Antimicrobial stewardship without infectious disease physician for patients with candidemia: A before and after study

Little is known about the effects of antimicrobial stewardship team (AST) without infectious disease physician (IDP) on clinical outcome in patients with candidemia.

We conducted a before and after study involving patients with hospital-acquired candidemia at a tertiary hospital without IDPs. The AST consisted of physicians, pharmacists, nurse, microbiologist, and administrative staff. A candidemia care bundle was developed based on the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) guideline. The non-IDP AST provided recommendations to the attending physicians whose patients developed candidemia during hospitalization. The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause mortality, while the secondary outcomes were adherence to the IDSA guidelines regarding the management of candidemia. Data of up to 3 years of preintervention and 3 years of intervention period were analyzed.

By 30 days, 11 of 46 patients (23.9%) in the intervention group and 7 of 30 patients (23.3%) in the preintervention group died (adjusted hazard ratio for the intervention group: 0.68 [95% CI 0.24-1.91]). The non-IDP AST was associated with appropriate empirical antifungal therapy (100% vs 60.0%; proportion ratio 1.67 [95% CI 1.24-2.23]), appropriate duration of treatment (84.7% vs 43.3%; 1.96 [1.28-3.00]), removal of central venous catheters (94.4% vs 70.8%; 1.33 [1.02-1.74]), and ophthalmological examination (93.5% vs 63.3%; 1.48 [1.12-1.96]).

Although we found no significant difference in 30-day mortality, the non-IDP AST was associated with improved adherence to guidelines for management of candidemia.