| Abstract: | Background:Stewardship of antimicrobial agents is an essential function of hospital pharmacies. The ideal pharmacist staffing model for antimicrobial stewardship programs is not known.Objective:To inform staffing decisions for antimicrobial stewardship teams, we aimed to compare an antimicrobial stewardship program with a dedicated Infectious Diseases (ID) pharmacist (Dedicated ID Pharmacist Hospital) to a program relying on ward pharmacists for stewardship activities (Geographic Model Hospital).Methods:We reviewed a randomly selected sample of 290 cases of inpatient parenteral antibiotic use. The electronic medical record was reviewed for compliance with indicators of appropriate antimicrobial stewardship.Results:At the hospital staffed by a dedicated ID pharmacist, 96.8% of patients received initial antimicrobial therapy that adhered to local treatment guidelines compared to 87% of patients at the hospital that assigned antimicrobial stewardship duties to ward pharmacists (P < .002). Therapy was modified within 24 hours of availability of laboratory data in 86.7% of cases at the Dedicated ID Pharmacist Hospital versus 72.6% of cases at the Geographic Model Hospital (P < .03). When a patient’s illness was determined not to be caused by a bacterial infection, antibiotics were discontinued in 78.0% of cases at the Dedicated ID Pharmacist Hospital and in 33.3% of cases at the Geographic Model Hospital (P < .0002).Conclusion:An antimicrobial stewardship program with a dedicated ID pharmacist was associated with greater adherence to recommended antimicrobial therapy practices when compared to a stewardship program that relied on ward pharmacists. |
