Antibiotic Stewardship Programs

Overview

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than two million people contract antibiotic-resistant infections in the US each year, with about 23,000 dying as a result¹. To address this issue, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) has partnered with the CDC National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases since 2012 to support and improve antibiotic stewardship and healthcare-associated infection (HAI) programs in public health and healthcare settings.

This collaboration has resulted in several programs and resources:

The Public Health Antibiotic Stewardship Driver Diagram
PHF led the development of a framework for determining and aligning actions that can be taken across sectors for achieving antibiotic stewardship. The resulting Public Health Antibiotic Stewardship Driver Diagram maps drivers of optimal antibiotic use as a companion to the Driver Diagram developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Antibiotic Stewardship Pilot Activities

“Antibiotics are critical adjuncts to modern medicine, are vital to performing effective surgical procedures, and provide medical treatment for a variety of serious illnesses,” - Dr. Lauri Hicks, Director for CDC’s Office of Antibiotic Stewardship.

PHF facilitated collaborative pilot efforts between public health and healthcare systems using the Public Health Antibiotic Stewardship Driver Diagram. Read how Connecticut Department of Public Health, Independence Health Department, and Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention created strategies and took steps to implement measureable improvements.

Promoting Health Department Antibiotic Stewardship Resources
In 2015, PHF collaborated with CDC to identify the capacities needed for successful antibiotic stewardship and HAI programs. PHF collected examples of tools and strategies used to develop and improve antibiotic stewardship programs, particularly those that utilize data and foster collaboration among community stakeholders.

Additional Antibiotic Stewardship Resources

Use materials from CDC's U.S. Antibiotic Awareness Week (formerly “Get Smart About Antibiotics Week”) to help the public health and healthcare systems promote optimal antibiotic use. Many of these resources are available through PHF’s Online Store.
Read How South Dakota Reduced CRE through a Multi-Disciplinary Approach, a blog on PHF Pulse
Hear about successes in Illinois and Nebraska on a PHF webinar, Building Cross-Sector Collaborations to Promote Effective Antibiotic Use in Inpatient, Outpatient, and Long-Term Care Settings
TRAIN Learning Network offers courses on antimicrobial and antibiotic resistance and stewardship.
Make decisions with data sources such as CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Patient Safety Atlas, with interactive data about HAIs, customizable maps and tables to show resistance patterns, and data on three key types of infections and 31 bug-drug profiles.

1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013. http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/ar-threats-2013-508.pdf

Find Materials on Appropriate Antibiotics Use from PHF's Online Store