric critical care settings.

METHODS

This study was conducted over 18 months spanning pre-and post-implementation of HS. Carbapenem prescriptions were automatically discontinued during the pre-implementation period after 72 h if no indications existed. During the post-implementation, HS was performed by direct feedback to ICU physicians regarding the appropriateness of carbapenem prescriptions within 24 h. The primary outcome was the carbapenem consumption rate, defined as days of therapy (DOT)/1,000 patient-ICU days. Secondary outcomes were the acceptability of HS, length of critical care stay (LOCS), 30-day infection-related mortality rate, and the rate of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE).

RESULTS

There were 212 carbapenem prescriptions (163 patients) and 174 carbapenem prescriptions (110 patients) in the pre-and post-implementation periods, respectively. Carbapenem consumption decreased significantly from 667 to 369 DOT/1,000 patient-ICU days, with a median difference of 292 DOT/1,000 patient-ICU days (P < 0.001; 95% confidence interval: 175-408) after HS implementation. The acceptability of the HS was 95.4%. The LOCS, 30-day infection-related mortality, and CRE rate were not significantly different between pre-and post-implementation periods.

CONCLUSIONS

Handshake stewardship significantly reduced carbapenem prescription in critically ill pediatric patients without negatively affecting patient outcomes.