Establishing an antimicrobial stewardship program

Hospitals are faced with increasing challenges of antibiotic-resistant organisms and rising antimicrobial costs despite widespread attention to infection prevention and control measures. Government, professional organizations and accreditation bodies are all signalling an urgent need for the establishment of programs in hospitals to address antibiotic misuse. Although variations of such "antimicrobial stewardship programs" have been functioning in Canada for some time, a formal approach using change management and quality improvement principles has largely been lacking. We describe how we have established such a program in a teaching hospital, modelled on John Kotter's eight steps of leading change.