Health system's urgent care centers benefit from pharmacist input on antimicrobial stewardship.

Abstract

Recently published research indicates that there is an urgent need to apply antimicrobial stewardship interventions to urgent care centers—and one major health system can attest to the benefit of involving pharmacists in those interventions. Jillian Dougherty Laude, an infectious diseases pharmacist at Christiana Care Health System in Delaware, said she helped to create the education that the antimicrobial stewardship team delivered to healthcare providers at her employer’s 5 urgent care centers and has been a sounding board for the centers’ lead physician, Harold P. Kramer. A recent examination of the urgent care centers’ electronic medical records revealed that the number of antibiotics prescribed per 100 patient visits in June was 40% less than the number prescribed in December 2016, before interventions began, Laude said. The antimicrobial stewardship team also found “a pretty whopping over-80% decrease” in the number of azithromycin prescriptions per 100 patient visits, she said. Kramer expressed similar enthusiasm in his July 13 message at the Safe Healthcare Blog, hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He reported results compiled through March 2018.