Antibiotic Stewardship Toolkits

Posted in RESOURCES

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare

AHRQ supports U.S. Antibiotic Awareness Week, an annual observance to raise awareness of the threat of antibiotic resistance and the importance of appropriate antibiotic use. Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most urgent threats to the public’s health. More than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the United States each year; 35,000 people die as a result. 

AHRQ’s Four Moments of Antibiotic Decision Making offers a framework that allows clinicians to improve antibiotic prescribing. Learn more and get free, practical tools to apply the Four Moments in acute care, long term care, and ambulatory settings: https://www.ahrq.gov/antibiotic-use/index.html.

These toolkits were developed based on the experiences of frontline clinical teams in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and ambulatory practices that successfully applied the Four Moments of Antibiotic Decision Making to improve antibiotic use.

Setting-specific materials focus on improving antibiotic stewardship programs, engaging frontline staff in improving prescribing behavior, and diagnosing and treating common infectious syndromes.

The resources were developed by clinicians for clinicians and are based on the experiences of teams who participated in the AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use.

  • Access the Toolkit to Improve Antibiotic Use in Long-Term Care. The toolkit includes information for the long-term care setting on building and maintaining an antibiotic stewardship program; improving the safety culture around antibiotic prescribing; improving communication between health care practitioners, residents, and their caregivers; and diagnosing, treating, and managing common infectious disease syndromes.
  • Access the Toolkit To Improve Antibiotic Use in Acute Care Hospitals. The toolkit includes information for the acute care setting on building and maintaining an antibiotic stewardship program, improving the safety culture around antibiotic prescribing, and diagnosing and treating common infectious disease syndromes.
  • Access the Toolkit To Improve Antibiotic Use in Ambulatory Care. The toolkit includes information for the ambulatory care setting on developing and improving antibiotic stewardship activities in your practice, learning strategies for communicating about antibiotic prescribing, and learning best practices for diagnosing and managing common infectious syndromes and antibiotic allergies.