ASHP Advantage has selected five health systems to participate in the Institutional Impact Antimicrobial Stewardship Mentored Initiative, a national effort to improve antimicrobial use in health systems. The sites were selected through a competitive application process, and applicants were required to assemble a multidisciplinary team and garner support from senior leadership to conduct an antimicrobial stewardship improvement project at their facilities.
A pharmacist mentor with expertise in antimicrobial stewardship will visit the health systems listed below to evaluate current antimicrobial practices and provide specific recommendations to meet their quality improvement goals. The visit includes a continuing education presentation accredited for pharmacists, physicians, and nurses. Following the visit, participants and their teams will conduct antimicrobial stewardship improvement activities and report outcomes that will be featured as success stories for this initiative.
The selected participants are as follows:
Inova Alexandria Hospital
Alexandria, Virginia
Team Leader: Tram Rex, Pharm.D.
Interim Louisiana State Hospital
New Orleans, Louisiana
Team Leader: Fatima Brakta, Pharm.D.
St. Mary's Hospital
Madison, Wisconsin
Team Leader: Geri Naymick, Pharm.D.
Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southwest Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Team Leader: Eric Bauer, B.S. Pharm.
The Christ Hospital
Cincinnati, Ohio
Team Leader: Alissa Lee, Pharm.D.
The faculty mentors are as follows:
Debra A. Goff, Pharm.D., FCCP
Associate Professor
Ohio State University Medical Center
College of Pharmacy
Columbus, Ohio
Craig Martin, Pharm.D., BCPS
Pharmacist Specialist, Infectious Diseases
Associate Professor
University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy
University of Kentucky Health Care
Lexington, Kentucky
The Institutional Impact Antimicrobial Stewardship Mentored Initiative is part of a series of interprofessional activities designed to improve antimicrobial use in health systems. The initiative was developed by a multidisciplinary educational steering committee comprised of experts in antimicrobial stewardship and infectious diseases and is supported by educational grants from Astellas Pharma Global Development, Inc., Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Pfizer, Inc.
Additional activities included in this national initiative include on-demand, home study activities focusing on the basics of ASPs, as well as live interactive webinars on enhancing stewardship programs. Visitors to the web portal can access a variety of antimicrobial stewardship resources including evidence-based guidelines, stewardship tool kits, and other helpful tools.
About ASHP Advantage
Launched in 1995, ASHP Advantage specializes in developing customized educational activities to address identified educational gaps. As a division of ASHP, ASHP Advantage staff members stay apprised of key issues and trends shaping pharmacy practice and health care today. With access to the vast resources of ASHP and its membership, ASHP Advantage designs quality programs and projects for health care professionals. For more information about the services of ASHP Advantage, visit www.ashpadvantage.com.
About ASHP
For more than 60 years, ASHP has helped pharmacists who practice in hospitals and health systems improve medication use and enhance patient safety. The Society’s 35,000 members include pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who practice in inpatient, outpatient, home-care, and long-term-care settings, as well as pharmacy students. For more information about the wide array of ASHP activities and the many ways in which pharmacists help people make the best use of medicines, visit ASHP’s Web site, www.ashp.org, or its consumer Web site, www.SafeMedication.com.
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