Provide a brief overview of your project?
The Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS) is a pioneering project run by Tropical Health Education Trust (THET) and Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA). It is funded by the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care’s Fleming Fund.
CwPAMS aims to build antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) capacity by sharing skills and knowledge, bringing together multidisciplinary teams from the NHS and hospitals in four Commonwealth countries: Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. These teams will be led by pharmacists as medicines experts within the multidisciplinary team.
CwPAMS focuses on:
• Antimicrobial stewardship, including surveillance
• Infection prevention control
• Antimicrobial pharmacy expertise and capacity
The programme will share knowledge between teams of volunteers including/led by NHS pharmacists through partnerships with local healthcare workers in these countries to support AMS initiatives to tackle AMR. The partnerships will improve surveillance of antimicrobial consumption; take measures to reduce infection; and put in steps to ensure antimicrobials are used appropriately. Each team will tailor its approach to the hospital where it is working to ensure that each project responds to the specific local needs.
One crucial aspect across all projects is improving the monitoring of antimicrobial consumption, using Global Point Prevalence Survey (PPS) methodology. Currently only hospitals in two of the four countries have participated in this initiative, highlighting how key the impact of this programme could be through embedding surveillance capabilities. This will ensure that healthcare professionals can make informed decisions on where to focus efforts to reduce unnecessary use of antimicrobials and assess the impacts that initiatives are having.
The programme also encourages bi-directional learning, allowing the volunteers to develop skills including:
• Improved leadership capacity
• Improved understanding of digital technology in health
• Greater understanding and experience of working with limited resources; appreciation of the cost of resources and insights into frugal innovation to bring back to the NHS
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England, spoke about this project at the RPS Science and Research Summit, highlighting the importance of building capacity to tackle AMR through AMS initiatives and skills sharing, which are key to this project.
We have shared press releases with all the partnerships and have already heard that through raising the profile of AMS, the Ugandan government has recently disbanded 15,000 people who were selling antimicrobials door-to-door.
3. Enhancing knowledge on AMR in a global context
CPA shared an international handbook of resources on AMS, antimicrobial prescribing and access to expert documents.
UK applicants attended a training weekend, which facilitated further networking and knowledge sharing between teams. This covered behaviour change, AMS in LMICs, using data collections tools to assess elements of AMS, international partnership principles, how to conduct Global PPS and case study examples.
The resources have also been added to a networking platform to allow volunteers to share expertise between the projects.
How is the project to be developed in the future?
The countries in this initiative were chosen due to existing Fleming Fund, THET and CPA ties. The partners are now going to be deployed to start project work; throughout the 15 month programme these 12 projects will be evaluated to show the impact of these interventions and AMS capacity building using tools provided by the CPA and THET.
Once these projects have shown proof of concept it is envisaged that the programme will be expanded into other Commonwealth countries. Other countries such as Nigeria have already shown interest in running similar programmes.
Provide a brief overview of your project?
The need for a dedicated project to reduce antimicrobial prescribing was identified in September 2016 when the total antimicrobial prescribing across East and North Herts CCG was 1.162 items per STAR-PU. This exceeded the limit outlined in the NHSE Quality Premium (QP – defined as equal to or below the England 2013/14 mean performance of 1.161 items per STAR-PU). As of January 2017, 17 (30%) of 58 individual GP practices across the CCG were above the QP threshold. This relative high total antibiotic prescribing rate across the organisation was a consequence of an average 4.3% rise in prescribing in the 12 months since January 2016.
The project involved enhanced antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in the 20 practices with the highest rate of total antimicrobial prescribing in the CCG. Two behavioural interventions were used support AMS in these practices – an evidenced based ‘nudge’, along with a more traditional prescribing audit.
The ‘nudge’ was based on an American study which showed that displaying a poster-sized commitment letter resulted in a 19.7 absolute percentage reduction in inappropriate antibiotic prescribing rate relative to control1. As in this study, the signed pledge (see appendix) was displayed in each consulting room of the identified practices.
The audit required a named individual (a so called ‘antimicrobial stewardship lead’) from each practice to be responsible for undertaking the audit and it would detail the number of acute antimicrobial items authorised each month by individual prescribers within the practice. The data would be emailed back to the antimicrobial prescribing lead in the CCG as well as disseminated amongst prescribers within the practice to allow for peer comparison of prescribing rates in the practice. Benchmarking in this way has been shown to reduce the rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing specifically for acute respiratory tract infections in primary care
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
Total antibiotic prescribing in the targeted practices fell 12% in the 12 months following the AMS intervention which started January 2017. This compared to a 4.3.4% rise in prescribing in these same practices prior to the intervention.
Total antibiotic prescribing across the CCG fell 7.7% from Jan 2017 to Jan 2018. This compares to a 5% reduction in total antibiotic prescribing across all CCGs in England over the same time.
A single practice (1%) across the CCG had total antibiotic prescribing above the QP ceiling in March 2018 compared to 17 practices (30%) in January 2017
How is the project to be developed in the future?
Rolling plan to target high prescribing practices by looking at quarterly trends in total antibiotic prescribing at individual practice level.
Provide a brief overview of your project?
Implementing pharmacy support for code for restricted antibiotics:
At KGH we implemented a code system for meropenem in November 2015 following an audit that showed only 65% of use was authorised by microbiology. Following the introduction of meropenem as first line for sepsis in July 2016, there was a sustained increase in meropenem use. Microbiology expressed a concern due to lack of capacity to continue the code system in October 2018. The antimicrobial pharmacy team volunteered to support microbiology with this workload (antimicrobial pharmacist and antimicrobial specialist technician) and the advice below was communicated to all ward teams.
For meropenem approval:
During working hours Mon-Fri 9-5pm, phone the antibiotic pharmacy team, ext 2577 or bleep 253, with the following information:
• Is the patient penicillin allergic?
• What is the source of infection or indication for antibiotic
• Information on CRP, WCC and temperature trend
• Blood results eg UEs
• Differential diagnoses
• Recent antibiotic history
• Previous HCAI history including MRSA and C difficile
• Medication history
The team will either:
• Recommend an alternative antibiotic from the guidelines/sensitivity information
• Give a code- for a relevant duration
• Recommend contacting microbiology for further discussion
Out of hours there is no code system, pharmacy will supply enough meropenem for the patient until working hours.
If you require urgent microbiology advice on a patient out of hours, please contact the on-call microbiologist as per current system.
Data:
From week commencing 26th November 2018 to end of February, the antimicrobial pharmacy team have taken 249 calls, given codes for 145 patients and offered alternatives to 104 patients. The number of patients needing referral to microbiology is minimal (approximately 5 per week). Microbiology have continued to receive calls at a more manageable level. The antimicrobial pharmacist and microbiologists record advice given on telepath ensuring continuity.
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
Outcomes:
We have seen a reduction in the number of patients prescribed meropenem and a sustained level of meropenem consumption even accounting for winter pressures. The number of patients with documented approval on telepath has risen to >90%, those without approval are followed up by the antimicrobial technician several times a week. We are currently achieving a >2% reduction on carbapenem consumption compared to 2017/2018. There has been improved patient safety through implementation of an approval proforma with the interaction of sodium valproate and renal function being considered as part of standard questioning.
This service has not shown an increase in the use of meropenem and patient safety with regards to interactions and renal function has been improved. .
How is the project to be developed in the future?
Further analysis of outcomes for example mortality rates and re-admissions can be calculated. If these rates are not significantly different, this service could be rolled out to other antibiotics in the WHO reserved category and/or antifungals.
Provide a brief overview of your project?
An innovative new method of Antimicrobial Stewardship based on behavioural change using psychology graduates. Two antimicrobial stewards perform weekly point prevalence surveys on 20 wards at a 582 bed District General Hospital, collecting data on an average of 500 prescriptions per month. Once data is collected stewards compare prescriptions to local prescribing guidelines and discuss non-compliant regimens with clinical teams. Using a Socratic style of questioning, clinicians are given the opportunity to reach their own conclusions creating cognitive dissonance to encourage compliant prescribing. Data collected also highlights patterns of behaviour, whether within a team or with regards to a specific infection, allowing targeted feedback sessions with clinical teams. Stewards also explore barriers to compliance with guidelines, such as prescribing etiquette, uncertainty avoidance and motivation to use antimicrobial prescribing guidelines app, and take steps to address these.
This project uses minimal resources due to a flexible team and adaptable intervention, allowing the Consultant Microbiologists to have oversight on Antimicrobial Stewardship in a setting with significant Pharmacy vacancies and only two WTE Microbiologists. The Antimicrobial Stewards have been well received and integrated into ward based care, with antimicrobial stewardship embedded into practice being praised in a recent CQC inspection.
The Trust and local CCG have identified the value of this project and shown interest in expanding the model into new areas.
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
1) We have observed am 11.31% decrease in DDDs/1000 admissions over the 6 month duration of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (July-December 2018) and a 22.23% decrease in DDDs/1000 from December 2017 to December 2018 (data obtained from Refine).
2) We also observed an increase in compliance to antimicrobial prescribing guidelines Trust wide from 79% – 85% (r = 0.81 (p = 0.097), with significant increases in surgical specialties (General surgery: 61% – 83% (r = 0.95 (p < 0.05); Burns & Plastics: 50% – 75% (r = 0.94 (p < 0.05)).
3) Using the COM-B system’s framework for understanding behaviour we have addressed Junior Doctor’s obstacles to using the antimicrobial prescribing guidelines app using a combination of teaching sessions, awareness campaigns and adaption of the guidelines themselves.
How is the project to be developed in the future?
Initially we will continue work to ensure the Trust meets CQUIN targets relating to Antimicrobial Stewardship. We hope to publish our results soon then share our methodology with other Trusts and CCGs. We also hope to expand the behavioural intervention to address diagnostic stewardship: specifically addressing the tendency of clinicians to treat a working diagnosis with broad spectrum antibiotics rather than making a specific diagnosis that can be treated with narrower spectrum antibiotics.
