Madison Memorial Hospital introduces new stewardship program
Over the last several decades there has been a significant increase in antibiotic usage across the United States.
In many cases antibiotics are administered needlessly or continued when no longer necessary.
“I think a lot of times we go to the doctor’s office as parents or patients, we’re not happy unless we walk out with a prescription for an antibiotic,” said David Anderson, staff pharmacist.
Due to prescribed medication being used incorrectly, the possibility of people growing a resistance to antibiotics is becoming a big concern.
“If someone develops a super bug, it may become a problem,” said Dr. Rodney Bates.
The Center of Disease Control and Prevention along with the World Health Organization report seeing increasing rates of resistance, which poses a threat to patients and public health.
“Basically we’re dealing with antibiotics and their usage. There’s a lot of resistance patterns out in the world today. Pneumonia or E coli infections which are very common for the body,” said Bates.
Madison Memorial Hospital is taking an active team approach to making sure staff gives patients the best care.
Staff members are introducing an antimicrobial stewardship at their hospital. The program is a systematic effort to optimize the use of antibiotics to help reduce the rise of antibiotic resistance.
“In a very basic way antimicrobial stewardship is the idea of using antibiotics better, better data collection of the patient, selecting the right antibiotic. A big emphasis is education.”
