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Tip of the week: Monitor antibiotic use at your facility

Infection Control Monitor, April 4, 2008

One effective strategy ICPs can employ to target and mitigate antibiotic resistance at their facility is to monitor the use of antibiotics.

ICPs should have an effective working relationship with hospital pharmacists to keep tabs on prescribing trends at the facility, says B. Joseph Guglielmo Jr., PharmD, professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of California-San Francisco. For example, a red flag should be raised if a physician prescribes third-generation antibiotics or vancomycin in cases in which other, narrower-spectrum options are available. "In a case like that, you don't want the antibiotics that are reserved for serious conditions to be used," says John G. Gums, PharmD, professor of pharmacy and medicine at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

For more strategies, go to www.hcpro.com/content/208503.cfm. The cost is $10. Briefings on Infection Control subscribers received this story with their subscriptions.

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