TO THE EDITOR—Infectious diseases specialists face a challenging era highlighted by multidrug-resistant pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. These issues have fueled increasing emphasis on antimicrobial stewardship [1, 2]. Essential in antimicrobial stewardship is the practice of appropriate antibiotic use and avoidance of unnecessary antimicrobial agents. One such example is the often unnec...

Antimicrobial resistance has increased dramatically in the past 15 to 20 yrs and presents a patient safety concern unlike any other in the intensive care unit. Antimicrobial resistance in critically ill patients increases morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stay, and healthcare costs. Some organisms may have intrinsically high levels of resistance or may be spread between patients by poor ...

OBJECTIVE To characterize the top 1% of inpatients who contributed to the 6-month antimicrobial budget in a tertiary, academic medical center and identify cost-effective intervention opportunities targeting high-cost antimicrobial utilization. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. PATIENTS Top 1% of the antimicrobial budget from July 1 through December 31, 2014. METHODS Patients were identified th...

The growing resistance to antimicrobial agents of all respiratory tract bacterial pathogens has made the management of sinusitis more difficult. The upper respiratory tract including the nasopharynx serves as the reservoir for pathogenic bacteria that can cause respiratory infections including sinusitis. During a viral respiratory infection, potential pathogens can relocate from the nasopharynx...

UNLABELLED Frequent, suboptimal use of antimicrobial drugs has resulted in the emergence of microbial resistance, compromised clinical outcomes and increased costs, particularly in the intensive care unit (ICU). Mounting on these challenges is the paucity of new antimicrobial agents. OBJECTIVE The study aims to determine the impact of prospective pharmacy-driven antimicrobial stewardship in t...

Increasing bacterial antimicrobial resistance has prompted physicians to choose broad-spectrum antimicrobials in order to reduce the likelihood of inactive empirical therapy. However, for bacteremic patients already receiving supportive care, it is unclear whether delay of active antimicrobial therapy significantly impacts patient outcomes. We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients ...