Antimicrobial stewardship programs in a Mexican private healthcare system: a self-assessment of core elements.

Background: Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) refer to a set of coordinated actions that improve the quality of care and combat antimicrobial resistance. Currently, information regarding the status of ASPs in Mexico is scarce. We aimed to describe the status of ASPs in 12 hospitals from Christus Muguerza Healthcare System.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 12 hospitals, with a previously developed self-assessment tool to calculate each hospital's ASP development score. The self-assessment tool includes 7 standards with 23 items. Score categories were defined as; high, medium, low, or none. The overall ASP development score was calculated using the proportional weight of each standard. Participating hospitals were divided into 2 groups according to their bed count. Statistical analysis was conducted in Excel program (Microsoft, Redmont, Washington).

Results: 12 hospitals completed the self-assessment survey. The median overall ASP development score was 32.3%. The highest overall development scores were observed for hospitals with > 40 beds. The core elements with the lowest development scores were Education and training, and Reporting and feedback. Unlike hospitals with over 40 beds, those with 40 beds or less had a low development score for Hospital leadership support. The core element with the highest development score was Infection prevention and control.

Conclusions: This is the first multicenter assessment of ASPs in Mexico, revealing a high proportion of low-score hospitals. National implementation of ASPs is required to combat antimicrobial resistance.