This week’s “Ftag of the Week” is F811 Antibiotic Stewardship Program because it’s also the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) US Antibiotic Awareness Week. The number of people dying each year from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in our country is more than 23,000. Healthcare providers, including nursing facilities, play an important role in appropriate prescribing of antibiotics.
Antibiotic stewardship in LTC facilities is considered part of the facility’s Infection Prevention and Control Program (IPCP), requiring facilities to develop antibiotic use protocols and implement a system to monitor antibiotic use and resistance. The intent of the Antibiotic Stewardship Program is to ensure:
- Residents who require antibiotics are prescribed the appropriate antibiotic to optimize the treatment of infections with the correct indication, dose and duration
- The risk of adverse events is reduced by ensuring that unnecessary/inappropriate antibiotic use does not occur, which could lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant organisms
- That the facility has developed, promoted and implemented a facility-wide system to monitor the use of antibiotics
Per the Interpretive Guidance, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expects that antibiotic stewardship protocols will be in place that are incorporated into the overall IPCP, are reviewed annually, contain a system of reports to monitor usage and resistance data and incorporate antibiotic use monitoring, including frequency of monitoring/review. Facilities should have protocols for assessing residents for any infection using standardized tools and criteria, and include the mode of education for prescribing practitioners and nursing staff on antibiotic use and the facility’s protocols. The consultant pharmacist is expected, to conduct the MRR at least monthly and beginning Phase 2, to include a review of the resident’s medical record. That review should include the assessment, monitoring and communication of antibiotic use.
A great deal of emphasis in the new Requirements of Participation is being placed on infection prevention and control, so it’s important to ensure that your facility’s overall Infection Prevention and Control Program meets the requirements for compliance at F880 moving forward. Phase 2 is effective in less than two weeks – it’s time to put everything in place if you haven’t.