Provide a brief overview of your project?
Within the Hospital at Night team in NHS Lanarkshire, there was wide variation of antibiotic prescribing by the group of Advanced Nurse Practitioners. A team approach was utilised between the ANP/s and Pharmacy Antimicrobial Lead to adopt a Quality improvement approach to improve practice and reduce variability. An initial audit was conducted of current practice within the team. To clarify fact – a measurement of current practice was taken against the national audit tool for antibiotic prescribing. This showed the all prescriptions were appropriate to be commenced. However there were many cases where practitioners prescribed only 1 dose and awaited further medical review by patients own tea to decide if Antibiotic was to continue. On many occasions, the prescription of antibiotics was delayed until medical review (despite a full ANP review having already taken place) It became clear that the confidence was the biggest obstacle. We actively sought feedback from our medical colleagues to ascertain if they had any concerns about drug choice when antibiotics were prescribed . we feed these back with the results of the national audit to staff. Furthermore, education was delivered in the form of a power-point presentation and also the NES Antimicrobial Module. Following this, the staff were asked to complete a post questionnaire. The results are summarised below.
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
Following the intervention, there were no delays in patients being prescribed Antibiotics awaiting medical review. The ANP prescribed the appropriate Antibiotic at the correct time for the patient.
The ANP confidence pre intervention ranged form no confidence to some confidence (1-3) and post this increased to little confidence to very confident (2-5) with the majority scoring from confident to very confident (3-5).
This increased confidence empowered the ANP to decide whether to prescribe or not , conscious of the need for antimicrobial stewardship.
Single dosing was no longer an issue with all the ANPs identifying a change in practice to prescribing a course of Antibiotics rather than a one of dose awaiting medical review. This reduced the risk of missed dosing or incomplete dosing regimes.
How is the project to be developed in the future?
The plan to role this same improvement process out across the two sister DGH within the trust.
Building upon this, the plan is to undertake planned review for those patients prescribed Antibiotics by the team to ensure that an ongoing management plan is in place and decisions to address IVOST and termination of therapy are considered within the clinical context of the patient.
Provide a brief overview of your project?
Whilst volunteering in Sierra Leone, myself and a medical student, Ian Bugg, designed and implemented a quality improvement project on improving antimicrobial stewardship by formalising prescribing practices.
Sierra Leone has suffered over the past three decades from a prolonged civil war and then from an epidemic of Ebola, and this is reflected in its healthcare system, regarded as one of the least developed in the world.
Antibiotic stewardship in low-income and middle-in- come countries (LMICs) faces even more challenges than in the developed world and yet there is a comparative paucity of data on the appropriateness of antibiotic use in LMICs, in fact we believe our project to be unique in the literature.
We wrote an entire 15-page antimicrobial guideline using a variety of sources, including international guidelines, internet sources and discussions with Consultant Microbiologists. These guidelines were specific to the local setting based around drug availability and cost. The advantage of a written guideline is that it is more sustainable than relying on the knowledge of short-term international volunteers.
At baseline, 57 of 66 (86%) of patients were prescribed at least one antimicrobial. There were 243 prescriptions with 161 (66%) of the choices deemed appropriate and 86 (35%) of those had the correct drug, dose and course-length.
After introduction of our guidelines this increased to 85% appropriate antimicrobials with 53% of those fully correct, although these results had degraded slightly on re-audit a few months later.
We are aware that the prize is likely for work in the UK but given we are both UK healthcare professionals and also the unique nature of our project in an area of supreme need, we hope you would consider our work for these awards.
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
As stated above, after introduction of our guidelines this appropriate antibioitc prescribing increased to 85% correct choice of antimicrobial with 53% of those fully correct (dose and course length), although these results had degraded slightly on re-audit a few months later.
During the project we had several small-group or one-to-one teaching sessions with national staff about their antibiotic prescribing practices. We used this to encourage them to think about the accuracy of their diagnoses (for example, 30% of patients were treated for a single diagnosis, typhoid fever, a fact they had no insight into) and prescribing. They were also given a printed copy of the guideline to take to review and keep in their OPD consultation room to examine whenever required. A soft copy was also added to the computer in the seminar room and the staff were encouraged to download it onto their devices for portability.
A copy of the surgical prophylaxis section was also printed, highlighted and placed in a plastic wallet in theatres on the wall by the table where the surgeons congregated. It is hoped that this reminded the surgical team to think carefully about antibiotic prophylaxis, although this study did not collect data to examine this.
Our project has been published and can be found at https://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/7/4/e000495.info
How is the project to be developed in the future?
In the short-term we hope that future volunteers this summer will re-audit this work to look at its long term impact.
In the more medium- to long-term we hope to design a teaching syllabus on antimicrobial stewardship for the national staff.
There is also a grant proposal in place for funding for a microbiology laboratory to be able to test for drug resistance in vitro.
Provide a brief overview of your project?
Cataract surgery is the most commonly performed elective procedure in the NHS (approximately 330,000 operations a year) and the number of operations are expected to increase dramatically over the next 10 years due to increasing life expectancy. SpaMedica is the largest provider of cataract surgery in England.
The evidence suggests that topical antibiotics have no impact on the prevention of severe eye infections (endophthalmitis) following cataract surgery, however, this is still standard practice.
In September 2018 we stopped giving topical antibiotic prophylaxis following routine cataract surgery. We have performed over 12,000 cataract operations between September 2018 and February 2019, we have had no cases of endophthalmitis/infection. Furthermore, we have reduced the number of calls to our telephone helpline in relation to gritty/sensitive eyes following surgery (this was most likely due to antibiotics we previously used).
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
This is the largest UK study to demonstrate that topical antibiotics are not necessary for routine cataract surgery. If this was adapted by all NHS providers, there would be a significant reduction in the amount of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed (330,000 cataract operations performed each year currently). This would have a significant impact on AMR, particularly as our cohort of patients (elderly with multiple co-morbidity) are at increased risk of AMR infections.
How is the project to be developed in the future?
We have stopped using topical antibiotics for all our routine cataract operations, we have submitted this research to the European Society of Ophthalmology Conference and plan to publish and disseminate our findings to the Ophthalmology Community. We would like this to be standard practice for all routine cataract surgery in the United Kingdom.
Provide a brief overview of your project?
We are a large farm animal only practice in the South West, responsible for over 48,000 dairy cows and 50,000 breeding ewes who has championed reducing antibiotics across multiple sectors. Since 2013 we have been using antibiotic benchmarking for dairy and sheep business to facilitate discussing regarding antibiotic usage on farm (both High Priority Critically Important Antibiotics HP-CIAs and non- critically important antibiotics) and targeting reduced and rationalised usage through preventative veterinary health.
We developed an electronic tool to benchmark businesses with similar production levels, business sizes, organic vs. conventional and holding type which is taken to all health planning visits to facilitate discussion. This was initiated prior to the compulsory requirement by Red Tractor in 2018 with the ethos “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” and “higher health reduces antibiotic usage and improves performance”.
Our approach has required a whole team approach which was propagated by internal training meetings and collaboration from our senior purchasing team through to the veterinary surgeons, dispensing team and veterinary technicians. Our approach has been evidence based and contributing to ongoing research projects has been a crucial part of our broader willingness to advance farm animal medicine (Hyde et al., 2017, Davies et al., 2017).
Achieving reduction initially focused on extensive training of farmers in skills including on-farm culture of mastitis to reduce treatments delivered to animals likely to self cure e.g. E coli mastitis; neonatal lamb post-mortems to facilitate engagement with #everylambcounts and #colostrumisgold and therefore reducing oral antibiotic prophylaxis in lambs; and Safe use of Medicines courses including species specific courses. As of 2018 we also began to deliver MilkSure® through BCVA. Fundamentally we have sought to build the confidence of our clients in preventative strategies including vaccination, diagnostics and monitoring to reduce their usage of antibiotics on farm.
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
DAIRY: In the past five years we have reduced overall usage in this sector 32.1% reduction in mean adult cow calculated courses and a 3.5% reduction in mean youngstock cow calculated courses. In addition prior to the compulsory removal 2018 removal of HP-CIAs, we had already achieved a reduction of 80% in mean adult HP-CIA’s across our dairy herds. Adult Cow Calculated Courses have decreased significantly in consecutive years.
SHEEP: Our current practice average mg/PCU is 6.7mg/PCU is 41% below the 2017 national average (of Davies et al., 2017 of 11.4mg/PCU) and ahead of the RUMA reduction targets. Additionally, in 2018 we reduced our oral antibiotic sales for lambs by 42% despite the worst spring in recent seasons whilst maintaining lamb survival which we also benchmark. We have already therefore exceeded the RUMA target of 10% reduction by 2021. We continue not to use HP-CIAs in our sheep flocks. Additionally we have presented our work at the Dairy Sheep and Goat Conference (2018), Sheep Veterinary Society (2017) and BCVA (2017).
TRAINING AND EDUCATION: Over 350 farmers have attended courses in the past two years with 45 on Safe Use of Medicines (Bovine ), 38 on Safe Use of Medicines (Sheep), 44 on Milksure and 51 on lameness management courses for dairy cattle. In addition we have run multiple clinical clubs (internal training for veterinary surgeons) for our 30 practitioners. We continue to contribute to ongoing research work the University of Liverpool, University of Edinburgh, University of Nottingham and the University of Bristol.
How is the project to be developed in the future?
We continue to champion reducing antibiotic and as our understanding and global application of metrics evolves we anticipate refinement of our antibiotics reports. We aspire that there will be further integration and emphasis of these reviews within the context of the Herd Health plan and annual and regular farm reviews
Our specific targets include ongoing work with youngstock and the beef sector with an ongoing project to further analyse and benchmark our antibiotic usage with our national integrated beef chain calf rearing client.
