Rigorous antibiotic stewardship in the hospitalized elderly population: saving lives and decreasing cost of inpatient care.

Publication/Presentation Date

9-1-2021

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is limited literature evaluating the effect of antibiotic stewardship programmes (ASPs) in hospitalized geriatric patients, who are at higher risk for readmissions, developing

METHODS: In this cohort study we compare the rates of 30 day hospital readmissions because of reinfection or development of CDI in patients 65 years and older who received ASP interventions between January and June 2017. We also assessed their mortality rates and length of stay. Patients were included if they received antibiotics for pneumonia, urinary tract infection, acute bacterial skin and skin structure infection or complicated intra-abdominal infection. The ASP team reviewed patients on antibiotics daily. ASP interventions included de-escalation of empirical or definitive therapy, change in duration of therapy or discontinuation of therapy. Treatment failure was defined as readmission because of reinfection or a new infection. A control group of patients 65 years and older who received antibiotics between January and June 2015 (pre-ASP) was analysed for comparison.

RESULTS: We demonstrated that the 30 day hospital readmission rate for all infection types decreased during the ASP intervention period from 24.9% to 9.3%,

CONCLUSIONS: Rigorous de-escalation and curtailing of antibiotic therapies were beneficial and without risk for the hospitalized patients 65 years and over.

Volume

3

Issue

3

First Page

118

Last Page

118

ISSN

2632-1823

Disciplines

Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

PubMedID

34396124

Department(s)

Department of Pharmacy

Document Type

Article

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