As an element of Get Smart About Antibiotics Week, the Public Health Foundation (PHF) has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to release Antibiotic Stewardship Implementation Framework for Health Departments, a toolkit designed to support state, tribal, local, and territorial health department efforts to promote appropriate use of antibiotics and reduce healthcare associated infections. As antibiotic resistant infections increase healthcare costs and contribute to negative health outcomes1, the work of health departments to promote appropriate antibiotic use has become increasingly important. By conducting surveillance activities, communicating with and educating practitioners and the public, supporting and implementing policy, and establishing and leading collaborations, health departments across the country are creating an infrastructure necessary to achieve optimal antibiotic use.
Antibiotic Stewardship Implementation Framework for Health Departments includes eight vignettes highlighting state health department innovations and best practices in antibiotic stewardship. Also included in the toolkit are links to related tools and resources, which may be helpful for health departments developing or seeking to improve their own antibiotic stewardship programs. These tools and resources include examples of provider surveys, legislation requiring the implementation of antibiotic stewardship programs, work plans and resources for developing community collaboratives on antibiotic stewardship, and initiatives that provide incentives for provider participation in this work.
Antibiotic Stewardship Implementation Framework for Health Departments builds on conversations with 17 state and local health departments about their antibiotic stewardship efforts. Hundreds of tools and strategies used to develop and improve antibiotic stewardship programs were collected as a result of these conversations. Health departments demonstrated how data and quality improvement methods were used to foster collaboration among community stakeholders. The collected materials were aligned with the drivers in the Public Health Antibiotic Stewardship Driver Diagram. The driver diagram identifies primary and secondary drivers of antibiotic stewardship, framing the selection and alignment of cross-disciplinary actions. Because public health and healthcare are more effective when they combine their efforts to address antibiotic stewardship, using a population health driver diagram can tackle challenges at the crossroads of these two sectors.
Additional Resources
1 CDC Outpatient Stewardship http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/community/improving-prescribing/outpatient-stewardship.html