We believe our role in research as large practice is important and that our responsibilities extend beyond the frontiers of our practice given our pride in what our farmers continue to achieve. We are involved with a research project in conjunction with RAU Cirencester to develop alternative approaches to oral antibiotic feeding in calves looking at calf selection, immune bio-markers and improved management practices.
As ever, our clients are farmers in the South West are fundamental to uptake of research and these strategies. Our clients have been receptive to our recommendations and the achievements we have outlined are a testimony to vision, responsibility and team work of both our vets and our farmers
Provide a brief overview of your project?
It was identified through audit that the indication for antibiotic use was documented within the electronic patient notes but not on the prescription. This is a recommendation of Start Smart then Focus. Additionally antibiotic reviews were not always undertaken within 72 hours of antibiotic initiation and documentation was poor leading to a lack of assurance that all available clinical results, eg microscopy, culture and sensitivity (M,C&S) results were being utilised appropriately.
Groups of clinicians were consulted and indicated that;
• They were not always aware an antibiotic review was due or assumed someone else had undertaken it.
• M,C&S results are returned in the electronic laboratory system under that date they were ordered and they were not aware they had been returned to view.
• Junior colleagues were reticent to stop antibiotic initiated by seniors incase they had ‘missed’ the rationale for the initiation.
These comments formed the basis for the development of the electronic stewardship tool. The tool mandates the documentation of antibiotic indication on each prescription and, for ease, provides a ‘favourites’ list which mimics the terminology utilised in the Trustwide antibiotic formulary.
Clinicians are prompted to undertake antibiotic review by an alert that fires 24 hours after antibiotic initiation and remains within the patient specific task list as an outstanding task until completed.
The antibiotic, indication, full prescription including duration and any M,C&S cultures ordered or associated results are all able to be viewed on the same page as the template. This ensures that they are all seen as part of the review. An additional benefit of the template is it provides a structured documentation of the review and prompts clinicians to consider aspects they may have forgotten.
The review tool has recently been refined in response to feedback from pilot wards and is now ready for implementation.
Please cite 3 examples of outcomes or impacts from the project on tackling AMR.
The electronic template will have the following impact.
1. Increase in reviews undertaken in a timely fashion
Clinicians are prompted to undertake antibiotic review by an alert that fires 24 hours after antibiotic initiation and remains within the patient specific task list as an outstanding task until completed. The colour of the font changes from green (<48hours after initiation), to amber (49-72 hours) and then red (>72hours). This was developed as feedback from clinicians was that they were not always aware of the need to undertake the antibiotic review.
2. Improvement in antibiotic review quality.
The electronic stewardship package mandates documentation of antibiotic indication at the time of prescribing which empowers clinicians undertaking the review to stop the antibiotic if the initial infective diagnosis has been ruled out.
All outstanding orders and results from specimens sent for microscopy, culture and sensitivity can also be viewed on the antibiotic review template alongside the antibiotic and its documented indication for use. This was in response to clinician feedback that they were not previously aware there were new M,C&S results to review as they were returned in the lab system under the date on which they were ordered.
These changes have increased the recording of antibiotic indication on prescription from 0% to >95% Trustwide and the documentation of M,C&S results as part of antibiotic review from 33% (Feb 2018) of those available at the time of review to 72% (Nov 2018). This indicates that culture results are being utilised as part of the antibiotic review which should enable targeted antibiotic use.
3. All antibiotic templates completed since admission can be viewed which gives an overarching picture of antibiotic use for complex patients as a timeline. This enables treatment plans to be devised more easily without the need to interrogate past patient notes.
How is the project to be developed in the future?
Documentation of antibiotic indication is mandatory and thus fully embedded into practice Trustwide. The review template has been refined in response to clinician feedback on pilot and the next step is a Trustwide engagement programme led by the ward based antimicrobial stewardship team to ensure its use as part of each antibiotic review.
Currently the completed antibiotic review template can be viewed on the stewardship tab within the electronic prescribing and noting system but does not pull into the clinical medical notes. This has been accepted within the next phase of development.
The addition of antifungals to the list of agents which automatically triggers the electronic stewardship package will promote and enable antifungal stewardship, an area in which the Trust needs to develop.
The long term vision for the package would be that clinicians ‘prescribe’ a condition rather than an antibiotic. This ‘prescription’ would electronically order appropriate specimens for microscopy, culture and sensitivity, add a task to the nurses’ task list to collect and send these, give the prescriber options for treatment as per the formulary, including options for common allergies whilst allowing them to appropriately deviate from the formulary where necessary but with a mandatory field for the rationale for this deviation. This is still some years off delivery as it requires much developer time.
Provide a brief overview of your project:
RUMA’s Targets Task Force
In May 2016, RUMA anticipated that mandatory targets for reducing antibiotics use in farming would be recommended in the forthcoming O’Neill report, as part of a One Health approach.
While not averse to targets, RUMA’s concern was the unique nature of each livestock sector. Access to effective vaccines differs wildly between species, as do levels of antibiotic use, data collection, producer numbers, and relationship between retailer or food company and farmer. There was also a real danger of blunt targets driving the wrong behaviours, e.g. increasing use of highest priority antibiotics to cut total tonnages.
To ensure any targets were meaningful, RUMA decided they needed to come from those who knew best. So it set up a ‘targets task force’, recruiting a leading farming and veterinary representative from eight different sectors – beef, dairy, eggs, fish, gamebirds, pigs, poultry meat and sheep. They would come together to work out what could be achieved, and how to engage veterinarians and producers in responsible prescribing and stewardship. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), British Veterinary Association, Food Standards Agency and Red Tractor agreed to observe and support the group.
In December 2016, these 16 individuals met for the first time to develop, with the help of a facilitator, bespoke action plans they could take back to sector leaders. The group convened again early 2017, then every two months to identify starting points, targets, barriers and opportunities.
Some sectors used a centralised ‘medicines book’; some accessed aggregate data from private companies; others got creative, identifying ‘hotspots’ and measuring success by vaccine or alternative therapy uptake.
By October, the work was done. Eight sectors had individual plans and endorsement for both calculations and ambition. The TTF report was launched on 27 October 2017 and has become the bible for vets and farmers alike.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
The dairy sector aims to halve total antibiotics and the highest-priority Critically Important Antibiotics prescribed by 2020. Reducing reliance on intra-mammary antibiotic tubes for routine prevention of mastitis when cows finish their lactation is a particular ambition, and this is being highlighted by promoting the benefits of using teat sealants instead of antibiotics, and conducting risk assessments for each cow’s quarter before ‘drying off’. A programme called MilkSure has launched a special training programme to help farmers apply teat sealants correctly and effectively. There is an additional target is for teat sealant use to increase by 40% by 2020.
While the sheep sector is estimated to be a low user of antibiotics, treatments tend to be licensed for a variety of different species, making collection of usage data difficult. So the sheep veterinarian and farmer on the Targets Task Force adopted a different approach: looking at what they could measure, rather than what they couldn’t. ‘Hotspot’ areas of lameness control, late pregnancy abortion control, and neonatal lamb diseases were targeted, with seasonal campaigns promoting prevention of disease through vaccination and improved colostrum management. Lambing this year is well underway with many reports of cutting back on preventative antibiotic use in new-born lambs.
The gamebird sector is very traditional, and the overriding goal is to rear sufficient birds each year to sustain the industry. Mycoplasma, a key disease, was mostly controlled through routine preventative treatments, but this had to change. The gamebird veterinarian and farmer on the Task Force invited vets, keepers, rearers and shoot managers to an all-sector meeting to outline the challenges faced, and together they calculated use and identified a goal of reducing use by 35% in one year, focusing on better biosecurity, disease management and vaccination. They achieved their target and are aiming even lower this year.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
The targets have to be delivered, most of them by 2020. Bi-annual meetings of the Targets Task Force are being convened on an ongoing basis to gauge progress and provide support. An update report has been planned for October 2018, and most of the sectors have scheduled announcements at various points in the year to update data, and report progress.
Provide a brief overview of your project:
At West Hertfordshire, we implemented a Comprehensive Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme (CASP) which included the following elements:
1- Annual Surveillance programme for the local epidemiology (resistance pattern and prevalent pathogens) in Blood culture, urine and sputum.
2- The results of the annual surveillance is presented annually at different clinical governance meetings and in the grand round to inform prescriber s
3- Reviewing our local antibiotic guideline to align with the resistance data and omission of irrelevant combination therapy.
4- Adopting shorter duration therapy based on available scientific evidence.
5- Antimicrobial stewardship ward rounds included junior pharmacists and doctors for education purpose.
6- Engagement in our ASP as follow:
Outcome:
1) Reduction of total antibiotic consumption by 4% and meeting the CQUIN year 2016/17
2) Further and Sustained reduction by 7% in 2017/18
3) Meeting CQUIN sepsis indicators 2a,2b,2c by quarter 4.
4) Reduction of MR and HSMR and CDI
5) Publications in international conference (oral presentation articles)
6) Improved team working with clinicians in different specialities
7) Engagement of students and junior doctors
8) Increasing awareness of AMR at a wider scale
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
1) We have increased the engagement of the staff in our trust and included not only the senior medical staff but pharmacists, junior doctors. We extended this activity to include medical and school students. ”Working closely with clinicians in different specialities has improved our AMP outcome and has raised the profile of AMS.
We believe that engagement in AMP of the new generations at an earlier stages of education for examples school and medical students contribute to the success of AMP and will protect these antimicrobials for future patients.
2) We have put in place several measures to ensure reviewing of antibiotics within 72hrs. This included having a separate section for antimicrobial prescribing and a review section with possible outcome. We also introduced a review proforma in the medical notes to be used by clinicians during the daily WR to ensure reviewing is taking place. Engagement of the pharmacists into this process has improved compliance.
