Association of a Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use with Antibiotic Use and Hospital-Onset Clostridioides difficile Infection Rates Among US Hospitals

Adherence to key components of ASPs (ie, interventions before and after prescription of antibiotics, availability of local antibiotic guidelines, ASP leads with dedicated salary support, and quarterly reporting of antibiotic use) improved from 8% to 74% over the 1-year period (P < .01). Antibiotic use decreased by 30.3 DOT per 1000 PD (95% CI, -52.6 to -8.0 DOT; P = .008). Similar changes in antibiotic use were not observed in the Premier Healthcare Database. The incidence rate of hospital-onset C difficile laboratory-identified events decreased by 19.5% (95% CI, -33.5% to -2.4%; P = .03). The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Safety Program appeared to enable diverse hospitals to establish ASPs and teach frontline clinicians to self-steward their antibiotic use. Safety Program content is publicly available.

Tamma P, Miller M, Dullabh P, Ahn R, Speck K, Gao Y, Scherpf E, Cosgrove S. Association of a Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use with Antibiotic Use and Hospital-Onset Clostridioides difficile Infection Rates Among US Hospitals. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(2):e210235. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.0235