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The job of reining in a hospital's antibiotic use often is assigned to a single individual or a small “antibiotic stewardship” team. To engage a broader swath of hospital staff in this increasingly challenging effort, a team at the U.S. federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality safety program designed a “pragmatic quality improvement program” consisting of 17 webinars to educate hospital staff on all facets of antibiotic management.
During calendar year 2018, about 400 hospitals across the U.S. participated. Most had fewer than 300 beds, almost half had no access to infectious disease specialists, and almost none had dedicated salary support for a physician or pharmacist designated “lead antibiotic steward.” Each webinar attracted a…