3) We have reduced our overall usage of antibiotics per 1000 admissions; our piperacillin-tazobactam was also reduced by 19% in 2017/18. Further and Sustained reduction of total antibiotic is a significant achievement and will contribute to reducing selection pressure for resistant organisms. This achievement had also contributed to change in prescribing behaviour among our staff
4) The local surveillance has increased the awareness to the global issue of AMR and has resulted in the staff in our trust to be able to relate this global issue to their patients and hence contributing to our AMP. Also recognising our local resistance pattern has allowed us safely to omit unnecessary combination therapy, reserving our antibiotics and avoiding common side effects ( eg gentamicin).
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
In the future we are planning to introduce two more elements to CASP project:
1) Rapid diagnostics: our preliminary results showed that following the introduction of our in-house rapid diagnostic of Respiratory viruses, we managed to reduce our antibiotic consumption over the winter period October 2016 to March 2017 by 1.2 % compared to the same period in the preceding year prior to this intervention. We have next introduced POCT for respiratory viruses as a trial. The impact of POCT on IPC and antibiotic use is being analysed to submit a business case for implementing this test in our trust.
2) pharmacists engagement: we have already gave an education session to pharmacists and we have a plan to implement a ward pharmacy- driven ASP. Next we will be looking at involving nurses in our AMP and introducing the antimicrobial champion nurses role.
3) Following the success of engaging the school students in primary school, we are about, in collaboration with CCG, to start our public engagement programme in secondary schools. This due to start soon.
Provide a brief overview of your project:
At ABP Blade Farming, we understand that our farmer suppliers provide the raw materials that drive our business. As such, we’re dedicated to nurturing our farmer relationships. Blade are promoting the responsible use of antibiotics within our owned farming operations. This demonstrates how we are fulfilling our commitments to promote responsible use of antibiotics while not compromising animal welfare. We are educating our staff, and measuring and monitoring antibiotic use across the beef sector.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
Provide a brief overview of your project:
Heart of England NHS FT (HEFT) is a three-site trust serving a large population with regional specialities in haematology/oncology and cystic fibrosis. These specialities place a huge demand on the use of broad spectrum antibiotics.
At HEFT there has been an active multi-faceted campaign over the last 3 years to deliver a reduction in the consumption of broad spectrum antibiotics such as piperacillin/tazobactam and carbapenems. The messages of appropriate use have been delivered throughout the year in multiple formats and reinforced as part of the World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW) and the national Antibiotic Guardian Campaign in November 2017.
NHS England launched a national CQUIN in 2016-17 to stimulate a reduction in use of carbapenems which has continued through to 2017-18. At HEFT we have succeeded in delivering these targets despite the numerous antibiotic shortages that have increased the pressure to use carbapenems.
Since January 2013 HEFT has delivered a reduction in use of carbapenems from 521 DDD’s/1000 admissions to 291 DDD’s/1000 admissions. This has been achieved through innovative practice and a genuine multi-disciplinary team effort involving communications team, infection control, microbiology as well partners from the Clinical Commissioning Group and Aston University.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
The last 12 months we have sought to engage and spread the messages of antibiotic resistance and protection of antibiotics through social media. To continue the good work planned by a colleague (and previous winner of Antibiotic Guardian Award) who sadly passed away unexpectedly a unique hashtag was promoted; #Doit4Das. This allowed us to track the profile of our campaign and reinforce the messages to use broad spectrum antibiotics responsibly. Between 31st October 2017 and 8th December, there were 151 unique Twitter users who tagged their tweets with #Doit4Das, with an excess of 1500 tweets and re-tweets.
Technology was used to aid the identification of patients on carbapenems. An innovative dashboard was developed using data from the Electronic Prescribing (EP) system. This allowed the infection specialist to identify and review patients on carbapenem antibiotics as soon as they were admitted onto an inpatient ward area. This timely review ensured patients who were prescribed carbapenems were on them appropriately and advice to patients/nursing staff/ patients reinforced. Advice given for these patients was logged electronically which is available for all clinical staff to view.
Face-to-face ward rounds, education and stands were used to promote the work to reduce the usage of carbapenems. Stalls were set up in areas around the hospital with a high footfall, and a series of pamphlets were given to staff and patients highlighting antibiotic resistance. A new smartphone app and intranet portal for hosting the antibiotic guidelines were also launched during WAAW to ensure prescribers were selecting appropriate therapy. The stands were run by microbiologists, pharmacists and infection control nurses. The campaign also involved community antibiotic pharmacy leads, as well as students from the University of Aston, who helped with stands. Antibiotic awareness t-shirts were worn to promote the messages, and all the photos of pledges and activities were published on twitter with the hashtag #Doit4Das.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
We aim to continue to reduce the prescribing of carbapenems through the following actions:
Provide a brief overview of your project:
Title: Promoting rational antimicrobial prescribing at Cardiology Centre Serdang Hospital, Malaysia
Background:
Improper prescribing and excess antimicrobial contributes to resistance. Introduction of electronic antimicrobial prescribing and other strategies supports the initiatives of Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee (AMS) in promoting rational antimicrobial use.
Method:
A cross sectional study from year 2014 to 2017 to evaluate the impact of antimicrobial usage, resistance rate of multi-resistant organism (MRO) following application and indirectly on costing spent on antimicrobial.
Results:
Total costs spent on antimicrobials reduced tremendously and cost saving of RM 231,221.18 (2014 vs. 2015) by limiting durations via electronic prescribing. This cost saving continued around RM 200,000 every year (2016 vs. 2017). Defined Daily Dose (DDD) for antimicrobials demonstrated decreasing trend from year 2015 to 2017. For DDD per 1000 patient’s days of Colisthemethate and Polymyxin B, reduced from 8.49 to 4.22. Similar pattern showed in number of MRO Acinetobacter baumanii isolates (infection and coloniser) and resistance rate (%) Acinetobacter sp towards sulbactam were reducing trend from 2015-2017. Subsequent enforcement of carbapenem countercheck method, DDD showed decreasing trend from year 2015 to year 2017 respectively (54% and 21%). Demands for AMS team in referral and reviewing cases increased 195% from 2015 to 2017.
Discussion:
An electronic antimicrobial prescribing was introduced in year 2014. Duration of antimicrobial prescribed was restricted from 14 days to 4 days. Preauthorization for Colisthemethate and Polymyxin B were enforced that involves all disciplines starting 2015. Carbapenem restriction was employed to ensure appropriate prescribing via countercheck method. Clinician fill up Carbapenem form manually and ordering must be done through electronic prescribing. Carbapenem were supplied after both methods have been fulfilled. Clinical pathways have been developed with multidisciplinary team approached. Routine rounds for AMS started from 2015 regularly reviewing and discussing cases.
Conclusion:
Different strategies should implemented in promoting appropriates antimicrobial prescribing.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
Restrictive antimicrobial duration:
Duration of antimicrobials prescribed was limited to 4 days to ensure justification made whether it’s empirical or prophylaxis treatment. A repeated order shall be made if requires prolonged antimicrobial as definitive based on clinical and cultures proven. It served as reminders to review the indication of antimicrobial initiation by escalate, deescalate or stopped antimicrobial 4 days after the release of culture and sensitivity results.
Preauthorization of Colisthemethate and Polymyxin B
Clinicians who started Colisthemethate or Polymyxin B required consulting with authorized consultant before initiation. List of authorized consultant is responsible from each department to authorize and allow clinicians before initiation. It also helps preventing unnecessary treatment being started for example isolates with coloniser or true infections. Judicious use of colisthemethate and polymyxin B shall preserves susceptibilities of polymyxin as it was commonly served as last resort of antibiotics for the treatment of extensive drug-resistant (XDR) Gram negative bacteria. Guidance of indication and dosing regimen of polymyxin were based on recommendations in local guidelines.
Carbapenem Restriction
Carbapenem restriction was employed to ensure appropriate prescribing via countercheck method. Clinician fill up Carbapenem form manually and ordering must be done through electronic prescribing. Supplying carbapenem can be done after both methods have been fulfilled. Pilots study is carried to certain wards from intensive care, medical and surgical. Database of all patients on carbapenem were created and audit on carbapenem use was carried out periodically. The carbapenem form were improvised based. Prevention of emergence of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae can be controlled by using Carbapenem judiciously. Indication and dosing regimen of carbapenem were based on recommendations in local guidelines. All these strategies were to preserve the susceptibilities of carbapenem.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
This electronic antimicrobial prescribing, preauthorization of Colisthemethate and polymyxin B with carbapenem restriction were cost effective, easy and simple methods which serves as part of AMS strategy in role of decelerate the rate antimicrobial resistance. This method can be applied to other antimicrobials and is suggested to be adopt by all hospitals in Malaysia with electronic prescribing software in order to preserve the antimicrobial use in future.
Provide a brief overview of your project:
Antimicrobial stewardship principles advocate switching from IV to oral antibiotics promptly when safe to do so. 21% prescriptions for IV antibiotics delivered at home on discharge from KGH were prescribed empirically for cellulitis. Oral linezolid has the same bioavailabilty and antibacterial cover as IV teicoplanin the most commonly used IV antibiotic at home for cellulitis.
The use of teicoplanin in two areas (ambulatory care and at home) cost the trust £22400 annually. An intervention where teicoplanin is actively switched for linezolid was proposed by the antimicrobial pharmacist. This reduces drug spend by £7.30 per day, reduces nursing time, releases capacity for other patients to go home with IV antibiotics and reduces line complications. It is also in alignment with the HoPMOp top ten medicines optimisation targets.
The proposal was agreed with the medical director, chief pharmacist, antibiotic lead, consultant microbiologists and director of infection prevention and control. The antimicrobial team rolled out the pathway and attended relevant meetings and wards to answer questions and improve awareness. The pharmacy team supported use of this pathway at the assessing stage of teicoplanin prescriptions and by checking for interactions with patient’s regular medicines and advising on dose reductions as necessary.
