Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship

    Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship

The Atlantic Quality Innovation Network (AQIN) is one of 14 Medicare-funded Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs) operating across the U.S. AQIN includes IPRO (NY), The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence (SC) and Qlarant (DC). As QIO we can assist you to achieve the CDC’s core elements of outpatient antibiotic stewardship and reduce antibiotic resistance and its financial impact. As a part of the national QIO effort, we offer technical assistance in the form of webinars, newsletters, electronic resources, individualized coaching calls, best practice initiatives, environmental scan reports on antibiotic use and interaction with expert consultants to assist with facilitating the initiation and/or expansion of antibiotic stewardship. Participation in the program includes tracking your facility’s progress toward adoption and operationalization of the CDC core elements.

Antibiotic Stewardship in the Outpatient Setting

• Is the effort to measure and improve antibiotic prescribing
• Ensures right drug, right dose, and right duration of the selected antibiotic
• Maximizes the benefit of antibiotics and minimizes the potential harm of antibiotics including resistance and avoidable adverse drug events. The most modifiable risk factor for antibiotic resistance is inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics.
• Addresses over prescribing, under prescribing and/or mis-prescribing
• Establishes standards for antibiotic prescribing that are setting/infection specific
• Protects patients and improves clinical outcomes in outpatient health care settings.