Increasing Local Productivity Through a Regional Antimicrobial Stewardship Collaborative.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Infectious Diseases
• Public Health

Background:

• Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are crucial for patient safety but often face resource limitations.
• Addressing these barriers requires innovative approaches, such as regional stewardship networks and collaboratives.
• A 2020 initiative involved 5 US Department of Veterans Affairs facilities forming a regional ASP collaborative.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a regional ASP collaborative on the productivity of participating facilities.
• To assess changes in staffing, reporting, initiatives, and publications before and after the collaborative's formation.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of ASP annual reports from FY 2019 and FY 2020-2022 for 5 facilities.
• Data collected included staffing, inpatient/outpatient reporting, initiatives, and publications.
• Productivity trends were analyzed, and specialized dashboards were used to assess initiative impact on antibiotic prescribing.

Main Results:

• Outpatient metrics reporting and improvement increased significantly, from 27% in 2019 to 60% in 2022.
• Total ASP initiatives rose by 24% (33 to 41), with 6 collaborative initiatives implemented.
• Publications increased by 750% (2 to 17); inpatient metrics showed no significant change.

Conclusions:

• The ASP collaborative enhanced regional efficiency and productivity through shared improvement practices and workload distribution.
• The collaborative model proved effective in increasing ASP initiatives and scholarly output.
• This approach offers a viable solution for resource-constrained ASPs seeking to improve their impact.