The pathway was implemented in November 2017. The drugs savings and IV days saving have been calculated over the first four months as £4693 and 643 IV days respectively. A reduction can be seen in the percentage of patients discharged with IV antibiotics for cellulitis. Where teicoplanin has been prescribed, the recorded indication of cellulitis has also fallen.
The implementation of this pathway has been a successful new way of working due to the early support of key stakeholders and the implementation on the ground with support from the antimicrobial and wider pharmacy team.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
This project has several benefits including the following antibiotic stewardship features:
Prompt IV to oral switch in patients that would normally be treated with IV antibiotics.
Reducing line infections therefore reducing further antibiotic prescribing.
Reducing selective resistance pressure to develop glycopeptide resistant enterococci.
Improved capacity for home IV antibiotics where appropriate.
Reducing exposure of patients to other hospital acquired infection as they can be treated at home.
This is a simple intervention that has positive impact on the perception of antimicrobial stewardship and what benefits it can offer to the trust, patients and costs. This has built relationships with the teams involved with increased awareness and buy in to other antimicrobial stewardship priorities. The teams have invited education and training on the wards and there has been an increased request for antimicrobial input on patients from the antimicrobial team.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
This pathway will continue to be promoted in ambulatory care and instead of IV antibiotics at home where appropriate The pathway can be rolled out across the hospital including A+E. This will prompt doctors to consider oral antibiotics as part of routine practice and encourage antibiotic review with the IV to oral switch guidelines. This pathway will pave the way for further IV to oral switch initiatives including bone and joint infection on publication of the OVIVA trial.
Provide a brief overview of your project:
Multidisciplinary antimicrobial stewardship programmes are essential in optimising antimicrobial use and preventing associated collateral damage. Partnerships between medics and pharmacists are well documented within the literature offering optimal results in stewardship activities. However, the collaboration of a nurse and pharmacist with prescribing abilities and expertise in antimicrobial stewardship is both innovative and unique.
A SOP was developed for the NMP service provision which enabled triage (supporting documents) of patients who would require specialist ID review. The aims of the project were to evaluate the inclusion of non-medical prescribers in gram-negative bacteraemia review by measuring the quality of the NMP clinical decision making skills.
Methodology
Direct comparisons of clinical decision making of the NMPs and infectious disease specialists informed the evaluation of the non-medical prescriber gram-negative bacteraemia using the model in supporting documents.
Results
Within the pilot project, concordance of NMP clinical decision making and prescribing was 86% with 14% of patients requiring specialist ID review.
Conclusion
Through the introduction of the NMPs to gram-negative bacteraemia review, capacity has been released within the current service provision of the Infection specialist team. Additionally, capability of the team will be enhanced as NMP prescribing competence and confidence grow.
The nurse/pharmacist led gram-negative bacteraemia review has provided additional support for prescribers in this area, promoted prudent use of antimicrobials in the treatment of gram negative bacteraemia and provided an opportunity for feedback/education to medical and nursing teams on the use of antimicrobials, the principles of stewardship, the management and prevention of gram-negative bacteraemias and offers a multidisciplinary approach which incorporates the additional aspects of infection prevention and control such as device management.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
Increasing the Reach of the AMT
The integration of a nurse /pharmacist into the prescribing team to manage gram-negative bloodstream infections has many benefits and offers a unique and innovative approach to antimicrobial stewardship whilst maximising the existing resource.
The projected rise in AMR infections will impact the available medical infection specialist resource as they will be required to manage an increasingly complex cohort of patients. By incorporating non-medics with infection management knowledge and clinical experience into the multi-disciplinary antimicrobial management team, enables the ID team to focus on the complex cohort of patients that is anticipated whilst supporting and mentoring non-medical team members in the management of uncomplicated infection management, thus building capacity and capability within the wider team.
Integration of Professional Knowledge
Whilst conducting the gram-negative bacteraemia (GNB) review, both the ANP & AAP can incorporate existing professional knowledge and clinical practice to facilitate engagement and provide leadership in action among their respective professions.
The AAP is ideally placed within this partnership to offer support, advice and guidance to ward staff on the optimisation of antimicrobials incorporating specialist knowledge on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties and minimising the possibility of drug interactions.
The ANP is also a qualified Infection Control Nurse and can therefore apply this knowledge and skill set whilst reviewing patients with a confirmed GNB such as the requirement for isolation, transmission based precautions and preventative measures.
Optimising Patient Safety
Patient safety is essential within healthcare, therefore aspects of the current Scottish Patient Safety Programme can be incorporated into the review process such as optimising the use of high risk medicines, safe use of peripheral vascular cannulas/central venous catheters (PVC/CVC) and prevention of catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). The NMPs can provide learning opportunities in the prevention of HAIs to the MDT to minimise GNB incidence.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
How is the project to be developed in the future?
1.As the initial project was carried out in select wards in one hospital, there is the potential to expand the NMP service to incorporate other wards and acute hospitals within the geographical region.
Provide a brief overview of your project:
Protected time for care home staff in Angus to attend training was funded from integration monies. NHS Tayside Antimicrobial Team provided a two hour session on prevention and management of UTI in the older adult. Follow up sessions consolidated learning and addressed any further learning needs.
One event was held in each of four localities and each care home was offered two places. Attendance was open to all care homes in the local authority, independent or corporate sectors. Commitment was sought for cascade training. The majority of attendees were not trained nurses but were the primary caregivers for their clients.
The training was an interactive session with 8 to 12 participants; and was based on NHS Education for Scotland (NES) “Scottish Reduction in Antimicrobial Prescribing (ScRAP)”. This toolkit helps support a reduction in unnecessary antibiotic use. It can be delivered as modules therefore the most appropriate material was selected to match the client group. Practical activities were also included in the session. These were based on an algorithm developed by the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) to guide management of suspected UTI in the elderly.
Sessions were made as interactive as possible with discussion of current processes and understanding as well as case studies and sharing of good practice between the attendees. The sessions were delivered by the Antimicrobial Pharmacist for Primary Care (HS) and Advanced Nurse Practitioner for Antimicrobial Stewardship (JM). Follow up used semi-structured questions to evaluate learning and changes implemented as a result of the teaching sessions.
Twenty two care homes with 680 beds in total were represented. A total of 38 staff attended between the four sessions. Feedback forms were completed by 21 attendees, all of whom rated the session as “very useful”. The follow up sessions showed extensive learning and implementation in all areas.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
Each care home provided an ‘action plan’ for implementation of their training. The detail of these action plans varied slightly but three key strategies were included in each action plan.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
Due to the success of this project further developments currently underway include
Provide a brief overview of your project:
There has been an expansion of fungal infections in patients with chronic lung disease over the past decades, which is associated with rapidly increasing costs to healthcare systems. A corollary of this has been the increasing incidence of antifungal resistance seen amongst clinical isolates.
An antifungal stewardship team was created in our tertiary cardiopulmonary hospital, consisting of a medical mycologist and antimicrobial pharmacist, providing weekly stewardship ward rounds, multidisciplinary team meetings and a dedicated weekly outpatient clinic. A database was set up to record the activity of the stewardship team and an audit was performed with data on patient demographics, underlying diagnoses, fungal diagnosis, therapeutic drug levels, microbiology, serology, radiology, and advice given. Calcofluor white fluorescence was used in sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples. Laboratory culture was used to identify moulds by morphology, and in-house susceptibility testing was performed, with samples also being sent to the Public Health England Mycology Reference Laboratory. Aspergillus IgE and IgG, and Aspergillus galactomannan were performed weekly in-house, with β-glucan levels sent to the Reference Laboratory. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) was also performed in-house for the triazole antifungals. During the first year of implementation the antifungal stewardship team had reviewed 178 patients, with 285 recommendations made to inpatients, and 287 outpatient visits. There was a significant, sustained reduction in monthly antifungal expenditure and antifungal daily defined doses. There were no significant changes in expenditure on diagnostic tests. The reduction in expenditure has largely derived from the reduction of intravenous treatment, which would have the additional benefit of reducing inpatient stays and attendant costs. Mortality outcomes were also considered.
The audit showed that an effective antifungal stewardship programme can significantly reduce expenditure, ensure appropriate antifungal use, improve antifungal tolerance and ensure the fungal disease of patients with chronic lung disease is appropriately managed.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
1.Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) was performed in-house for itraconazole, voriconazole, and posaconazole. This was used to tailor antifungal drug dosing to ensure patients with fungal disease were achieving adequate drug levels and prevent dose related side effects.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
– To expand to further areas-
-Become a centre to provide support in the management of patients with chronic fungal lung infections.
Provide a brief overview of your project:
Over the period 2012-2017 we achieved 3 antibiotic stewardship goals. 1)Reduction in resistance to piperacillin-tazobactam amongst blood isolates for E.coli, Klebsiella spp and Enterobacter spp from 19% to 12%. 2) Reduction in consumption of ertapenem by 58%. 3) Reduction in consumption of piperacillin-tazobactam by 71%. This was achieved by introducing temocillin into the formulary and incorporating it into antibiotic policies. Over this period, resistance amongst blood isolates for E.coli, Klebsiella spp and Enterobacter
spp to ertapenem and temocillin remained largely unchanged (≈1% and
3-4% respectively).
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?:
Increasing heterogeneity of antibiotic prescribing within the Trust formulary
Increasing empiric use of a carbapenem (and piperacillin-tazobactam) sparing agent
Increasing de-escalation from piperacillin-tazobactam and carbapenems to a targeted spectrum agent.
How is the project to be developed in the future?:
Further expansion of this stewardship initiative using other carbapenem and piperacillin-tazobactam sparing agents as more such agents become available.
