Nontraditional Interventions Can Enhance Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

Emily Heil, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, explains why stewards should think outside of the box when coming up with interventions to include in an antimicrobial stewardship program.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“I think it’s very important for antimicrobial stewards to remember that there are so many things that can be considered stewardship intervention; it doesn’t have to be traditional post-prescriptive review or retrospective and audited feedbacks, [which are] some of the traditional models of stewardship.

There are so many things that we can do that are considered antimicrobial stewardship, such as the IV to PO conversions, implementing a vancomycin dosing service to allow for dose optimization and individualization of patient doses, [and] implementing extended infusion beta lactams in the [intensive care unit] ICU. There’s a whole host of interventions that might not seem like stewardship at the time, but really do impact patient care and should be considered as part of a stewardship program.”