Antimicrobial Stewardship & Patient Safety
"Antibiotic resistance is one of the biggest public health challenges of our time. Each year in the U.S., at least 2.8 million people get an antibiotic-resistant infection, and more than 35,000 people die. Fighting this threat is a public health priority that requires a collaborative global approach across sectors."
- CDC
Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) promotes optimal antimicrobial prescribing. The aim of antimicrobial stewardship is to improve the safe and appropriate use of antimicrobials, reduce patient harm and decrease the incidence of antimicrobial resistance in hospitals as well as in primary care and in animal health and production.
Antimicrobial stewardship is a coordinated effort that promotes the appropriate use of antimicrobials (including antibiotics), improves patient outcomes, reduces microbial resistance, and decreases the spread of infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms.
Misuse and overuse of antimicrobials is one of the world’s most pressing public health problems. Infectious organisms adapt to the antimicrobials designed to kill them, making the drugs ineffective. People infected with antimicrobial-resistant organisms are more likely to have longer, more expensive hospital stays, and may be more likely to die because of an infection.
In other words, AMS is the systematic effort to educate and persuade prescribers of antimicrobials to follow evidence-based prescribing, in order to stem antibiotic overuse, and thus antimicrobial resistance. AMS has been an organized effort of specialists in infectious diseases, both in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics with their respective peer-organizations, hospital pharmacists, the public health community and their professional organizations since the late 1990s. It has first been implemented in hospitals. In the U.S., within the context of physicians' prescribing freedom (choice of prescription drugs), AMS has largely been voluntary self-regulation in the form of policies and appeals to adhere to a prescribing self-discipline. At hospitals, this may take the form of an antimicrobial stewardship program. As of 2019, California and Missouri have made AMS programs mandatory by law.
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Test shows when safe to stop antibiotics in sepsis patients
The analysis was undertaken by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM), the NIHR Manchester HealthTech Research Centre in Emergency and Acute Care and the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), in collaboration with The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Study co-author, Professor Paul Dark, is Vice Dean for health and care partnerships at the University of Manchester and Professor of critical care medicine at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. This will be better for patients, who will experience more limited side effects, and better for health care systems by providing significant cost savings." He added: "Our recent cost effectiveness study that was part of the ADAPT-Sepsis trial also suggests that implementing daily procalcitonin measurement into routine NHS sepsis care would likely be cost effective. "This approach supports the UK's 10-Year Health Plan to tackle antibiotic resistance and could inform future NICE sepsis guidelines, paving the way for routine use of these blood tests in sepsis care."
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Research: Telemedicine Doesn't Spur Antibiotic Overuse
Telemedicine does not lead to increased or lower-quality antibiotic prescribing by general practitioners (GPs), Monash University research involving the University of Melbourne and University of Technology Sydney (UTS) has found. Published in the Journal of Health Economics, the study was prompted by the rapid expansion of telemedicine via phone or video conference during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study co-authors included Dr Maria Wiśniewska, who conducted the research while completing her PhD at the Monash Business School and is now at Deakin University Business School, Professor Daniel Avdic from UTS and Dr Susan Méndez from the University of Melbourne. Dr Wiśniewska said the evidence suggested that fears of lower quality care in telemedicine were not supported in this context.
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Indiscriminate use of antibiotics heightens risk of superbugs
By Borun Kumar Dash and Abdur Rouf DHAKA, Jan 14, 2026 (BSS) – Indiscriminate use of antibiotics without medical advice and the widespread failure to complete prescribed courses are accelerating the rise of multidrug-resistant superbugs, a growing public health threat that experts warn could one day rival—or even surpass—cancer in its deadly impact. Laboratory testing then determines which antibiotic is effective against that germ, and only that proven medication should be administered. Yet, selecting the correct drug alone is not sufficient, administering the appropriate dose and ensuring completion of the full prescribed course are indispensable components of effective treatment, said Dr Hafizur Rahman. Highlighting the widespread misuse of antibiotics in the country, the physician said that antibiotics are alarmingly easy to obtain. Warning about the side effects and risks of antibiotics, Dr Hafizur Rahman said excessive use is causing a wide range of long-term harm to the human body."