Name: Amelia Joseph, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Health Education England in the East Midlands
Provide a brief overview of the project: Improving the Management of Urinary Tract Infections in the Community in South Nottinghamshire:
Working across healthcare boundaries and professional groups, the Nottinghamshire Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee has enacted measurable and substantial changes in the management of Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) in the local community. As the second commonest cause for antibiotic prescriptions in the community, and in the face of rising antimicrobial resistance in urinary tract isolates in Nottinghamshire, an enhanced stewardship approach for UTIs was initiated in early 2015. Supported by the appointment of a local microbiology registrar to an Integrated Antimicrobial Stewardship Fellowship post (Health Education England East Midlands, Innovation & Improvement Programme), new local management guidelines were developed following research into the local resistance and prescribing trends. New laboratory testing methods, including new antibiotics and a rapid 24hr turnaround time to reporting of urine sensitivities, enabled the addition of the antibiotic pivmecillinam to the local formulary for routine use. These new guidelines were approved by the Area Prescribing Committee, recognising the potential for patient benefit in reducing treatment failures and further rises in resistance rates.
An education programme was implemented to support initial guideline introduction, to cover the four local CCGs, with presentations and Q&A sessions with GPs and Prescribing Advisers. These were designed to be local evidence based, with research indicating that local resistance data is highly valued by GPs. The initial education programme was subsequently extended to other prescribing groups, who at that time did not receive any training on appropriate use of antibiotics; GP registrars, Urgent Care Practitioners, Community Matrons, and Community Hospital Nurse Practitioners. Tailored sessions to each group were designed and feedback received with the aim of improving and embedding these sessions into regular training cycles. Non-prescribing professionals were also recognised to play a vital role in antimicrobial stewardship, so sessions were introduced to cover community nursing groups e.g. continence specialist nurses, district and practice nurses. A a resource pack for local Patient Participation Groups was developed by the Committee’s patient representative, with the aim of presentations and resources being disseminated into GP practices through active patient groups.
As a result of this stewardship initiative, there has been a dramatic reduction in inappropriate prescribing for UTIs in Nottinghamshire, and a subsequent drop in local resistance rates in UTI organisms; demonstrating the direct and impressive effects that promoting the safe and responsible use of antibiotics in the community can have on a local population.
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with: Nottinghamshire Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee
Nottinghamshire Area Prescribing Committee
Elaine Belshaw, former Infection Prevention and Control Quality Governance Manager, Nottingham City CCG and Chair of the Nottinghamshire Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee
Empath (Diagnostic Microbiology Laboratory for Nottingham University Hospitals and surrounding area)
Health Education England in the East Midlands
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category? Engagement from the start of the initiative with CCG Prescribing Advisers and GPs, in the development and launch of new guidelines
Education campaign to improve appropriate antimicrobial prescribing, focusing on UTIs:
Education sessions designed and delivered to both prescribing and non-prescribing groups as increased local awareness of antimicrobial resistance, and empowered local healthcare professionals to disseminate good practice and improve antibiotic use in their own areas of practice. Excellent feedback has led to these education sessions becoming a regular addition to current training provided to Urgent Care practitioners, Infection Prevention Control Link Nurses, GP registrars and community nurses.
The positive data that is now demonstrating the significant reductions in trimethoprim use and the subsequent fall in trimethoprim resistance rate will be shared within the local healthcare community, to foster pride and ownership of antibiotic stewardship in the local area. Regular communications through prescribing newsletters to GPs and pharmacists, as well as ongoing presence at educational meetings, are keeping antibiotic stewardship on the agenda locally. Individual GP practice-level feedback on antibiotic prescribing is being use in local CCGs, along with in depth prescribing reviews and feedback by the Integrated Stewardship Fellow in high-prescribing practices.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?
Key outcomes of project?: We have achieved a dramatic reduction in inappropriate prescribing for urinary tract infections in South Nottinghamshire patients:
Following the introduction of the new Urinary Tract Infection guidelines and education campaign, the uptake in nitrofurantoin use as the first-line choice for urinary tract infections has been dramatic, with trimethoprim usage falling significantly. Prior to introduction of the guidelines and education campaign (started in Q2 2015/16), the four South Nottinghamshire CCGs had an average Trimethoprim : Nitrofurantoin prescribing proportion of 61% (Q1 2015/16). This was in line to the national average. This has since fallen to 23%, with the Nottinghamshire CCGs now having the lowest prescribing ratios in England. This has been achieved whilst continuing to reduce prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics (e.g. co-amoxiclav, cefalexin and ciprofloxacin).
What impact has this change in antibiotic prescribing had on local resistance rates?
With this dramatic reduction in trimethoprim use, the resistance rate for urinary tract E.coli isolates from community patients has fallen significantly. Prior to the guideline introduction and education campaign, the trimethoprim resistance rate for E.coli in community urine samples was 35%; this has now fallen to 23%. This means it is a suitable treatment option for more patients and is likely to be due to the reduction in selective pressure from prescribing in the local community. By reducing selective pressure through stewardship interventions, we are protecting this useful and effective antibiotic for use in certain groups now, and potentially more widespread use again in the future (using the rationale of cycling the antibiotic formulary). This effect has also been seen in local community-onset bloodstream infection E.coli isolates, with resistance rates falling from 43% to 31%. This means it can be used as a narrow-spectrum intravenous to oral step-down antibiotic option in more patients than previously due to high resistance rates.
Production of new local guidelines on the management of recurrent urinary tract infections:
Supporting local GPs in avoiding starting long-term antibiotic prophylaxis, identifying patients on long-term antibiotics for review, and supporting them in stopping long-term antibiotics where appropriate. This will support the achievement of the Quality Premium in reducing trimethoprim items prescribed to >70 year olds, and be added to local CCG QUIPPs for 2017/18.
How is the project to be developed in the future?: The introduction of fosfomycin into local community antibiotic guidelines is imminent, supported by a laboratory evaluation and introduction of routine testing of all urine samples sent to the laboratory at Nottingham University Hospitals. This will further improve treatment options for community patients, especially for those with resistant organisms, allergies, or renal impairment. The wider spread use of fosfomycin for UTIs within the local health economy is currently being planned.
Regular practice-based audit across Nottinghamshire GPs on use of prophylactic antibiotics over 6 months are commencing in April 2017, with practice pharmacists or prescribing advisers flagging patients for review by clinicians using the new local guidelines on management of recurrent urinary tract infections.
Proactive multi-disciplinary investigation of local areas where community E.coli bacteraemias rates are rising, to understand the interaction between prescribing for urinary tract infections & E.coli bacteraemias and to mitigate for any unintended consequences of increasing nitrofurantoin and pivmecillinam use.
Health Education East Midlands Innovation & Improvement Programme have agreed to support another Integrated Fellowship post in Community Antimicrobial Stewardship in the future, recognising the contribution that this role can have to the local health economy with regards to action to promotion of the protection of antibiotics.
Key Outcomes
Name: Hayley Wickens, Consultant Pharmacist, Anti-infectives
Provide a brief overview of the project: At UHS, we implemented a programme of measures to achieve our CQUIN targets for reduction of total antibiotic, carbapenem, and piperacillin-tazobactam prescribing in 2016/17. Compared to the previous year, we needed to reduce these by 5%, 11% and 12% respectively in order to reach 99% of the levels used in 2013/14: at 10 months, we are on course to do so. We also implemented supportive tools to promote 72h review of antibiotic prescriptions.
This achievement required a multi-disciplinary effort from pharmacy, nursing and medical staff throughout the hospital, led by a newly-formed subgroup of the Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Team dedicated to CQUIN delivery, which met regularly to assess progress.
Key activities included:
• Delivery of a major educational programme on AMS, highlighting 72h review, iv-oral switch, appropriate course lengths, and empiric antibiotic choices. Consultants in Microbiology/ID and Pharmacy ran sessions as follows:
All current FY1 and FY2 doctors across four sessions
o All new intake FY1 doctors (two sessions)
o A session for clinical trainees (medical registrars)
o Consultant meetings in Critical Care, General Surgery, Elderly Care, Hepato-biliary, Respiratory and Acute Medical Unit
o Grand round
o Infection prevention link nurses
o Pharmacy team
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with: Sepsis and Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Team at UHS
Trust Executive Committee, UHS
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Consultants and Infection Prevention and Control Team, UHS
Public Health England
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category: Education: We delivered 14 targeted educational sessions to doctors of all grades from FY1 to consultant, highlighting good antimicrobial prescribing practice, including the importance of 72h review, iv-oral switch, appropriate course lengths, and choice of empiric antimicrobials. These sessions were well-attended and well-received; we feel that the increase in visibility of the AMS team, and awareness of practical aspects of AMS, has been highly important in driving the changes seen in our Trust.
Electronic systems: Previously, when prescribing an antibiotic on our e-prescribing system, no course length was automatically generated, apart from a small number of set treatment protocols, and therefore a majority of prescriptions were left open-ended. We assigned default course lengths of 3, 5 or 7 days to all oral antibiotics on the system, requiring prescribers to select one of these at the point of prescribing. It is still possible for the prescriber to amend course length if required, at any point; however, this then becomes a conscious decision to do so. We believe this encourages fewer unnecessarily long courses of antimicrobials.
On a daily basis, we provide information on ‘live’ prescriptions from our systems to Microbiology/ID doctors, to facilitate targeted AMS ward rounds.
We have also implemented a flag system on our Doctors Worklist software, which prompts prescribers to review patients who have been on an antibiotic for 47-72h. This is searchable, in order to generate AMS review lists, and supports online completion of review documentation.
New reporting methods: We generated innovative formats for feeding back data on CQUIN progress to the delivery team, AMS Team, Infection Prevention and Control Committee, and Trust Executive; these combined overall Trust trajectory data with data focusing on the contributions made to overall figures by individual clinical areas. These data were also used with clinical teams to help them understand the impact of their prescribing within the organisation.
