Antimicrobial Stewardship Program
Our goal at St. Luke's is to provide the most responsible and effective clinical care while minimizing antimicrobial resistance. We've implemented an antibiotic stewardship program recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to accomplish this goal. Implementing this program means our facility and providers work to use antibiotics appropriately and only when necessary to ensure they continue to work effectively.
Clear, evidence-based protocols allow our providers to ensure patients receive antibiotics only when necessary to avoid overuse. Our providers' care to follow national "best practices" guidelines for adequately using antibiotics helps prevent antibiotic-resistant infections. We encourage you, our patient, to always ask your provider if the antibiotic is essential. Remember that antibiotics do not kill viruses, only bacteria. Please be understanding when your provider does not prescribe an antibiotic when your illness is determined to be viral. Their actions are to protect you! Thank you for joining us in the fight to prevent resistant "super-bugs" from developing by assuring that we do not overuse the valuable resource of antibiotics as we work to conserve their use for situations where they are effective!
Empiric treatment recommendations:
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Skin Infections
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Pneumonia
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Urinary Tract Infections
C.Difficile Prevention:
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JAMA: Association between PPI's and recurrent C.Diff Infection (2017)
Members of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Taskforce at St. Luke's Hospital:
• Dr. Will Savage, Hospitalist
• Stephanie Postol, CNO
• Curtis Koone, Pharmacist
• Lori Rothell, Infection Preventionist
• Evan Drake, Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner
External Links
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CDC - Get Smart for Healthcare
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APIC Antimicrobial Stewardship
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CDC Vital Signs - Making Health Care Safer: Stopping C. difficile Infections
Physicians, you can contact
Curtis Koone for questions about the St. Luke's Antimicrobial Stewardship program.