Background

Stewardship of antimicrobial agents is an essential function of hospital pharmacies. The ideal pharmacist staffing model for antimicrobial stewardship programs is not known.

Objective

To inform staffing decisions for antimicrobial stewardship teams, we aimed to compare an antimicrobial stewardship program with a dedicated Infectious Diseases (ID) pharmacist (Dedicated ID Pharmacist Hospital) to a program relying on ward pharmacists for stewardship activities (Geographic Model Hospital).

Methods

We reviewed a randomly selected sample of 290 cases of inpatient parenteral antibiotic use. The electronic medical record was reviewed for compliance with indicators of appropriate antimicrobial stewardship.

Results

At the hospital staffed by a dedicated ID pharmacist, 96.8% of patients received initial antimicrobial therapy that adhered to local treatment guidelines compared to 87% of patients at the hospital that assigned antimicrobial stewardship duties to ward pharmacists (P < .002). Therapy was modified within 24 hours of availability of laboratory data in 86.7% of cases at the Dedicated ID Pharmacist Hospital versus 72.6% of cases at the Geographic Model Hospital (P < .03). When a patient's illness was determined not to be caused by a bacterial infection, antibiotics were discontinued in 78.0% of cases at the Dedicated ID Pharmacist Hospital and in 33.3% of cases at the Geographic Model Hospital (P < .0002).

Conclusion

An antimicrobial stewardship program with a dedicated ID pharmacist was associated with greater adherence to recommended antimicrobial therapy practices when compared to a stewardship program that relied on ward pharmacists.