Antimicrobial drug stewardship has been shown to help reduce microbial resistance and the spread of infections from multi-drug resistant organisms. A new study has shown how one such program may have boosted the ability of an antibiotic to fight common healthcare-associated infections.
Researchers with Norton Healthcare in Louisville, KY, followed fluoroquinolone antibiotics use and effectiveness data across four hospitals after the start of a 2011 antimicrobial stewardship program. They also tested the ability of one fluoroquinolone, levofloxacin, to treat bacterial infections over 10 years.
Inpatient use of fluoroquinolones decreased by 74% over a five-year period, they found. Meanwhile, inpatient levofloxacin susceptibility, a measure of a bacteria’s resistance to a drug, increased by 57% for Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and by 15% for Escherichia coli (E. coli) over 10 years.
“These results demonstrate the value of stewardship services and highlight the effectiveness of an infectious diseases pharmacist-led antimicrobial stewardship program,” the authors concluded.
The department of pharmacy at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis also contributed to the study.
The study was published in Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology.
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