Implementation of an antibiotic stewardship program in long-term care facilities across the US (28 February 2022)

Summary

This article in the journal JAMA Network Open aimed to determine if the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use, an educational initiative to establish antibiotic stewardship programs focusing on patient safety, is associated with reductions in antibiotic use in long term care settings.

The authors looked at 439 long term care settings and found that participation in training on antibiotic stewardship from AHRQ was associated with a reduction in antibiotic use and urine culture collection. Fluoroquinolones, an antibiotic class targeted by the AHRQ safety program, had the greatest decrease.