NQF Offers November 15 Antibiotic Stewardship Workshop for Quality Professionals 

Washington, DC—Use of broad-spectrum antibiotics in hospitals increased significantly from 2006-2012, a trend researchers describe as worrisome in light of the rising challenge of antibiotic resistance. To help hospitals and other acute care settings improve their stewardship of antibiotics, the National Quality Forum (NQF) will host a fully accredited workshop on November 15 on preventing the misuse and overuse of antibiotics.

“The antibiotic crisis represents a real, and growing, threat to patient safety,” said Edward Septimus, MD, medical director of infection prevention and epidemiology, HCA, who co-chaired NQF’s National Quality Partners™ (NQP) antibiotic stewardship action team. “NQF is sharing important guidance for hospitals to implement effective antibiotic stewardship programs that engage the entire community—both inside and beyond hospitals’ walls.”

The workshop is designed for quality improvement professionals in acute care settings and builds on NQF’s National Quality Partners Playbook™: Antibiotic Stewardship in Acute Care, which is based on CDC’s Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs and offers practical strategies for implementing high-quality antibiotic stewardship programs in hospitals nationwide.

A faculty of national experts in antibiotic stewardship, patient safety, and quality will provide real-world guidance and education to help workshop participants:

• Understand common barriers to successful antibiotic stewardship programs and identify corresponding solutions from a multidisciplinary perspective;
• Build upon existing antibiotic stewardship programs;
• Develop approaches to measure antibiotic stewardship and identify opportunities for improvement.

Faculty include: Edward Septimus; Melinda Neuhauser, PharmD, MPH, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Kristi Kuper, PharmD, Vizient, Inc.; David W. Baker, MD, MPH, The Joint Commission; Rita Olans, DNP, MGH Institute of Health Professions; Ann Latstetter, DNP, RN, HCA; Christian John Lillis, Peggy Lillis Foundation; and Daniel Knecht, MD, Aetna.

Learn more about NQF’s antibiotic stewardship work and explore the workshop agenda.

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The National Quality Forum leads national collaboration to improve health and healthcare quality through measurement. Learn more at www.qualityforum.org.