Antibiotic streamlining: development and justification of an antibiotic streamlining program.

Several techniques can be applied to streamline or optimize antimicrobial therapy in the hospitalized patient. As soon as there is a documented clinical response to intravenous therapy, the antibiotic can be switched to the oral route of administration. This antimicrobial streamlining technique is called switch therapy. This article presents the development of the switch therapy concept, the good clinical outcome obtained with switch therapy in patients with community and nosocomial pneumonia, as well as the cost-savings to our institution after the implementation of this program.