Dr. Rainu Kaushal, M.D., MPH: Health Data Exchange, Interoperability Can Aid Antibiotic Stewardship

To effectively implement antibiotic stewardship programs, hospitals should boost operations with health IT tools, improve data interoperability and data resources, and expand beyond traditional stewardship organizational models, according to a study published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.

Improper antibiotic stewardship can lead to antibiotic resistance in patients, which negatively impacts mortality, morbidity, and length and cost of hospital visits. However, many hospitals struggle to implement successful antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs).

“As of 2014, only 39 percent of hospitals in the United States reported having an ASP that met all recommended elements of stewardship programs, and only 55 percent had any ASP infrastructure,” the researchers wrote.

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