Antimicrobial Stewardship Program
Saint Luke's Hospital Antibiogram
St Luke's aims to provide the best possible clinical outcomes for the treatment of infection while also 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 that patients receive antibiotics only when necessary to avoid antibiotics' overuse. Our providers' care to follow national best practice guidelines for the proper use of antibiotics helps prevent antibiotic-resistant infections. We encourage you, our patient, to remember always to 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:
• Skin Infections
• Pneumonia
• Urinary Tract Infections
C.Difficile Prevention:
• 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
• Kathy Hefner, CNO
• Steve Polk, Pharmacist
• Lori Rothell, Infection Preventionist
• Michael Bedynek, Lab Director
• Evan Drake, Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner
External Links
• CDC - Get Smart for Healthcare• APIC Antimicrobial Stewardship
• CDC Vital Signs - Making Health Care Safer: Stopping C. difficile Infections
Antimicrobial Stewardship Management of Infections
Physicians, you can contact Steve Polk for questions about the St. Luke's Antimicrobial Stewardship program.
