Implementation of an antimicrobial stewardship program in a multicenter neonatal intensive care unit collaborative: a...

Staffing needs for an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) in the neonatal intensive care unit setting are undefined.

In an ASP collaborative of 29 California NICUs, we surveyed sites to determine full-time equivalents (FTE) for ASP implementation effort by clinical role, clinical acuity, patient volume, and other NICU characteristics.

146 staff members performed ASP implementation, including neonatologists, nurses, hospitalists, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, information technology personnel, and infectious disease specialists. The 8-month preparation and 12-month intervention phases required a median (IQR) of 0.015 (0.011-0.025) and 0.071 (0.056-0.091) FTEs (0.6 and 2.8 hours per week), respectively. Neonatologists and nurses performed 43% and 19% of the workload, respectively; effort for site-level stewardship activities and collaborative learning dissemination varied 3.3-fold over the collaborative. Higher clinical acuity and patient volume were associated with higher neonatologist effort.

Driven by neonatologists and nurses, NICU ASP requires demonstrable effort, and staff needs vary considerably.