Hospital Wide Roll-Out of Antimicrobial Stewardship

Dramatic increases in antibiotic utilization in hospitals continue to drive antibiotic resistance among hospital-acquired pathogens. However, 30-50% of the antibiotic use in hospitals is unnecessary or inappropriate. The Infectious Diseases Society of America has published guidelines stating that all hospitals should develop an institutional program to enhance antimicrobial stewardship. At Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, an antibiotic stewardship audit-and-feedback intervention for all patients reaching their third or tenth day of broadspectrum antibiotic use in intensive care, resulted in a reduction of antibiotic use, antibiotic costs, and Clostridium difficile infections in the intensive care unit. The investigators hypothesize that this intervention will result in similar benefits outside of the intensive care unit, and so expanded the intervention to non-ICU medical and surgical wards. To increase the rigor of our program evaluation, the roll-out was conducted in a stepped-wedge randomized controlled design.