Monthly data on proportions of total antibiotic, carbapenem and piperacillin-tazobactam prescribing contributed by each clinical area, cross-referenced to the volume of usage, were used to assess progress and impact across the Trust. For example, obstetrics increased use of piperacillin-tazobactam by a large percentage, but given that the drug is rarely used in this area, this had a lower impact than a small percentage increase in an area of much higher usage (e.g. medicine), allowing us to target our AMS resource appropriately, for instance by focusing AMS ward rounds in the latter area.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?: We have reduced our overall usage of antibiotics per 1000 admissions, along with our piperacillin-tazobactam and carbapenem use, which will contribute to reducing selection pressure for resistant organisms, and protecting these antimicrobials for use in future patients.
We have put in place several electronic systems that permit targeting of AMS activity resource; a Microbiogist or ID doctor, or specialist pharmacist, can now review all patients in the hospital currently receiving meropenem, or all those on an intravenous agent for over 48h, or all those who are currently overdue a 72h review, all from their desk. They can then and access the electronic prescriptions and notes for those patients, discuss with the medical teams, and target resource for e.g. AMS ward rounds to review them in person.
We have increased the engagement of the medical staff in our Trust with AMS, and the CQUIN process has raised the profile of AMS at the highest levels of our organisation. Pharmacy and nursing staff have also been actively involved. We believe that such Trust-wide, multidisciplinary commitment is key for ensuring antibiotics are prescribed and reviewed appropriately. We would like to acknowledge the support of the Trust Executive in funding some staff time to deliver these initiatives, which have been so successful that we have secured funding for several pharmacy and nursing posts for ongoing delivery of AMS and sepsis initiatives over the coming year.
Key outcomes of project?: CQUIN reduction targets on target to be met for overall antibiotic use, piperacillin-tazobactam and carbapenems. Innovative usage reports developed for Trust level and clinical speciality have supported this.
All grades of medical staff educated on AMS, increased engagement between clinical teams and Microbiology/ID service.
Automated electronic systems now in place to identify, and allow prioritisation of, patients for AMS team clinical review.
Ongoing funding secured for AMS and Sepsis teams to continue delivering improvements in treatment of infection and AMS for patients over the coming year.
How is the project to be developed in the future?: We are developing further reporting from our e-prescribing system that will allow us to monitor antimicrobial usage more effectively, with the assistance of a recently-employed data analyst. For instance, we will soon be able to report ‘Days of therapy’ as a monthly metric, at Trust, Speciality or ward level, taken from the administration data within our e-prescribing system. This will be useful for assessing impact of implementing changes to course lengths within our systems and guidelines.
We are continuing our education programme, in conjunction with our recently-appointed AMS specialist nurse, and targeting other professions as well as medicine.
We will continue to increase our targeted AMS ward round activities, with two antimicrobial specialist pharmacists currently training as prescribers to support this.
We are grateful for the support of the Trust Executive in funding the continued delivery and development of our AMS and Sepsis programme over the coming year.
Name: Heather Edmonds, Head of Medicines Management
Provide a brief overview of the project: Audit to improve antibiotic prescribing in primary care.
For the last few years Leeds North CCGs have asked their GP practices to undertake an antibiotic review as part of the prescribing engagement scheme.
The specific aims of the audit are to:-
1. To maintain and/or improve evidence-based and appropriate prescribing of antibiotics across Leeds and compliance with local antibiotic guidance.
2. To reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance and maintain the usefulness of existing agents
3. To reduce the risk of Healthcare Associated Infection (HCAI).
4. To ensure all prescribers can demonstrate they have the necessary competencies to prescribe antibiotics.
5. To implement the NICE guidance NG15 “Antimicrobial stewardship: systems and processes for effective antimicrobial medicine use”.
6. To ensure practices have a process to use and record the use of delayed/back-up prescriptions.
7. To support the patient awareness antibiotic campaign.
The GP practices are asked to review a sample of patients on a monthly basis, covering a different group of antibiotics each month so that all antibiotics are reviewed twice a year. For each patient being reviewed, the indication for antibiotic is reviewed against the guidelines to ensure that the correct antibiotics is being prescribed, at the correct dose, by the correct route for the correct length of course and including any reasons for deviation, this is recorded and submitted to the CCG medicines optimisation team on a quarterly basis.
We also asked all our prescribers to undertake the prescribing competence in, the antibiotic prescribing competencies tool produced by PHE and report the number of prescribers who had completed.
We also asked out GP practices to develop and implement a process within their practice for recording use of back-up /delayed antibiotic scripts.
The medicines optimisation feedback the progress to practices on a monthly basis via our reporting dashboard and the progress for the audits six monthly at our prescribing leads GP meeting.
Please see copy of the audit tool send in the separate email.
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with: Leeds North CCG
GP practices within the Leeds North CCG area
Local Care Direct (out of hour’s provider)
Walk-in centres
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category? Over the last 3 years there has been a gradual improvement in the compliance with the guidance in all areas, as demonstrated in the graphs (sent via a separate email). Reviewing the patients like this ensures that the guidelines are reviewed and practices are aware of any changes. We have encouraged the GPs to critically review prescribing and reflect on changes that they can make. The drop in trimethoprim prescribing reflects when we made changes to the UTI guidelines.
With regards to delayed/back-up prescriptions, the GPs were quite reluctant to use this approach. However so far this year we have identified 249 occasions where this approach has been used and on at least 29 occasions the patient didn’t get the prescription dispensed. More practices are using delayed/back-up scripts that the previous year.
We have also identified that out of 184 prescribers within our GP practices, that 70% of these prescribers have completed the antibiotic prescribing competencies tool produced by PHE.
This approach has also reduced the amount of antibiotic being prescribed within the Leeds North CCG area. Items/STARPU for 12 months up to Nov 16 was 1.037, which was a reduction compared to the previous 12 months. Please see graphs sent in separate email which demonstrates the continued reduction of both total antibiotics/STARPU and percentage broad spectrum antibiotics of the total antibiotics prescribed.
This seems to be also having an effect on resistance as the average proportion of ‘multi-drug resistant’ E. coli blood specimens from key antimicrobials (gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, piperacillin/tazobactam, 3rd-generation cephalosporins, carbapenems;) by CCG and by Quarter is gradually reducing as shown in the information send via email.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics
Key outcomes of project?: The continued improvement in the compliance with guidance, in respect to antibiotic choice, dose, route and duration. This is noticeable with the reduction of trimethoprim use, when we changed the guidance, which does demonstrate this is a good method of checking GPs are aware and implement the guidelines.
That about 70 % of our prescribers have completed the antibiotic prescribing competences and have the basic education to ensure that antibiotics are prescribed appropriately.
More GPs are using delayed /back-up prescriptions as a tool to aid appropriate use of antibiotics and we have demonstrated that not all these prescriptions are dispensed.
Antibiotic prescribing continues to reduce for all antibiotics and that this is having a positive effect on antibiotic resistance
How is the project to be developed in the future?: Each year we review the content of the audit to ensure we support achievement of national measures. This year we have taken some elements out such as the antibiotic prescribing competencies. We have added in some NICE quality standards around testing for UTIs and also added a section around accurate recording of penicillin allergy status and continue to provide education and feedback.
We ensure that all our providers such as out of hour’s providers and walk-in centres also complete this audit and we promote our audit to the other local CCGs.
Name: Heather Kennedy
Provide a brief overview of the project: Antimicrobial resistance is a major global health problem and as such healthcare professionals should be aware of the basic principles of stewardship in order to retain the effectiveness of our finite resource of currently available antimicrobial agents. Historically the stewardship agenda has always been addressed by a pharmacist or physician and so this project aimed to promote the key concepts of stewardship using a pharmacist and nurse partnership. An antimicrobial /infection ward round was introduced in two surgical wards within an acute teaching hospital with the aim of promoting optimal antimicrobial management, promoting best practice in antimicrobial prescribing, promoting timely de-escalation and creating a multidisciplinary approach to infection management. Surgery was chosen as the clinical specialty due to the high burden of antimicrobial consumption and also the minimal resource available by the ward pharmacist.
The Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) for stewardship along with the Advanced Antimicrobial Pharmacist (AP) attended one consultant led ward round on each ward per week and all interventions and outcomes collated. The primary focus of these ward rounds targeted and encouraged compliance with antimicrobial policy – more specifically indication, route, duration, suitability for IVOST and review of microbiology so as to streamline treatment.
Data was collected over a 6 month period on various parameters including prevalence, compliance, number of interventions and the number of interventions accepted by the clinical teams. Due to the education aspect of our project, it was important to decipher if a change in behaviour had occurred so these two wards were re-audited 4 months after the intervention to determine whether a sustainable change had taken place.
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with: NHS Tayside Antimicrobial Management Team
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category? This project highlighted stewardship in a number of ways throughout its course. Compliance with policy is paramount when promoting antimicrobial stewardship within any clinical area. Policies within NHS Tayside are produced in line with national recommendations and highlight agents to be used which will minimise harm and provide the best patient outcome. This project audited compliance and the improvement in compliance over time demonstrating that prudent prescribing was more prevalent after the task. Duration of antimicrobial therapy is another factor which is vitally important when looking at overall consumption and burden of agents within a health board. The review of IV antimicrobials regularly should be engrained into daily practice. Oral antimicrobials should be prescribed for the shortest duration to ensure the patient receives the best outcome but also to address the national agenda of antimicrobial resistance. Again this venture addressed this as documentation of duration was one of the principles audited and education provided. Education and training of ward staff is important to instil sustainable change at ward level. All staff should be aware of the stewardship agenda and how they can impact by rolling out a few key messages within their daily role. Infection control can also be enforced and issues around line care, hand washing and contamination etc can be addressed. By carrying out this project, learning was provided to the clinical teams in real time while discussing the patient’s management. Collaborative working is hugely important to ensure the patient receives optimal care and management. Multi professional working is essential when implementing change to ensure sustainability. This project demonstrated the benefits of a collaborative approach and how the disciplines can work together and share learning to ensure optimal patient care and management. Safer and effective use of medicines is another concept addressed in this project. The AP and ANP provided advice and recommendations around the prescribing of all antimicrobials as it happened. Also advice about future prescribing decisions could be addressed to ensure the patient received the safest and most appropriate treatment plan.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics? The first example which highlights the promotion of the protection of antibiotics is compliance with antimicrobial policy. Within NHS Tayside our antimicrobial policies are regularly reviewed and scrutinised so that all of the high risk c.difficile agents have been removed as first line options. Broad spectrum agents have been replaced with a combination of narrower spectrum to preserve these key drugs for more resistant organisms.
