Benchmarking antimicrobial drug use in hospitals

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Infectious Disease Epidemiology
• Pharmacoeconomics

Background:

• Antibiotic resistance is a growing threat, necessitating effective antimicrobial stewardship.
• Hospital antibiotic use monitoring is key to stewardship strategies.
• Interhospital benchmarking offers a novel approach to compare healthcare practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent methods for benchmarking antimicrobial drug use in hospitals.
• To critically assess the advantages and challenges of antimicrobial use benchmarking.
• To evaluate the role of benchmarking in antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of recent methodologies for antimicrobial use benchmarking.
• Analysis of risk-adjustment techniques for interhospital comparisons.
• Critical assessment of current challenges and future directions in benchmarking.

Main Results:

• Benchmarking requires risk-adjusted usage figures to account for patient mix and hospital characteristics.
• Several methodological challenges persist in developing valid benchmarking metrics.
• Recent advancements indicate benchmarking will likely become integral to stewardship activities.

Conclusions:

• Benchmarking antimicrobial drug use shows promise as a vital component of antimicrobial stewardship.
• Further research is needed to determine the clinical outcomes of benchmarking programs.
• Addressing methodological challenges is essential for the successful implementation of antimicrobial use benchmarking.