Antibiotic stewardship in the retail clinic setting: Implementation in 1100 clinics nationwide

In light of increasing antibiotic resistance and a slowed antibiotic development pipeline, stewardship is more urgent than ever. To date, most stewardship guidelines and best practice recommendations for implementation focus on local or regional health care organizations. CVS MinuteClinic has implemented a consistent, evidence-based stewardship approach in its >1100 clinics in 33 states. The approach is associated with higher quality antibiotic use than that in primary care practices and emergency departments. Given MinuteClinic's scale, sharing this approach and lessons learned may assist other organizations in implementing large-scale stewardship programs that foster judicious use of antibiotics for the public's health.