Lack of on-site antimicrobial stewardship expertise is a recognized barrier to establishing successful antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP). Tele-antimicrobial stewardship programs (TASP) utilizing a clinical decision support system (CDSS), in this case, ILÚM Insight®, successfully addressed these challenges. This peer reviewed journal article published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases by Tina Khadem, PharmD and team explore the use of telehealth to support antibiotic stewardship in a community hospital.
The article also addresses:
- Challenges facing community hospitals in implementing an effective antimicrobial stewardship program.
- Using an integrated approach to implement TASP workflows after CDSS implementation.
- Statistical analysis on antibiotic usage pre and post-TASP implementation.
- How the implementation of ILÚM Insight was associated with:
- Reduced antibiotic usage
- Faster median time to optimal therapy (TTOT)
- Reduced days of antimicrobials per admission post-CDSS
- Significant increases in pharmacist-documented interventions each month