Spotlight on Fairview Regional Medical Center’s Antibiotic Stewardship Program Initiative

Posted on: 3/6/20


We will feature each of the Excellence in Quality Award submissions over the next several weeks, to highlight and share successful quality initiatives.  Each week, we will describe how the problem was identified, the improvement goal(s), interventions and outcomes. Please feel free to utilize this information, duplicate interventions, and share with your staff.

Fairview Regional Medical Center received an Honorable Mention for their Antibiotic Stewardship Program Initiative submitted by Tamara Eitzen, RN, CNO.

Identifying the Problem: Implementation of an Antibiotic Stewardship Program Initiative was selected due to identification of an increase in unnecessary antibiotic usage.

The Goal: The goals were to decrease use of antibiotics for viral respiratory illnesses in the emergency department to 0% by Aug. 31, 2019, and to increase awareness of appropriate antibiotic usage.

Interventions:  
  1. A multidisciplinary team that included nursing, pharmacy, and front-line staff, was created to review policy, identify issues related to inappropriate antibiotic use, and monitor team progress.
  2. A senior leader champion commitment to decrease antibiotic resistance in the hospital was identified.
  3. A policy was drafted identifying appropriate prescribing guidelines and submitted to the medical staff and board of trustees for approval.
  4. Public education on Facebook and the hospital website was created to increase community awareness of appropriate antibiotic usage.
The Outcome:  
  1. Prescribing of antibiotics for patients with viral upper respiratory infections decreased by most providers.
  2. Patient/public education regarding the purpose/necessity of antibiotic usage has resulted in increased patient knowledge of care alternatives to antibiotics for patients with upper respiratory infections.
Comments: Teamwork with a senior leader champion was key in creating, implementing and monitoring appropriate antibiotic prescribing by providers in the ED. Providing public and patient education about appropriate antibiotic usage and alternatives in caring for patients with viral respiratory illnesses was also key.