“Experts lay out universal framework for stewardship programs”

“An international team of experts has developed a list of core elements and checklist items to help hospitals around the world use antimicrobial drugs more responsibly.

The core elements, published yesterday in Clinical Microbiology and Infection, aim to define the essential and minimum standards for hospital antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) in both high- and low-to-middle-income countries. While groups in the United States and other high-income nations have developed such standards, this is the first effort to develop a universal ASP framework “that could be relevant across both resource-rich and resource-limited contexts,” the authors of the paper write.

ASPs aim to optimize the use of antimicrobials in hospitals through coordinated interventions that focus on providing patients with the right drug, at the right time, at the right dose, for the right duration. They are viewed as an essential mechanism for reducing antimicrobial resistance.”

Source: CIDRAP