Antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem resulting from decades of overprescribing and misuse of antibiotics. According to the CDC, drug-resistant bacteria cause 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths annually. National Quality Partners Playbook: Antibiotic Stewardship in Acute Care builds on CDC recommendations that all acute-care hospitals in the nation implement an antibiotic stewardship program. Leveraging the CDC’s and other quality initiatives, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently proposed that all hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid adopt such programs to curb overuse of antibiotics.

“Antibiotic resistance is a public health crisis that can strike anyone with devastating effects,” said Arjun Srinivasan, MD (CAPT, USPHS), associate director for healthcare associated infection prevention programs, division of healthcare quality promotion, CDC, and co-chair of NQP’s antibiotic stewardship action team. “The Playbook provides a flexible structure with real-word examples for hospitals to use as they create high-quality antibiotic stewardship programs that meet the needs of their communities.”

“The Playbook began as a national call to action to address the antibiotic crisis, and much of it incorporates what HCA has learned since launching our Antimicrobial Management Program at 168 hospitals in 2010,” said Edward Septimus, MD, medical director of infection prevention and epidemiology, HCA, and co-chair of NQP’s antibiotic stewardship action team. “Acute care hospitals play a critical role in the safe and appropriate use of antibiotics, and the Playbook provides a comprehensive and practical plan for hospitals to implement stewardship programs that can help improve patient outcomes and reduce antibiotic resistance.”

Examples of strategies in the Playbook include team-wide, systematic approaches to assessing when patients need antibiotics and when treatment should be adjusted; educating staff, family, and patients about appropriate antibiotic use; and tracking and reporting antibiotic prescribing, use, and resistance.

“Significant levers will soon give all acute care hospitals in the nation more reason to implement antibiotic stewardship programs, including work being done by CMS to make antibiotic stewardship a condition of participation in Medicare. In addition, The Joint Commission is developing a standard that would require antibiotic stewardship in acute care settings,” said Sara Cosgrove, MD, MS, an infectious diseases physician and director of the antimicrobial stewardship program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and a voting member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.

The Playbook is a result of collaboration among more than 25 organizations and dozens of leading experts from the public and private sectors.  More than 1,100 people participated in an NQF webinar launch of the tool, and more than 8,000 have downloaded since its late May release.