The second example which highlights the promotion of the protection of antibiotics is by ensuring antimicrobials are reviewed and prescribed for an appropriate duration. A key aspect of this project was to ensure that IV antimicrobial agents were reviewed daily as an integral part of the ward round process. Also that oral antimicrobial agents had a documented duration on the medical chart and/or medical notes which was compliant with local and national guidance.
The third example which highlights the promotion of the protection of antibiotics is around the streamlining of treatment and assessing the suitability for IV to oral switch. As part of the project all patients who were on IV therapy were reviewed to see if they were suitable for an oral agent. A combination of empirical agents is appropriate on admission, but it is critical that microbiology is reviewed and treatment is de-escalated accordingly. Within NHS Tayside, guidance exists around eligibility criteria for switching to an oral agent and this was adhered to throughout the audit.
Key outcomes of project?:
Ward A – 124 patients on antimicrobials
Antimicrobial prevalence Compliance with policy No of interventions No of interventions accepted
Overall 31% (124/405) 95% (118/1124) 43 (35% 43/124) 34 (79% 34/43)
26/6-16/9 33% (75/228) 94% (71/75) 36 (53% 36/68) 27 (75% 27/36)
23/9-02/12 28% (49/177) 96% (47/49) 7 (14% 7/49) 7 (100% 7/7)
Ward B – 126 patients on antimicrobials
Antimicrobial prevalence Compliance with policy No of interventions No of interventions accepted
Overall 29% (126/427) 95% (120/126) 41 (32% 41/126) 33 (80% 33/41)
04/7-18/9 32% (72/225) 93% (67/72) 36 (50% 36/72) 28 (77% 28/36)
25/9-27/11 27% (54/202) 98% (53/54) 5 (9% 5/54) 5 (100% 5/5)
The number of interventions made by the AP and ANP between the first and the latter phases in both clinical areas reduced significantly (p <0.0001) demonstrating that a behaviour change had been adopted. Although not statistically significant, the number of interventions accepted by the surgical teams increased in both ward areas. This suggests that over time, the AP and ANP gained credibility and the confidence of the surgical teams.
In both wards it can be shown that over the audit time antimicrobial prevalence is decreasing along with number of interventions. Also compliance with policy is increasing and so these findings highlight the positive impact attending the ward round along with continual education and training had on patient outcomes.
How is the project to be developed in the future?: This project can be further developed in the future by introducing a pharmacist and nurse led ward round in other clinical areas to see if the positive results are repeated in other clinical specialties. Developing a work program for nursing staff to compliment ward round intervention would be hugely beneficial. Liaising with the clinical ward pharmacist so they can continue to educate and integrate themselves into the team while addressing the stewardship agenda.
Name: Rakhi Aggarwal
Provide a brief overview of the project? Birmingham CrossCity CCG Antimicrobial Stewardship project has run for the last two years; Key points of the project include:
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with: Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust- especially Dr Das Pillay
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
Public Health (Birmingham)
Birmingham Local Pharmaceutical Committee
Birmingham South Central CCG
Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category? Max 400 words: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/amr-local-indicators/data#page/4/gid/1938133070/pat/46/par/E39000033/ati/19/are/E38000012/iid/92377/age/1/sex/4 shows a 12% decline in total antibiotic prescribing (twelve month rolling total number of prescribed antibiotic items per STAR-PU) from June 2014 to September 2016. This decline was greater than that shown at national level.
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/amr-local-indicators/data#page/4/gid/1938133070/pat/46/par/E39000033/ati/19/are/E38000012/iid/92350/age/1/sex/4 shows a 48% decline in twelve month rolling percentage of prescribed antibiotic items from cephalosporin, quinolone and co-amoxiclav. This decline was greater than that shown at national level.
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/amr-local-indicators/data#page/4/gid/1938132929/pat/46/par/E39000033/ati/19/are/E38000012/iid/92350/age/1/sex/4 shows Antibiotic Guardians per 100,000 population per calendar year by CCGs. The highest count in England, with one of the highest rates in our region.
Recognition from PHE for number of healthcare professionals undertaking AMR module from TARGET toolkit http://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/info.php?popup=0&id=167 The CCG had 169 responses 6 were nurses, 3 were pharmacists and 160 were GPs. This was in the time frame of 22/12/2014 – 13/06/2016. ( personal communication).
Awaiting feedback from Community Pharmacy campaign, so far 158 out of 354 pharmacies have provided feedback, deadline to provide feedback is 31st March 2017.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics? Max 400 words: 1. Clinical audit carried out in 100% of practices ( appropriate use of PAN Birmingham Primary Care antimicrobial guidelines)
2. Community Pharmacy Campaign: education and promotion of the ‘self-care guide to help treat your infection’, leaflet.
3. Education sessions with variety of healthcare professionals, supported by Consultant Microbiologist.
Key outcomes of project?: – Reduction in total number of prescribed antibiotic items per STAR-PU
– Reduction in percentage of prescribed antibiotic items from cephalosporin, quinolone and co-amoxiclav
– Increase in Antibiotic Guardians
– Educational impact was not measured with any quantifiable tool
How is the project to be developed in the future?: Having provided and resources on general AMR and AMS, this financial year we are focusing on key infection syndromes as these areas were highlighted as those needing further education or resources from the clinical audits which were completed in 2016 in general practice:
UTIs – correct diagnosis (promotion of PHE UTI leaflet and quick ref guide once update published)
UTIs – prophylaxis. A guide for the prophylaxis of recurrent UTIs has been produced in collaboration with Birmingham Antibiotic Advisory Group.
Acne – A need for local guidelines was identified and is planned for 2017/18
Azithromycin for respiratory conditions – A local guideline is in development.
We are also continuing the social media campaign and education events in 2017/18. Education will focus on the pending update to the antimicrobial guidelines and on diagnosis, treatment and prophylaxis of UTIs.
Name: Debra Woolley
Provide a brief overview of the project: ABMU Health Board has, for a number of years had the highest antibiotic prescribing in Wales and one of the highest across England and Wales combined. Prescribing data also shows wide variation in the prescribing of antibacterials.
The Medicines Management team had implemented a variety of antimicrobial stewardship improvement interventions over several years with limited success which culminated in the successful case for a funded Big Fight Campaign with a dedicated team of staff which commenced in early 2016. The team includes an antimicrobial pharmacist, infection control nurse and data analyst.
The Big Fight Campaign aims to improve patient outcomes and minimise the potential risks for increasing antibiotic resistance and C. difficile infection (CDi) through the development and implementation of a multidisciplinary programme through which the principles of prudent healthcare can be applied to improve antimicrobial stewardship in primary care.
Key stakeholders include:
List any supporting partners or organisations worked with: The Big Fight Campaign is a Bevan Academy Exemplar and the Big Fight Conference was supported by 1000 lives
How has your project demonstrated success in highlighting antibiotic stewardship within your chosen category? The Big fight team have progressed a number of priority actions to improve antimicrobial stewardship in the community. Two such examples are reported as separate posters (‘GP Practices’ and ‘Enhanced Antimicrobial Stewardship in Care Homes’).
Others include:
• Engagement with key stakeholders
• Utilisation of the ABMU Health Board ‘GP Practice Prescribing Management Scheme’ to:
o Introduce non-clinical local Big Fight Campaign Managers in GP practices
o Facilitate GP Practice based antimicrobial stewardship improvement plans, clinical audit and patient engagement activities
• Production of a toolkit to support cluster based pharmacists and technicians to support antimicrobial stewardship activities.
• Provision of resources to support patient education and co-production.
• Analysis and dissemination of GP level prescribing data linked to the Welsh National Prescribing Indicators
• Inclusion of Antimicrobial Stewardship in GP Cluster Plans across the ABMU Health Board area
The Big Fight team undertook a stakeholder engagement event in November 2016 – ‘The Big Event’ was multidisciplinary with over 100 attendees (including from GP practices, care homes and patient representatives), which generated a wealth of ideas around engagement with the population of ABMU Health Board.
Cite 3 examples within the project which highlight promotion of the protection of antibiotics?
Key outcomes of project?:
Primary Care:
Recent prescribing data shows that ABMU Health Board is reducing overall prescribing of antibacterials at a greater rate than the rest of Wales.
The rates of C difficile infection in the community has reduced more than other Welsh health Boards.
All GP Practices have a nominated (Antimicrobial Steward)
All GP practices have a local Big Fight Campaign Manager (Antimicrobial Champion), a non clinical member of the primary care team.
80% of practices participated in EAAD 2016
Infection prevention and Control
established and strengthened Big Fight and IPCN relationships with care home staff.
• Improved knowledge as evidenced by post session questionnaires
• Positive feedback evidenced through post-training evaluations.
• Self assessments completed by staff also demonstrate that they perceive they have increased knowledge after the training.
• Identified baseline knowledge amongst staff is variable requiring a flexible training approach
How is the project to be developed in the future?: This year the project will increase the engagement with other healthcare professionals such as community pharmacy, through a number of initiatives linked to the pharmacy contract. The public health campaign will focus on World Antimicrobial Awareness Week and EAAD. A multidisciplinary audit will look at delayed prescribing