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The best antibiotic stewardship programs weave improvements into the routines of hospitalists. But at the end of the day, developing and overseeing these important programs does require some level of time and money. And setting aside that time and money has been the exception rather than the rule.
According to early results from an SHM survey, nine of 123 hospitalists said that they are compensated for work on antimicrobial stewardship programs at their hospitals. That’s a mere 7%. Only 10 out of 122 respondents said they have “protected time” for work on an antimicrobial stewardship program. That’s about 8%. And it’s possible that the survey results are actually skewed somewhat, receiving responses from more proactive centers. One hundred fifteen out of 178 respondents, or 65%, said that they have an antimicrobial stewardship program at their centers.
Arjun Srinivasan, the CDC’s associate director for healthcare-associated infection prevention programs, says he has found that typically about half of U.S. hospitals have such programs. Eric Howell, MD, SFHM, director of the collaborative inpatient medicine service at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, says change can be a slow process, but he expects initiatives like SHM’s new antibiotic stewardship campaign to help tip the scales toward more resources and more change. It’s a matter of “making the case that, No. 1, this is a problem and, No. 2, there are solutions out there and, No. 3, these solutions are cost effective, as well as improving quality.” Demonstrating the effects on cost and outcomes, he says, is “likely the tipping point [where] we will see real change.”
“If we don’t change, we’re going to run out of antibiotics,” says Dr. Howell, who is also senior physician advisor to SHM’s Center for Hospital Innovation and Improvement. “People are sort of really panic-stricken. And that fear is helping to motivate them to drive change, too.”
Jonathan Zenilman, MD, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Bayview, says that his team worked with a non-Hopkins hospital in Delaware and found they saved about $80,000 a year just by eliminating the use of ertapenem for pre-operative prophylaxis for abdominal surgery. Numbers like that, he says, show that the case for savings can be made to hospital administration. Then again, it’s often easier to make the case before a program is started—and harder to keep it going after that first year.
“Between the second and the third year, you’re not going to generate much savings, if anything,” he says. If a new administrator is in place, it can be a challenge to get them to realize that costs will go back up once a program is dismantled.
“They look at this as an additional business model,” Dr. Zenilman explains. “They’ll say, ‘Where does my revenue offset the costs?’ And sometimes they just don’t get the value proposition…It needs to be pitched as a value proposition and not as a revenue proposition.”
The culture change toward value in the U.S. is helping, though, he says. “Now the business case is easier,” he says, “because there’s clearly this regulatory push towards doing it.” TH
The best antibiotic stewardship programs weave improvements into the routines of hospitalists. But at the end of the day, developing and overseeing these important programs does require some level of time and money. And setting aside that time and money has been the exception rather than the rule.
According to early results from an SHM survey, nine of 123 hospitalists said that they are compensated for work on antimicrobial stewardship programs at their hospitals. That’s a mere 7%. Only 10 out of 122 respondents said they have “protected time” for work on an antimicrobial stewardship program. That’s about 8%. And it’s possible that the survey results are actually skewed somewhat, receiving responses from more proactive centers. One hundred fifteen out of 178 respondents, or 65%, said that they have an antimicrobial stewardship program at their centers.
Arjun Srinivasan, the CDC’s associate director for healthcare-associated infection prevention programs, says he has found that typically about half of U.S. hospitals have such programs. Eric Howell, MD, SFHM, director of the collaborative inpatient medicine service at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, says change can be a slow process, but he expects initiatives like SHM’s new antibiotic stewardship campaign to help tip the scales toward more resources and more change. It’s a matter of “making the case that, No. 1, this is a problem and, No. 2, there are solutions out there and, No. 3, these solutions are cost effective, as well as improving quality.” Demonstrating the effects on cost and outcomes, he says, is “likely the tipping point [where] we will see real change.”
“If we don’t change, we’re going to run out of antibiotics,” says Dr. Howell, who is also senior physician advisor to SHM’s Center for Hospital Innovation and Improvement. “People are sort of really panic-stricken. And that fear is helping to motivate them to drive change, too.”
Jonathan Zenilman, MD, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Bayview, says that his team worked with a non-Hopkins hospital in Delaware and found they saved about $80,000 a year just by eliminating the use of ertapenem for pre-operative prophylaxis for abdominal surgery. Numbers like that, he says, show that the case for savings can be made to hospital administration. Then again, it’s often easier to make the case before a program is started—and harder to keep it going after that first year.
“Between the second and the third year, you’re not going to generate much savings, if anything,” he says. If a new administrator is in place, it can be a challenge to get them to realize that costs will go back up once a program is dismantled.
“They look at this as an additional business model,” Dr. Zenilman explains. “They’ll say, ‘Where does my revenue offset the costs?’ And sometimes they just don’t get the value proposition…It needs to be pitched as a value proposition and not as a revenue proposition.”
The culture change toward value in the U.S. is helping, though, he says. “Now the business case is easier,” he says, “because there’s clearly this regulatory push towards doing it.” TH
The best antibiotic stewardship programs weave improvements into the routines of hospitalists. But at the end of the day, developing and overseeing these important programs does require some level of time and money. And setting aside that time and money has been the exception rather than the rule.
According to early results from an SHM survey, nine of 123 hospitalists said that they are compensated for work on antimicrobial stewardship programs at their hospitals. That’s a mere 7%. Only 10 out of 122 respondents said they have “protected time” for work on an antimicrobial stewardship program. That’s about 8%. And it’s possible that the survey results are actually skewed somewhat, receiving responses from more proactive centers. One hundred fifteen out of 178 respondents, or 65%, said that they have an antimicrobial stewardship program at their centers.
Arjun Srinivasan, the CDC’s associate director for healthcare-associated infection prevention programs, says he has found that typically about half of U.S. hospitals have such programs. Eric Howell, MD, SFHM, director of the collaborative inpatient medicine service at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, says change can be a slow process, but he expects initiatives like SHM’s new antibiotic stewardship campaign to help tip the scales toward more resources and more change. It’s a matter of “making the case that, No. 1, this is a problem and, No. 2, there are solutions out there and, No. 3, these solutions are cost effective, as well as improving quality.” Demonstrating the effects on cost and outcomes, he says, is “likely the tipping point [where] we will see real change.”
“If we don’t change, we’re going to run out of antibiotics,” says Dr. Howell, who is also senior physician advisor to SHM’s Center for Hospital Innovation and Improvement. “People are sort of really panic-stricken. And that fear is helping to motivate them to drive change, too.”
Jonathan Zenilman, MD, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Bayview, says that his team worked with a non-Hopkins hospital in Delaware and found they saved about $80,000 a year just by eliminating the use of ertapenem for pre-operative prophylaxis for abdominal surgery. Numbers like that, he says, show that the case for savings can be made to hospital administration. Then again, it’s often easier to make the case before a program is started—and harder to keep it going after that first year.
“Between the second and the third year, you’re not going to generate much savings, if anything,” he says. If a new administrator is in place, it can be a challenge to get them to realize that costs will go back up once a program is dismantled.
“They look at this as an additional business model,” Dr. Zenilman explains. “They’ll say, ‘Where does my revenue offset the costs?’ And sometimes they just don’t get the value proposition…It needs to be pitched as a value proposition and not as a revenue proposition.”
The culture change toward value in the U.S. is helping, though, he says. “Now the business case is easier,” he says, “because there’s clearly this regulatory push towards doing it.” TH