Impact of an Infectious Disease Specialist on an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at a Resource-Limited, Non-Academic Community Hospital in Korea.

BACKGROUND

Implementing a successful antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) is difficult for non-academic community (NAC) hospitals due to insufficient infrastructure.

AIM

We evaluated the impact of an infectious disease specialist (IDS) on implementing an ASP in a resource-limited setting in Korea.

METHODS

A retrospective study was performed at a NAC hospital between June 2015 and August 2018. An IDS has led an ASP at the hospital since June 2017. We used an interrupted time series analysis to evaluate longitudinal effects of the IDS-led ASP on the amount of antibiotic use and incidence of multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) acquisition.

FINDINGS

Total antibiotic use changed from 698.82 ± 74.41 to 602.09 ± 69.94 defined daily dose/1000 patient-days (PDs) after intervention. An immediate reduction in the use of carbapenems, glycopeptides, penicillins, and other antibiotics followed the IDS-led ASP. The 3rd/4th generation cephalosporins and carbapenems prescription rates decreased in slope after the intervention. Incidence of MDRO acquisition changed from 1.38, 0.78, and 0.21/1000 PDs to 1.06, 0.15, and 0.32/1000 PDs in methicillin-resistant , multidrug-resistant , and multidrug-resistant , respectively. The incidence of methicillin-resistant and multidrug-resistant acquisition immediately decreased following intervention.

CONCLUSION

An IDS can implement a successful ASP by reducing antibiotic consumption and MDRO acquisition at resource-limited NAC hospitals.