Be Antibiotic Aware: Tracking Illness and Antimicrobial Use

Session Description: The way we use antibiotics today or in one patient directly impacts how effective they will be tomorrow or in another patient; antibiotics are a shared resource. Preserving effective antibiotic treatments requires all of us to do our part. This session will describe the need for a resident illness and antimicrobial use tracking tool identified through Infection Control Assessment and Response (ICAR) onsite visits in Minnesota Long-term care facilities. The Minnesota Department of Health Healthcare-Associated Infections/Antimicrobial Resistance Section addressed this gap by developing a free, computer-based tool.

During the session, a live demonstration will show participants how to enter specific data into the tool for categories including infection type, symptoms, diagnostic results and antimicrobial use. Participants will also learn how the tool updates a variety of tables and bar graphs in real-time, and provides Infection Preventionists summarized data on a single sheet.

Auto-calculated tables and bar graphs include data regarding (a) infection rates per 1,000 resident/patient days, (b) days of antimicrobial therapy per 1,000 resident/patient days, (c) prescription origin (e.g. clinic, emergency department), (d) percentage of antibiotic use meeting criteria, and (e) antimicrobial class utilization. This session will review common questions posed by current users to expand upon the implementation of this resource and share methods for putting the data to use.