Stewardship Initiatives

DASON staff offer a helpful, how-to guide on our members-only website for community hospital physician champions and pharmacists wishing to implement or enhance antimicrobial stewardship initiatives at their respective facilities.

DASON staff will be developing and updating these materials as new data and experience are gained.

Antimicrobial Formulary Management describes antimicrobial medication use and formulary review processes and their respective roles in antimicrobial stewardship.

Implementing Change Using Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs describes the administrative structure and composition of a typical antimicrobial stewardship team, addresses the trials and challenges of establishing a program, and offers practical guidance on how to engage and establish working relationships with important stakeholders in stewardship (e.g. hospital leadership, microbiology personnel, medical and surgical staff).

In Making a Business Case for Antimicrobial Stewardship, DASON staff offer a business case calculator and a slide set with helpful citations of published data that member hospitals can use to design a presentation meant for key stakeholders in the decision making process.

Overcoming Barriers to Implementation relies on the wealth of knowledge and experience of DASON staff to describe how best to address hindrances to getting an antimicrobial stewardship program off the ground.

Program Elements provides practical advice on selecting and implementing different elements of antimicrobial stewardship, highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each, and cites supporting evidence. Some examples include:

  • Formulary Restriction and Pre-Authorization
  • Prospective Audit with Intervention and Feedback
  • Order Sets, Treatment Algorithms and Clinical Guidelines
  • Prescriber Education
  • Antibiotic Streamlining or De-escalation
  • Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacokinetic Dose Optimization
  • Computer-Assisted Decision Support
  • Intravenous to Oral Switch Programs
  • Antimicrobial Cycling
  • Taking Advantage of Rapid Diagnostic Tests
  • Offering Advice on Surgical Prophylaxis

In Creating a Data-Driven Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, DASON staff offers guidance on how to assess antimicrobial stewardship metrics such as antimicrobial utilization or consumption, antibiogram data and clinical outcomes data. This section also offers helpful tips on benchmarking performance, understanding DASON analyses, quantifying stewardship activities, and creating an annual program assessment and plan.