Impact of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist's Intervention on Blood Culture-positive Patients

Abstract

In March 2018, an antimicrobial stewardship (AS) team commenced an active intervention in patients with bacteremia at the Tama-Nanbu Chiiki Hospital, Japan. An AS pharmacist audited and reviewed the prescription of antimicrobial agents in patient with bacteremia and suggested empirical and definitive changes to the antimicrobials. A total of 247 patients were evaluated, which resulted in 102 interventions, with 88% acceptance rate. The rate of appropriate de-escalation rose from 55% to 79% (p < 0.05). Although the total consumption of antimicrobial agents did not markedly change the observa-tion period, the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics such as tazobactam/piperacillin was signifi-cantly decreased. It was concluded that the activities of the AS team are important as they lead to proper selection of antimicrobial drug therapy.